Jason Garrett spoke today at his press conference how nice it is to have Kyle Orton on the squad as a back up to Tony Romo. In the 7-on-7 period, Orton made three outstanding throws in the red zone that resulted in touchdowns. Two of the throws were back shoulder ones that can be difficult to pull off. Tim Benford goes vertical against C.J. Wilson who is in good coverage up the field but Orton fires the ball to the outside as Wilson is playing the fade. On the second one, Benford again is matched up on Wilson. Orton is looking at Benford the whole way, who starts up the field with Wilson inside again, this time Orton fires the ball low and to the outside. Benford turns his body to adjust to the ball making an outstanding catch. Benford catches a third touchdown from Orton when from the outside, he works up the field, curls at the goal line between Taplin-Ross and Madison. Orton throws the ball before Benford even breaks for the touchdown.
· When watching practice this morning I had a member of the front office walk by me and say, "That Cole Beasley is going to make himself hard to cut". There is something every day at practice that Beasley does to get himself noticed and that is all you can ask from a player. Beasley has a unique skill of running routes, playing with awareness and dependable hands. Jason Garrett today painted a very clear picture of the player and what he can do. Where he can stick in this league, it is as a slot player. He doesn't have the height to play on the outside but you let him run routes from the slot, he can be disruptive to the defense. I have seen him make this play twice now on the goal line where he lines up on the right side, drives the defensive back off the ball then breaks hard to the outside. In my Green Bay days, we called that play "Sprint Right Option". You secure the edge with the back while the quarterback rolls to his right. In this case, Orton rolled to his right as Beasley made his break with C.J. Wilson on his back. Orton put the ball in a great spot as Wilson is diving to try and play the ball with his off hand. Beasley is able to make the catch going away for the touchdown. It was a great throw by Orton but again another nice route by Beasley who has been doing that quite a bit lately.
· The blitz period has become my favorite part of practice to watch for a couple of different reasons. I have been enjoying what new blitz Rob Ryan will come up with to give this offensive line and running backs problems in their pickups. There is nothing more difficult for an offense to do than to pick up blitzes. During these OTA's I have felt like that the defense has gotten the better of the offense in the way they have been able to execute these blitzes. Ryan has been very creative in the way that he has brought pressure with different personnel groups but today was a much better day for the offensive and the running backs. There was a play today where Romo read the blitz to his left, Radway also saw the blitz and he runs a short in route but more importantly, Smith, Livings and Costa do a nice job of handling the rush to that side which allowed Romo the opportunity to complete the pass. Any type of penetration to that side would have killed the play.
