At one point in the second quarter, the Cowboys just grabbed a 17-7 lead after a Felix Jones touchdown. All the momentum had shifted towards Dallas as halftime approached.
And yet, for some reason (maybe it was Adrian Peterson) it felt like the Cowboys were down 10 if not more. The feeling was the Vikings were kicking the Cowboys' tail up and down the field. Fortunately for the Cowboys, that feeling didn't completely register on the scoreboard.
But let's face it, the 17-10 halftime lead or the 23-17 final score means little in the big picture. The fact that Peterson gashed the defense for 81 yards on 14 attempts or the fact the Vikings as a team rushed for 175 yards and averaged 6.5 yards per carry is a problem.
The offense had some moments but really only scored 10 points. And if the replay officials would've overturned Dez Bryant's sideline catch, the Cowboys don't score a second-quarter touchdown. Trust me, every replay official in the NFL wouldn't have kept that catch good since the ball popped up once he hit the ground.
Yeah this offensive line might be more athletic than ever before, but they're also young. Do you realize no Cowboys team has ever started a two rookie linemen on opening day? And that's going to happen this year unless three rookies start like they did Saturday. At some point this year, rookies will be rookies and 60 percent, even 40 percent of the line being rookies will be problematic. They did OK Saturday but we should expect hiccups down the road.
Hey, no one likes the guy who makes excuses when they lose. And no one likes the negative guy who picks apart every aspect that went well. But this team has issues, and issues that Miles Austin, Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins, Keith Brooking and whoever plays at center won't exactly fix with their return.
Something tells me this Cowboys team will probably play about 12-13 close games this year. Every once in a while, a game will get out of hand. But I think this team is good enough to hang with any team in the league. And they're probably average enough to keep any of the bad teams in the game, too.
Again, we're only three preseason games into this. Rob Ryan will say they haven't really schemed anyone. Yet, no one has schemed for them either.
Right now, the Cowboys are 2-1 in the preseason. But to me, there seems to be more reasons to be concerned than excited.
