By Mark Halpern
This passed Thursday, we saw the first real football action of the year: the 2nd and 3rd stringers of the new-look Dallas Cowboys. The game was pretty much everything I expected it to be. The Dallas defense took the field, and at about the 40-yard line of the Dallas rookie, Micha Parsons hit The Steelers, forcing a fumble and recovering it. The fumble was one of 3 fumble recoveries the Dallas Defense recovered.
Second String Quarterback Garrett Gilbert came out firing to 4 different receivers on the first drive. He looked strong and led the Dallas offense down to just about the 4-yard line and then on 3rd and goal threw a pass that on any other day was intercepted, and the Cowboys settled for a field goal on the first drive. However, this would be the last time Dallas would score. Gilbert finished 9-13 for 104 yrds.
One of the big problems last year was turnovers, and this game showed us that it is still a concern. The Steelers forced four fumbles but, luckily, only recovered two of them. All three backup quarterbacks didn’t throw an interception which is an excellent bonus, but the two times the offense was in the red zone early, one for a field goal and the other was a missed field goal. They have some work to do.
The Hall of Fame Game was only played after a week or two of teams showing up to training camp. The HOF game is only an initial dress rehearsal, and for teams to start to get a feel for their teams and their potential 53 man roster, especially the Cowboys coaches, to access more of their back-end players and get a plan for next weekend preseason game.
However, I did predict the Cowboys to win this game, and there is no excuse for making it to the red zone two times in the first quarter to end up with three points. I do expect Zeke, Lamb, and Gallup to play the first two drives next week. Next week is the Cowboys vs. Cardinals preseason game on Friday, August 13th at 10 PM EST 7 PM PDT.
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