Cowboys News: Xavier Woods to miss time with injury

Cowboys’ Xavier Woods suffers high ankle sprain vs. Redskins, could miss 4-6 weeks - Patrik Walker, CBS Sports

The Cowboys got some bad news on Tuesday when word broke that free safety Xavier Woods suffered a high ankle sprain and will miss some time. While he’s been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, it’s not certain how much more time he might miss.

While the injury to Woods itself was confirmed by owner Jerry Jones in his Tuesday interview with 105.3FM the Fan, the timeline is something he shied away from pouring concrete on. For Jones, he feels Woods could very well return sooner than later.

”You had it right until you said ‘serious’,” Jones said of the injury. “We’ll evaluate it as the week goes along. He’s young. He might be able to move on it pretty good at that position. Some positions have a tougher time -- defensive linemen and those sorts of things.

”...Only the Guy Upstairs knows how much time he’s going to miss.”

Cowboys Working Out Former Packers Safety Josh Jones - 105.3 The Fan

Even though Xavier Woods isn’t definitely missing a whole lot of time with his injury, the Cowboys decided to do their due diligence on Tuesday by bringing in Josh Jones, a former second-round pick, for a workout.

The Dallas Cowboys are working out former Packers safety Josh Jones this morning, according to reports.

The Packers waived Jones in August, who had been dealing with a non-football illness.

Jones played in 29 games in two seasons with Green Bay, starting 12 of them. He recorded 100 tackles, including three sacks, and an interception, according to NFL.com

Miami Dolphins are goin with Ryan Fitzpatrick again this week - Brian Miller, Phin Phanatic

The Cowboys face the dreadful Miami Dolphins this week and even though there was some speculation over who might start at quarterback, it seems that the boom-or-bust Ryan Fitzpatrick, who’s been more of the latter this year, will continue to be the starter.

If the Miami Dolphins believe that Ryan Fitzpatrick gives them the best chance to win, then it is clear that someone is doing drugs. If they think that Fitzpatrick gives them the best chance to lose, then starting him makes sense.

Maybe Brian Flores is playing the odds here. Fitzpatrick has a history of throwing more than one pick-six in a game and he has also had a tendency to throw four touchdowns a game. He is wildly inconsistent but maybe Flores thinks that he is due for one of the latter type games.

In two games this season the Dolphins offense has scored 24 points. 10 of those points came directly from the Dolphins offense while 14 of those came directly on the arm of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yes, I am talking about the two pick-6 interceptions he gave up last weekend.

Jets, Fins historic underdogs vs. Pats, Cowboys - David Purdum, ESPN

The Dolphins are unofficially tanking this year and as such it’s resulted in two pretty lopsided losses for them so far. That’s resulted in the Cowboys opening up a 21.5 point favorite over Miami, which helped make history this week.

According to the betting market, there hasn’t been this large of a gap between the best and worst teams in the NFL since 1987, a strike season featuring games with starters against replacement players.

The New England Patriots are 22.5-point favorites over the New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys are 21.5-point favorites over the Miami Dolphins at the majority of sportsbooks.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, it’s the first time there has been a week with multiple 20-point spreads in 32 years. In Week 5 of the 1987 season, the Dallas Cowboys were favored by 21 over the Philadelphia Eagles, and the San Francisco 49ers were 23-point favorites at the Atlanta Falcons.

CowBuzz: Cowboys Rising In NFL Power Rankings - Mayan Meza Tovar, DallasCowboys.com

It’s only been two games, both of which have come against bad teams, but the Cowboys look like a very complete team. That has started to be reflected in the power rankings from around the league, which coincides with other teams losing key players.

The Dallas Cowboys are off to a 2-0 start and we are here for it. After coming in at No. 6 last week, the momentum has grown and the team has jumped two places up in the NFL Power Rankings to No. 4, according to NFL.com and ESPN.

NBC Sports has the Cowboys at No. 3 over the Baltimore Ravens, describing Prescott as a close second in the very early race for MVP.

After suffering two torn ACLs with Jets, Cowboys WR Devin Smith finds ray of hope for NFL career with 51-yard TD - Jori Epstein, USA Today

Devin Smith led the team in receiving yards on Sunday and will likely be thrown to more often now that Michael Gallup is injured, but a few months ago few people knew who he even was. The former second-round pick has had a long, challenging journey to get to this point.

When the Jets selected Smith in the second round of the 2015 draft, the Ohio State product was coming off a national championship campaign to which he’d contributed 33 catches for 931 yards and 12 scores. He tallied one touchdown in November 2015 as a rookie. Then he tore his right ACL. Smith would tear it again in April 2017. Smith spent a year on injured reserve before the Jets waived him in July 2018. Calls from teams around training camp, he said, never materialized into a 2018 contract.

Smith hit a low.

For a full month or two, he estimates, Smith didn’t go outside. He would work out and come home to play with his daughter and son but go nowhere else in between. Some days, Smith was sure his routes looked terrible and his knee felt off. He tried to brush off down days and draw confidence from the workouts during which he was more easily able to get in and out of his cuts. Smith’s mom and his girlfriend, Aliysha, encouraged him to stay focused. But he’d watch teammates from his days with Ohio State and the Jets play in the NFL. It hurt.

It’s OK to wonder, Cowboys Nation: Will Kellen Moore be to Dak Prescott what Norv Turner was to Troy Aikman? - Jean-Jacques Taylor, Dallas Morning News

Through two games, it seems to be clear: Kellen Moore and Dak Prescott are a great pairing. But is it fair to suggest that their combination is as good, or maybe better, than the one between Troy Aikman and Norv Turner?

When Turner arrived in Dallas as a rather anonymous offensive coordinator in 1991, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were already on the roster. David Shula, the previous play-caller, had no idea how to unlock their offensive potential. The result: A 7-9 record and a pathetic offense that averaged 15.3 points (26th) and 255.1 yards (28th) in the NFL in 1990.

In Turner’s first season, Dallas finished in the top 10 in points and yards. A year later, the Cowboys finished second in points (25.6) and fourth in yards (350.4) and won their first of two Super Bowls with Turner calling plays.

Moore, the 30-year-old play-calling savant, is having the same impact on Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper. Prescott ascended toward the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks during the second half of last season once Cooper arrived. He’s been even better through the first two games this season. He completed 26 of 30 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-21 win over Washington.

3 & Out: Well, The ‘Moore’ Things Change… - Rob Phillips, DallasCowboys.com

With Dak Prescott putting on a show the first two weeks and placing himself in the early MVP race, it’s obvious that Kellen Moore’s offense is helping out the passing game significantly. But it’s also been very balanced between the run and pass.

...we saw a mix of old-school and new-school offense in Week 2 against Washington.

Use all the 25-cent adjectives you want about Kellen Moore’s offense, and indeed it’s been dynamic with varying pre-snap looks and route combinations and scoring threats across the formation. But Ezekiel Elliott, as usual when this team plays well, was the fourth-quarter hammer behind outstanding offensive line play.

As dominant as the passing game has looked, the Cowboys after two games have 64 rush attempts and 62 pass attempts. That’s balance, and that’s why Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones made the comparison Tuesday on 105.3 to, yes, the Triplets offense of the ‘90s.

“If they stack it up (against Elliott), then step out there and take it to them downfield,” Jones said.

BTB Podcast

It’s time to continue looking forward on the 2019 season. How good are you feeling about the Cowboys entering Week 3? The Ocho discusses.

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