Let's get ready to rock, football fans. The Cowboys vs. Rams kick off at 8 p.m. ET in the preseason's all important third game.
What to Watch For
How the Cowboys first team offense moves without tight end Jason Witten. Witten is out with a spleen injury with no return date. So with John Phillips and James Hanna working the one and two role, how will that impact Jason Garrett's play calling?
For the Rams, I'm interested to see how former Cowboys draft target Janoris Jenkins moves in the secondary against Dez Bryant and Miles Austin. Did Dallas miss the mark by not drafting the former Florida Gator?
Let's ride! The Cowboys have their preseason home opener against St. Louis in just one hour!
The Rams go for it on fourth down and the Cowboys secondary comes through with a mean bat down.
Rookie Morris Claiborme made a great play on the ball as he was covering the intended receiver, Steve Smith.
He used his leverage and got his left hand in the way of the receivers hands to knock the ball down. A great heads up play by the rookie from LSU.
The Rams are close to scoring a touchdown as they are deep in Cowboys territory.
The 'Boys defensive line has looked a little mushy as St. Louis has a pretty good drive going.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
True. Tonight is closest, and no Ware. RT @jdnelson103: @espn_nfceast @vinopa4me Just think...we still havent seen all the starters at once
â€" Dan Graziano (@espn_nfceast) August 26, 2012
Not so fast Cowboys fans. Temper that excitement as the team may be without more than a few key starters for awhile. Check the status of the offensive line.
I failed to mention that the Cowboys turned the ball over, which is how the Rams got the ball back.
Orton dropped back to pass on their previous offensive serious and Felix Jones got him destroyed. Jones missed his blitz pick-up, Orton was hit pretty hard and he fumbled the ball.
The Rams capitalized by scoring three points on a field goal. Kind of redundant I guess, but you get it.
The Rams have a pretty good field goal kicker on their hands. Greg Zuerlein just kicked his second 50 plus yard field of the night.
Dallas is up 17-6 after his pitch.
On a side note, linebacker Alex Albright busted Sam Bradford on third down to force the field goal by St. Louis.
The band of slot receivers has looked good tonight. Cole Beasley has broke a few tackles, Dwayne Harris has two impressive touchdown catches and Kevin Ogletree has been consistent.
A nice start to the game for the band.
Romo throws two touchdowns and passes for almost 200 yards. His reward? A night on the bench. Romo is done for the night as Kyle Orton takes over.
Cowboys star linebacker Sean Lee just drilled a hole in Sam Bradford.
Lee came off the corner, untouched, and knocked Bradford for a loss. Rams have to punt after the missed assignment.
Dwayne Harris has his second touchdown catch of the game. He went over on a crossing route after the Rams blitzed Romo.
Harris caught the ball in stride as he strolled 38 yards down the field for a touchdown.
The score is now 17-3 after the Cowboys role down the filed for 89 yards on six plays.
But fans, don't get to excited. Dallas has looked good but the Rams defense is making a ton of mistakes.
Janoris Jenkins? He's on the ropes.
Romo is up to 160 passing yards early in the second quarter. The Cowboys are moving the ball pretty easily right now after he just found rookie Cole Beasley for a first down.
DeMarco Murray has Emmitt Smith type of vision.
I'm serious.
I didn't say that he was Emmitt or that he would turn out to be as good as Mr. Smith, but he has a nice pair of eyes on him.
Oh--and Romo continues to pick on Janoris Jenkins. He just gave up a first down to Ogletree after Jenkins couldn't make the tackle.
The Cowboys hold the Rams to a field goal as St. Louis shrinks the lead to just seven. Dallas up 10-3 after the Rams boot a 55 yard field goal.
The defensive line has looked strong going after Sam Bradford and shutting the Rams running game down.
SUMMARY: Rams five plays, 34 yards.
Good defense so far from the Cowboys.
A sixty-one yard hook-up from Tony Romo to receiver Dwayne Harris. Touchdown Cowboys, they take a 10-0 lead after holding the ball for only 39 seconds.
Oh--and the Cowboys offensive line gave Romo all day to find Mr. Harris who was being covered by Rams rookie Janoris Jenkins.
A rookie mistake led to a Cowboys touchdown.
Well... As I typed my last post, defensive tackle Jason Hatcher just took Rams quarterback down for a sack on third down.
The Rams went three plays and out at the hands of the Cowboys defense.
Now, will we see Jason Garrett open the playbook up in the second offensive drive?
Rams take over on offense trying to match or better the Cowboys offensive effort.
Defensively, all eyes will be on cornerback Morris Claiborne, Brandon Carr and Tyrone Crawford. Well--at least that is where my eyes will be trained.
We know that Carr is a shut down TYPE of corner but I'm interested to see the Cowboys pass rush.
The Cowboys get on the board first after using six minutes to do so. Dan Bailey booted a short field goal for the Cowboys to take a 3-0 lead.
Kevin Ogletree missed a strong Romo third down pass as we saw it wizz through his hands.
If Ogletree is in the lead for the slot position then Cole Beasley and the rest of the slot crew can't be far behind.
Again--Dallas up 3-0 after a thirteen play, 60 yard drive.
Here is what I'm seeing so far. The offensive line has been inconsistent as the Rams have been blitzed a few times.
DeMarco Murray has been Dallas' offense so far as he just converted a third and nine for the Cowboys from a Romo swing pass.
John Phillips looks like the tight end we saw a couple of seasons ago in the preseason. Nice hands and he's using his body to make plays.
And Romo hasn't looked that comfortable in the pocket.
Oh--and the replacement refs look shaky at best. Good enough?
Any quick observation is that John Phillips is doing pretty well so far. He has two catches, one being challenged as I type, but he's showing up and showing out.
Think that Phillips is a good enough replacement for Witten?
Rams rookie corner Janoris Jenkins was just tested by Romo and he was beat by slot receiver Kevin Ogletree.
Not only did 'tree go for 25 yards, he shook Jenkins out of his draws!
Dallas' offense is sort of playing to their injuries so far. No Dez Bryant or Miles Austin and so far we've runs and a swing pass.
Before fans get to into this contest, one should know that the 'Boys are without the services of Miles Austin, Mike Jenkins, DeMarcus Ware, Dez Bryant and many more. The full listing is below.
Miles Austin (hamstring), Phil Costa (back), Jason Witten (spleen), Dez Bryant (knee), Mike Jenkins (shoulder) and DeMarcus Ware (hamstring) are the starters not available. They will be joined by Saalim Hakim (finger), guard/center Kevin Kowalski (ankle), wide receiver Donavon Kemp (knee) and Kyle Wilber (thumb).
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