1. Always nice to get the first win, especially on the road.

1. It took exactly one game for us to see significant improvement in our Special Teams play.

1. I have a feeling that DeMarcus Ware will sign on the dotted line this week after the injury he suffered early in the game... I know that I was holding my breathe for a while!

1. Garrett’s Accountability - We are paying this guy $3MM to run our offense and we look like a freaking 5th grade Pee-Wee team at times trying to line-up.  How is Romo suppose to read the defense and make adjustments at the line-of-scrimmage when his teammates can’t even get lined up until there is 5 second left on the play clock?  It’s really embarrassing.

1. Romo’s Cadence - We are continually snapping the ball the ball as the play clock is winding down, giving out offensive linemen no advantage coming off the ball and zero chance at drawing the defense offsides.  Not to mention Gurode not being able to make protection calls to his line mates.

1. Garrett’s Playcalling – Yeah, Romo & Co. lit up the secondary in the second half, but I wasn’t impressed.  We were up 20-7 with the 3rd quarter winding down and Garrett is calling spread formations with minimal protections that had Romo running for his life and ultimately making poor throws.  With a 20-7 lead we should be running plays out of balanced formations and keeping our opponent honest.  Anyone know what our pass/run ratio is with the lead?

1. The penalties – Couple of killers again this week with Sensabaugh’s slight jersey pull before Jenkins interception and Flo’s personal foul.  I don’t want to be a homer, but it always seems like we get the ticky-tacky calls against us, yet so many clear penalties by the opponent always seems to go uncalled.

1. The Bucs offensive line doesn’t get much press, but they have been assembling some pretty good players over the last few years.  I thought they might give us some trouble, but the effort from our front seven was extremely disappointing.  It was almost as bad as the Ram’s game last year.

1. Roy Williams made some nice catches today.  Forget the great TD catch & run; I was very happy to see him working well with Romo on the short and intermediate routes as the primary target.  If he gets that monkey off his back, he might even be a step faster!  =)

1. If is fair to call to call this a disappointing win?  Why is it that our offense always has to bail our defense out, but when our defense comes up big, our offense struggles to score?
   
   
   

#10 – We didn’t get to see much of him this pre-season, but rookie Stephen McGee has got a long road ahead of him unless Jason Garrett installs an offense that requires 90% of the passing plays to be roll-outs to the right.

#9 – Maybe it’s just me, but I love this group of wide receivers.  Talk about a bunch of underdogs.  You’ve got former 7th rounder Patrick Crayton mixed with undrafted free agents Austin, Hurd and Ogletree.  I would love to see someone emerge from this group and get a big payday from Jerry!

#8 – Obviously we have lost some big names from last year’s roster, but are we weaker from top to bottom?  The last few years we have watched teams claim our released cast-offs, but this year we are seeing our Cowboys already make several claims.

#7 - Has there ever been a player in the modern history of the NFL that has logged more pre-season minutes than Barbie Carpenter?

#6 – Anthony Spencer is going to be the kind of player that makes us pull our hair out one play and jump up and scream “Yes!” the next play.  I’m glad he is getting the downs this year, but I expect some growing pains.

#5 – I haven’t seen enough from Sensabaugh in the pre-season to feel comfortable with the safety position.  A part of me kind of wishes that we would have at least tried the Anthony Henry move to safety, as Kitna was going to get released anyway.   He was a very cerebral player and didn’t always get the credit he deserved as a solid NFL corner.

#4 – It’s been night and day for our defense (especially pressure packages) since Wade took over the play calling from Brian Stewart.  What in the heck took Wade so long to make a change?  Makes we wonder if it would have made a difference against Eli Manning in that 2007 playoff loss.

#3 – The regular season hasn’t even started yet and I’ve already seen Keith Brooking make more plays than Zach Thomas did all of last season.  Nothing against Zach, but he wasn’t even close to a good fit for our 3-4 scheme.  Thank you Wade for bringing Brooks leadership and strong LB play to Texas!

#2 – I’m not a Cricket hater at all, but there’s just something about this Julius Crosslin and the Battering Ram approach that I feel we have been missing from our running attack.  It’s nice to see that running lane get cleared out once and a while.

#1 – If I had to pick one thing that I am most excited for this upcoming season, I would have to say it is watching Felix for a full-season.  He just appears to be that special player that is good for at least one big play every game.

anybody else notice Stanback's speed on the Felix Jones kick return?  Felix isn't exactly slow, and was running for his life while Stanback was quickly gaining ground on Jones and the Eagle defender to throw a final block (I was actually worried that Stanback was going to block the Eagle coverage guy in the back!).

Anyway...very impressive speed.  I knew this guy was fast for his size (10.38 100m dash in college), but his display Monday was very impressive.  If this guy can ever stay healthy and refine his route running...he is certainly a guy that could stretch the field.  Plus, he's got that rare combination of size and speed that also should make him effective on short/intermediate routes in/near the redzone.

While I'm quite sure that we are not done "churning" the roster, I thought it would be interesting to take a quick look at most of the players we entered the 2007 Training Camp with, comparitive to what our 2008 Training Camp Roster might look like.  As you can see, not much change.  Jerry has done an incredible job of keeping most of the crucial players from last year's 13-3 squad.  I see remarkable improvement at RB and CB in 2008.   Obviously injuries can and will play a significant factor in our depth at certain positions, but I think Cowboy fans should feel very good about what Jerry has done thus far.

With the first pick in the 6th Round the Cowboys selected a bit of a head scratcher in Erik Walden.  I frantically dug through my numerous draft guides and computer printouts to find absolutely nothing about this kid.  When I watched a youtube.com video of Erik's low budget workout, I was even less impressed.  Why did we reach for this kid with players like Josh Barrett, Domonique Barber, Erin Henderson, Paul Hubbard, Andre Woodson, and Razorback Peyton Hillis still on the board?

Still upset, my buddies told me to get over it....for it's just a 6th round pick and it doesn't matter.

That made me mad and got me thinking; Where would we have been last season if it weren't for our 7th round picks in our previous drafts?

Jason Ferguson gets injured - insert 7th round pick Jay Ratliff

Terry Glenn is injured - insert 7th round pick Patrick Crayton

Terrance Newman gets hurt - insert 7th round selection Jacque Reeves

Jacque Reeves moves into the LCB position - insert 7th round selection Nate Jones as our Nickel Corner

My point is that these picks do count.  Of course every year we hear all about guys like Tom Brady and Marques Colston that end up being absolute steals in the late rounds of the NFL Draft.  But what we often overlook is theother guys that fight every practice to get better and stay on the 53-man roster.  These are players that accept their role as a reserve and/or special teams player.  These are guys that are cut and re-sign and then get thrown into a starting role at a moments notice.  Without our success in the 7th round over the last several years, we don't win 13 games last season.  The fact is, these picks do count and these picks are very important.  Of course the jury is still out on Walden, but in my mind there was still a lot of value on the board that could have added to our roster before the cigars were lit.

Ok Cowboy fans.  The Cowboys draft appears to be complete.  Of course two first round picks always helps a draft look pretty good, but were you disappointed with the selections?  Did the Cowboys do a great job of adding picks for 2009 and potentially ammunition for a veteran WR trade?  Should we have addressed FB, WR, DT, Safety depth, and/or backup QB on day #2?

 With that said, what kind of a grade would you give Jerry & Co.?