Boxing buffs will tell you that the best fights pit rivals with different styles.   Matchups of two heavy punchers frequently produce quick, bloody bouts.  Two boxers can shadow each other round after round, producing too few flurries.

Saturday's Chargers - Cowboys game presented two contrasting styles.  Norv Turner's offense worked the old '90s Cowboys playbook.  He ran the quick slants, the deep 18 yard in, the quick outs and a blizzard of quick screens to all his backs, all the time shuffling in off-tackle runs and tosses to new running back toy Ryan Mathews, who looks like a more than able replacement for LaDainian Tomlinson.  

Quarterback Philip Rivers was his accurate, quick self, frustrating a decent Dallas rush with last instant releases that converted 3rd down plays and kept his Chargers offense on the field.

The Cowboys were able to withstand the steady barrage of jabs because their defense landed two haymakers, which knocked out two long Chargers drives.  Terence Newman scored the first knockdown when he intercepted Rivers on the Dallas eleven.  Late in the half, Bradie James stopped a 13 play Chargers drive when he literally punched the ball from running back Darren Sproles' grasp.  Backup strong safety Barry Church picked up the fumble and meandered his way up the Cowboys sideline, before Rivers tackled him at the San Diego 8.

Here, Tony Romo connected with Miles Austin on a stop-fade in the short right corner of the end zone, beating Quentin Jammer and tying the game 7-7 with two minutes left in the half. 

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You're only about 24 hours away.  

The four weeks of camp have been prologue.  The reports, injury aside, have mostly been positive.  The top rookies, when healthy, look great.  Dez Bryant's and Sean Lee's play suggest that the team was not mistaken in giving both top 20 draft grades. 

The defense, and linebacking corps in particular, looks strong.  The 2nd year players, who missed much of last year's camp due to injury, are stepping forward to provide welcome depth and playmaking skills.

But how does the '10 edition of the Dallas Cowboys size up?  We'll get one of our few telling hints against the Chargers.  Consider that the starters played one series each against Cincinnati.  I've discounted the Raiders game as it came just four days later, while the team was relocating to Valley Ranch in its extended layover between San Antono and Oxnard. 

The "real dress rehearsal" traditionally comes the following week, but this year's opponent, the Houston Texas, will host Dallas for keeps just four weeks later.  I'm guessing the looks and "game plans," such as they are, will be the weakest strains of vanilla.   Which brings us to the Chargers

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I spoke to a surgeon this morning, who offered this assessment of Marc Colombo's knee scope:

"This tells you that Colombo has cartilage damage.  What we don't know, and what we won't know is the severity of damage to the joint.  That's something only the operating doctor knows.  It can range from minimal damage where Colombo's still good for a while, or he may be at the point where this could affect him all year long.

The loose bodies removed can get into the joint and cause pain.  If they were large enough, they could also cause the knee to lock up.  If this has been a long-term problem, it's possible that Colombo could come back and play better. That's the optimistic scenario.

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The Cowboys went through two weeks of training camp, squeezing 21 sessions into San Antonio's Alamodome, before playing the Bengals Sunday Night.  After an injury-clotted debut, the team had to turn around and face the Oakland Raiders four days later, in a week where they relocated their home base to Dallas -- temporarily -- and where they had no full-contact practices.

Tonight, they faced a Raiders team playing its first pre-season game.  These ingredients suggested a sloppy, erratic affair in the offing.  Fans know how sloppy Thanksgiving Day games can be on short weeks, even when the teams are in the middle of a season.  Now, make the teams' legs heavy and their practice schedules light.  

It was indeed an affair to forget, as both teams' defenses overran the offenses.  At half-time, neither team had broken 100 yards of total offense.  

Jon Kitna lead an early 3rd quarter field goal drive and Stephen McGee's unit added three more, but the 3rd teammers let Kyle Boller rally for two late scores.  Fourth string QB Matt Nichols saw a pass bounce off Manny Johnson's hands into a Raiders' hands in the final minute.  The pick was returned for a touchdown to produce the final score. 

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Two bits of history and my first positional ranking of the year cross paths this morning, and they tell a potentially chilling tale.

Two years ago, I got a couple of minutes in Oxnard with Tom Ciskowski, who explained that the team's scouts spend their first two weeks, before the NFL pre-season games and before the big college programs start practicing, scouting the Cowboys.  Each scout is assigned an area of the team to grade and all turn in reports before hitting the road.  

With the San Antonio portion of camp done, and with the Hall of Fame Game in the books, I reviewed both the game and my camp notes and prepared my own preliminary offensive line rankings.  They suggest that the team has not found a suitable replacement for the seemingly replaceable Cory Proctor.  This should trouble Cowboys fans who can recall his play, and Rob Petitti's and Torrin Tucker's, and who may have forgotten these key bits of offense line trivia:

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The Cowboys opened the pre-season with a physical 16-7 win over the Bengals.  Dallas' defense resumed where it ended the 2009 regular season.  The first two defensive units kept the first two Cincinnati offenses from crossing mid-field.

Brandon Williams, Victor Butler and Jason Williams, the 2nd year trio of linebackers who saw so much of their collective '09 wiped out by injury, led the charge.  Brandon Williams troubled Bengals left tackles as a rusher and intercepted a pass, setting up Dallas' third field goal of the night.  Butler showed a strong overall game, blanketing backs and looping inside to sack a Cincinnati quarterback in the 2nd half.  

The third stringers made their share of plays.  Linebacker Brandon Sharpe closed Dallas' scoring by intercepting a Jordan Palmer pass and returning it for a touchdown.  The Cowboys came within a minute of a shutout, but Jordan Shipley's long punt return set the Bengals in a goal-to-go situation which they converted. 

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In the climactic scene of Howard Hawks' Red River (1948) the cattle drive organizer Tom Dunston (John Wayne) rides into a Kansas stockyard to confront his adopted son Matthew (Montgomery Clift).  Wayne demonstrated his presence by dismounting at the far end of a crowded stockyard and then gliding, powerfully, through a mass of cattle.

At first only his head is visible behind the cows, but they part as he makes his angry, relentless charge towards a confrontation:

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The Cowboys worked out on shorts and shirts this morning, in the first of their last three San Antonio practices.  The thin attire suggest we have may seen the last pad practices on the Alamodome.  The team might wear pads and shorts this afternoon, but I would be surprised.  

In their 100 minutes, the Cowboys worked on special teams, especially in defending squib kicks and on-side kicks.  The team spent the last third on 11-on-11 drills.  

To give people a flavor how how these workouts are structured, I've broken this morning's practice down by time.  Follow me as I show how the Cowboys make the most of every practice minute.

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Dallas wore shorts and pads today in a two hour workout which began with extended special teams drills and lengthy walk-throughs of short yardage and goal-line plays.  

When the team finally scrimmaged, it worked on 3rd down passing, with all three offensive units mis-matched againt the defenses.  The 1st offense threw most of its reps against the 2nd D; the 2nd O got the 3rd D and Stephen McGee's group drew the first-team D.  

Tony Romo's guys went 6 for 9 on their downs, with Roy Williams converting two 3nd-and-11s, one on a comeback route on the left sideline and the second a diagonal route under Miles Austin from a slot-right formation.  Blitzing was heavy by every defense and the first squad was very effective at stopping interior twists and A-gap overloads by the inside backers.   Romo completed a nice sideline toss to Patrick Crayton between the lines of the zone.  

Jon Kitna's group struggled in its series.  The protection was fair but Kitna under-threw several targets.  He jumped out of his first series after apparently jamming a finger.  He returned to action his next rotation and appeared okay.  McGee could still use some reps with a better line.  He had roll-outs called but he's not getting very much time against Demarcus Ware and the first-teammers. 

The scrimmaging was slower than normal, with the middle of the practice taken up by extra 11-on-air work by the offense and coverage drills by the defensive backs.  Contact was almost nil this afternoon, at least until the passing drills.  The Cowboys appear to be pacing their contact, saving up for Bengals this weekend.  

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Full pads were back Tuesday afternoon for a hard-hitting session which worked on the two-minute drill, with the three offenses getting shots to cover a full field in the no-huddle to close the practice.   While the early 11-on-11s were dominated by the defenses, the offenses all moved the ball, in spite of heavy blitzing, on the final drives. 

The final scrimmages saw the receiving greybeards Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd make big catches with the first offense.  The coaches rotated them in with Tony Romo and the rest of the starters and the older guys used  their plays wisely.  Crayton made three consecutive catches to start the drive, while Hurd made some big grabs later.  Repeat to yourselves, ladies and gents, receiver depth is a good thing; receiver depth is a very good thing.

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Pads and shorts were worn this morning as the Cowboys went through a session heavy on special teams, primarily punt coverage and punt returns.  The 6-on-7 and 11-on-11 work focused on two minute drills, with the three offensive units working with the 40 second clock and down markers.

A Coaching Family Affair

The special teams drills show the detail Joe DeCamillis brings to his work.  Four assistants, D, John Garrett, Reggie Herring and Brett Maxie, work the drill.  Each takes a different group of blockers, ensuring every special teammer gets one-on-one instruction every day they work.  As I've mentioned before, DeCamillis thin-slices his drills into seconds.  Each second of the play is broken down and worked out.  Punt returners, for example, work on pre-snap placement, the blocking the first couple of seconds or so, until the ball is kicked, the releases upfield, their runs up field, and how to corral the returner once he gets the ball in his ands.  That sequence of play might take five seconds and DeCamillis breaks it into four different drills.

This is why the coverage teams took such giant steps forward last year, and why they're good bets to stay among the NFL leaders in coverage.

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Full pads were back today, as the Cowboys held their closest practice to an old Jimmy Johnson-style body slammer, drilling extensively on goal line offense and defense.  The rotations created perhaps the most first offense versus first defense action we've seen thus far.

Contrary to early report, Tony Romo did participate in practice, though his throwing was very limited.  Most of the goal-line passing plays were called for backups Jon Kitna and Stephen McGee.  

Back to Basics

Joe DeCamillis used the opening act to take his special teams units back to their initial workouts.  He drilled them on punt coverage again, stressing the releases for his blockers and sustaining blocks by the returners in the middle of the field.  The first drill showed how fine grained DeCamillis works;  he understands that the blockers in the middle of any punt coverage team may drop at least five yards from the line of scrimmage to sustain blocks, but then have to release cleanly and quickly upfield once the ball has been kicked.  DeCamillis made sure his men knew the proper shoulder around which to release and the way to keep their upfield charges from being impeded.

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The veterans were back, as were the shirts and shorts, and the Cowboys spent 90 furious minutes working on special teams razzle-dazzle, red-zone and pre-red zone offense (and defense). They also found a little time to begin some elemental prep for the Cincinnati Bengals, their first opponent this year.  

Through it all, the players had fun.  The team took its time warming up, and made space for fans small and very large.  A group of youngsters did mock drills in the end zone inside the red hoops the special teams use for drills.  The special teams guys swapped roles in warm-ups, with guys like Deon Anderson practicing deep snapping.  The ever-effervescent Martellus Bennett worked the north end zone, tossing a dozen or so foam footballs to fans young and old, who shamelessly screamed for the toys the way the seals at nearby Sea World beg for fish. 

When the players got to business, they showed a depth of complexity and trickery, on offense and on special teams.  Joe DeCamillis worked his hardest, most thorough kickoff return drill, working returns to both sidelines.  D somehow manages to spot errant blocks on every return and rushes in to give the player a crash tutorial on proper angles and technique.  Late in the drill the returners worked against squib kicks and unveiled a series of misdirection option returns, to both sides of the field.  Don't linger at the refrigerator or the bathroom this year, ladies and gents, or you might miss one of Joe D's return specials.  His guys practiced a bag-full of tricks today.

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With apologies to Lee Hazlewood:

"Some veteran morning when I'm straight,
I'll let the veterans sleep late,
And tell you all about Romo,
And how he throws for six,
But sometimes throws some picks,
Some velvet morning when I'm... straight,"

Ah, where's Nancy Sinatra when you need her?

Wade Phillips in fact gave the veterans their second morning off, bringing the rookies and bubble veterans out for a shirts and shorts session.  He even gave special teams coach Joe DeCamillis a break;  the special teams workouts were limited to some one-on-one tutoring by kicking guru Chris Boniol for David Buehler.  

When the players went 11-on-11, the drills were red zone specific, and run at three-quarter speed.  Learning proper assignments, execution and responsibilities were the goals.  

Some notes from the sleepy Sunday A.M.:

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The Cowboys struggled to maintain sharpness Saturday morning, working their third consecutive practice in full pads.  The 90 minutes workout eshewed the 9-on-9 and 1-on-1 drills from the past few days and jumped directly from the positional workouts into 11-on-11 square-offs.

The coaches put a twist into the day's work, playing the 1st team wide receivers and backs with 2nd team QB Jon Kitna and the second o-line, while promoting Sam Hurd, Patrick Crayton and Kevin Ogletree to the first unit.  The units then worked on red zone and yellow zone plays, starting series just inside the 10, just inside the 20 and just inside the 30.

The switches show that receivers do matter.  The 2nd unit had its sharpest workout, as Kitna had better receivers than he's normally used to.  Romo, meanwhile, had his most erratic workout.  He had to throw away several tosses because he had no open targets to locate.

The workout was the team's 11th in a week, and the minor pulls and sprains are adding up.  Dez Bryant did not show on the field today, but the trainers had a solid eight defense prospects rehabbing in the far end zone:  Sean Lee, Sean Lissemore, Pat Watkins, Jason Hatcher, Josh Brent, Stephen Hodge, Steve Octavien and Akwasi Owusu-Ansah all missed the scrimmages.  The most encouraging news involves Hodge, who dressed in full pads, but worked with the trainers.  He may finally be close to returning to the practice field, though he sports a large brace on his left knee.

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The Cowboys finished their first week with a key and unwanted addition to the injured list, as Dez Bryant injured an ankle on the second to last play of the final 11-on-11 drill.  Bryant dove to catch a low pass and had trailing CB Orlando Scandrick roll up his right leg.  Bryant knelt on the turf for a few seconds, flexing the ankle before he hopped to his feet and tried walking off the problem.  He dropped to the turf in pain and was assisted off the field by two trainers, who kept Bryant's full weight off the injured joint.  Results of the obligatory MRI have not yet been released.

The injury overshadowed another speedy, spirited practice in full pads.  Dallas went through the week one routing of special teams, positional drills, 9-on-9 running running drills, 1-on-1 passing drills, simultaneous 6-on-7 passing drills and 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 pass blocking drills capped by an 11-on-11 scrimmage.  

The internal theme was special situations.  Joe DeCamillis' guys worked extensively on on-side kickoffs, showing a novel two kicker formation in one variant.  Both Mat McBrian and David Buehler took the field and made the receiving team guess where the ball was going.  D's guys showed a creative mix of onside kicks, from the double-kicker set and from the standard kickoff formations.  

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Full pads returned, as expected, and the Cowboys used them to drill passing game matchups.  The final eleven on eleven drill drill proceeded by two extensive 6-on-7 passing drills, where the offense and defense worked mostly on working the nickel defense against the 11 package offense, with one back and three receivers.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the chicken-egg question which appears as most camps progress regards familiarity.  Is a player whose work slowly improves getting past the off-season rust, and truly improving, or is he merely becoming overly familiar with the moves of the player or players lining up across from him?

In the unit-versus-unit case, the results have oscillated from one to the other;  in the early practices the defense was ahead, shutting off lanes and making pass completions difficult.  The linebackers grabbed several picks in the opening weekend.  Then, the offense surged ahead.  On Monday and Tuesday, Tony Romo's first team was very good at handling blitzes, with Romo completing quick passes across the field to all his options.

The last couple of days have seen the matchups settle.  Yesterday the positive plays skewed in the defense's favor, but only slightly so.  Today's scrimmages resembled a heavyweight tussle, where the combatants exchanged heavy blows in the ring's center.  The offense would win a play, then see the defense force an incompletion.  Romo would respond with a toss, then have to check down on the subsequent down for a minimal game.

The offensive/defensive ledger finished roughly 50/50, which is about what you would expect from two quality units.  All players on both units are capable of making plays and they did so this afternoon.  I get the impression the Cowboys might like to start hitting players in different colored uniforms, and they still have a week to go before they prep for Cincinnati.

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The shoulder pads returned this afternoon, as the Cowboys eased back towards full pads, which should come in tomorrow afternoon's practice.  

Today's late session saw the special teams turn to kickoff coverage and returns, while the offense and defense stressed nickel sets.  When the teams met for the final 11-on-11 work, the defense regained the upper hand, after a couple of days which saw the offense beating pressure with quick releases and solid blitz pickups.  

The defense debuted its "routine," a preening, strutting, barking group dance which preceeded each series.  The networks will no doubt pick up on it, if the defense doesn't get ahead of themselves and try naming it, trademarking it, building a song around it or marketing it in some way.

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The shirts and shorts were back for the Cowboys morning practice after two consecutive sessions with pads.  Missing were the veterans, who got the morning off.  The coaches worked with the youngsters and veteran backups, but not before a miffed Wade Phillips rallied his players mid-practice, dissatisfied with the early pace of 11-on-11 drills.

The hitting was non-existent, and with such a short lineup, I've giving you an appropriately abbreviated report.

Special teams opened the practice, as usual.  This morning the coaches began work on kickoff coverage and returns for the first time.  The staff divided the labor, with Joe DeCamillis working with the coverage men in the center of the formation, demonstrating how to head-fake opponents out of  the way while maintaining lane discipline. Later, DeCamillis flipped the drill around and had the players work on blocking incoming kickoff coverage guys.  

John Garrett and Reggie Herring worked with the return guys:  Garrett drilled the edge blockers behind in the initial line and Herring worked with the two-man wedges.  

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The shoulder pads and shorts were worn this afternoon, as the Cowboys crept more into their punt coverage work. They went back to working more on fundamentals and on tightening up the passing game.  Dallas worked more on passing game matchups, drilling a lot of 6-on-7, where Tony Romo, Jon Kitna, and Stephen McGee worked the skill position guys against the three back seven units.  The Cowboys session finished with the starting offense and the starting defense working on mid-field passing drills.  

This morning, most of these plays tested the offense in 3rd down situations.  This afternoon, the emphasis switched to 1st down plays, runs and passes.  Little changed from this morning.  Most of the players carried over their performances; the good players doing well, the struggling players continuing to struggle.   Some key second year players continued to impress, and give the team some depth and flexibility at key roles (more on them later).

 As I've reported before, Joe DeCamillis started his coverage work on spacing, and placement.  Next, his guys worked on their drops.  Yesterday, they worked on their releases and keeping lane discipline on their downfield runs.

Today, DeCamillis began where yesterday's drills left off.  His coverage guys worked on the end of the play.  He had a gunner race past the return man and the following three or four men worked on surrounding and taking down the returner.  

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Full pads returned for the second consecutive practice this morning, and the offense posted its most impressive workout of the still-short camp.   The Cowboys worked extensively on 3rd down conversion and Tony Romo's group was close to unstoppable, against the 2nd and the 1st team defenses, demonstrating that the offensive guys have caught up, and quicklly, with their defensive counterparts.

The morning workouts saw strong performances from a couple of the redshirt second year players.  Jason Williams continues his solid play at linebacker.  The most encouraging workout came from second year RT Robert Brewster, suggesting that all he lacks are repetitions.

Creeping Coverage

The practice again began with approximately half an hour of punt coverage work.  Today, Joe DeCamillis began by integrating  his gunners and his blockers and worked on their initial blocks, their downfield release and surrounding the returner.  This extends from yesterday's workout, which only focused on blocking at the line of scrimmage.  DeCamillis is creeping the coverage work a bit down the field every day.  I expect that sometime soon, he will start to work on returns.  This week at least, its all about coverage.

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The full pads returned Monday afternoon and the contact increased, giving observers their first extended view of the Cowboys first offense versus the first defense.  The increased hitting also started the process of shaking out the competition in certain key areas.  

As is the Cowboys custom, they started with special teams.  Joe D's guys worked for a third straight session on punt coverage.  It's impossible to get strong reads on special teams units before a single pre-season game is played, but if you want an early view of rankings (and hence of chances to make a final roster) consider the nine players who drilled with snapper L.P. Ladouceur and punter Mat McBriar today:

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The Cowboys followed their full-pads morning workout with a slow-starting shoulder pads and shorts session, which gave us the most one-on-one action of this young training camp.  Rotations began along the defensive line, and the incredible Dez Bryant continued to dazzle, which veteran Sam Hurd worked though a ragged practice which left him helmet-less and frustrated.

The session began with an extended workout on punt coverage skills.  Joe DeCamillis built on the mornings special teams work by again breaking his units into two groups.  The interior linemen worked on their releases and lane discipline while the gunners worked through a strange drill which used the mini ring the offensive linemen used on Saturday.  

John Garrett had the ring rolled to the near sideline, and then placed a large red ring next to it.  Gunners had to start inside the ring, release laterally under the ropes, maintaining low pad level, and then following the arc of the ring up the field.  The obstacles mimicked the break from a jam and the proper release a gunner needs to take.  Garrett twice stopped the exercise to advise the participants to keep their eyes up while executing the drill.  Garrett clearly wanted them to put their minds into game situations.

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The Cowboys donned full pads today for the first time at San Antonio.  The early Sunday morning practice saw Dez Bryant and Josh Brent, the first and last Cowboys draftees this off-season, make attention-grabbing plays.  In Bryant's case, the spectacular seems almost pre-ordained.  He dazzled at the team's mini-camps and he's continued to thrill in the Alamodome.  His consistently exceptional play, in contrast to Roy Williams thus-far consistently Roy-like play, suggests that the rookie may make a push for the starting lineup sooner rather than later this campaign.

In Brent's case, the impressions are smaller, but every bit as welcome.  He joined the organization just last week after being selected in the 7th round of the supplemental draft.  If he builds on the quickness and interior rush savvy he demonstrated this morning, the Cowboys may have another 7th round nose tackle find.

Back to the Balaclavas

The morning began as most Wade Phillips practices do, with a special teams drill.  Position coach Joe DeCamillis and John Garrett worked with the punt coverage team, breaking the unit into two discrete groups.  DeCamillis worked with the line, schooling the snapper and his blockers on proper spacing, proper first steps and correct releases off the line of scrimmage once the punt has been hit. 

Down the field, the gunners worked in pairs and with cones, familiarizing themselves with the proper technique for evading edge blocks without getting pushed off the playing field.  When the units merged, one of the groups wore colored balaclavas on their helmets and played the rush team, to expose the coverage groups to flesh-and-blood blocking.  The drill went no farther than releasing off the line, but we got a taste of what the punt return game could be like -- Dez Bryant, Titus Ryan and incumbent Patrick Crayton all took turns fielding Mat McBriar's kicks. 

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The Cowboys concluded a spirited 90 minute workout this afternoon in shorts and shirts, which aimed to knock out summer-time rust and re-introduce the players to football at full speed. 

The coaches worked on the most elemental of elements.  From a schematic standpoint, Jason Garrett and Wade Phillips took their units to the basics;  the offense worked exclusively in its 21 (two backs and one tight) and 12 sets (one back, two tight ends) with the F-back flexing into the backfield, giving a 21 look.  On defense, the Cowboys worked in the base 3-4, with four linebackers at all times.  No nickel backs and no nickel linebackers took the field today. 

When the teams did scrimmage, the defense, as it common in early camp sessions, took a lead.  None of the Cowboys quarterbacks had large throwing windows and back seven players on the first, second and third units got their hands on several football and made a handful of interceptions.

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Right Tackle is a Very Crowded Place

I was studying the rookie numbers last night, prepping notes for camp, and noticed some odd numbers on the offensive line.

There are two centers, the starter Andre Gurode and backup wannabe Travis Bright.

There are four players listed as guards on the team's web-site roster: starters Kyle Kosier and Leonard Davis, and backups Montrae Holland and Phil Costa.

There are two players with experience at the key left tackle spot:  anticipated starter Doug Free and challenger Alex Barron.  

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