Let's Talk A Little Dallas Cowboys Football

Kayce Smith8/16/2018 7:10 PM

The Cowboys finish their Oxnard stint of training camp today. Tomorrow, they head back to Frisco (basically Dallas, for you non-Texas people) to prepare for Saturday’s preseason game vs the Bengals. So, I figured it was a good day to talk a little ‘boys.

I’m not going to break down the entire roster or go through position battles, that’s not what you’re here for. But in the spirit of training camp ramblings, I figured I’d start typing and see what happened.

It’s hard to be a Dallas Cowboys fan these days. I was seven the last time they won a Super Bowl. Seven. These days no matter how high the expectations, you’re probably going to get your heart ripped out in the end. It’s almost become science. Last year was just another example. That’s why my dad still lives in the 90s. It’s understandable when your team misses the playoffs. PS: The Dallas Cowboys should NEVER miss the playoffs. Ever.

But that’s in the past. The 2018 season is here and holy shit, I’m hoping that THIS is the year they take the next step. My Dallas-born heart just can’t take it anymore.

SO, who’s the real Dak Prescott?

I’m a big Dak person. I covered him at Mississippi State when I worked for the four-letter network and he was always impressive both on and off the field. I was happy as hell when the Cowboys got him and even more stoked when he took over for Tony Romo in 2016. Call me a hater, whatever.

But the hype going into last season was waaaay too high. That’s not me being a pessimist. It’s being a realist. The fact that he rolled in to his 2nd season ranked #14 in the Top 100 NFL players was insane. Unfair even. People forget he was ranked ahead of Drew Brees, Big Ben and Russell Wilson.

Asinine.

And no fail, reality set in. Nobody needs the numbers, we all know what happened. So the question is can Dak Prescott bring back the magic from 2016 and prove that last year was not the norm? One can only hope.

Who will replace Dez?

The Cowboys don’t have a true WR1 and only three of the 14 receivers from the 2017 roster returned. Not that Dez was the guy he used to be, but YIKES. You lose the star power and security blanket in Jason Witten in the same off-season and things could look pretty damn shaky.

But wait, there’s good news!

Cliff notes version: Dak says they’re all “starting to really click” in camp.

Started from the bottom, now you’re putting the best defensive player on the roster in a blender.

Let’s be honest, the Cowboys don’t need a wildly efficient passing game to have success. They consistently have a monster o-line and a dangerous rushing attack. But Dak does need to find a true deep threat when defenses load the box to try to stop Zeke.

Speaking of Sean Lee, he’s been talking a lot of shit and actually hitting Zeke in practice.

“Good for you. Spiking the ball when you’ve done nothing.”
“You got to score in the game to spike the ball,” Lee said after practice. “That’s not an NFL touchdown. Naw, he’s been good. That is what makes practice fun, the trash talking back and forth. We are excited to come out here. We have been ramping up. We love to compete. We pushed it today. We had a great practice. That is the type of team we have. The offense won some. The defense won some.”

Gotta love it.

And that guy at running back.

I spent a lot of TV time last year talking about that suspension. We’re not getting back in to it. All I’ll say is that I think the NFL botched how they handled his case and that there were a lot of layers to it. But regardless, the Cowboys clearly missed their star back when he was out those six games.

But don’t worry. He’s back at full force.

And as luck would have it, NFL’s official twitter is out here blessing your timelines today.

Football porn.

We can’t forget that they also have the best cheerleaders in the game. This is Barstool Sports after all.