probably had little to do with the exchange fumble, but don't think Bradie James blowing by the center for a sack didn't cause Samson Satele to rush himself at times the rest of the game.
And come on, those two Anthony Henry interceptions were textbook, and had nothing to do with Green making bad throws. He blanketed Marty Booker on the first and did a heckuva job reading the throw to Chris Chambers on the second.
But if the first two games are any indication, and again, not trying to be hasty here, teams will have a tough time running on the Cowboys' defense. The Dolphins had 21 carries for 61 yards; not even three yards a carry. The Giants did have 22 for 124, but remember one was that 44-yarder thanks to Hamlin's missed tackle in the hole. Without that, the Giants had 21 for 80; not quite four yards a carry.
Now the passing yards appear troubling, with the Cowboys ranking 31st in the NFL heading into the Monday night game, giving up 293.5 a game - 80 yards more than the league average.
But remember, the Cowboys opened up double-digit leads in both games, getting out in front of the Giants at one point 38-22 early in the fourth quarter and taking a 30-13 lead late in the fourth quarter against the Dolphins. So what do you think the other team is going to do then? Like throw the ball.
Also remember that in both games the opponent had the final significant possession in the first half, meaning two-minute offense. More passing.
And when a team can't run the ball effectively and it falls behind on top of that, there is only one of mode of ball movement known to NFL-kind. That's throwing.
"We're going to get a lot of passes, we found the same thing at San Diego," Phillips said. "Once you start stopping the run and the other team isn't committed to run . . ." well, what's left to do?
"So the best thing you can do is get a lot of interceptions and turnovers," Phillips said, "and that's what we were able to do this week."
Now you sure would like to have more sacks than three after being thrown at 84 times in two games. That leaves the Cowboys ranked 25th in average sacks per play.
But as Phillips said, "Turnovers are more important than sacks," and right now the Cowboys are tied for first in the NFL with a plus-4 net turnover difference and only four teams have more takeaways than their six - Detroit leading with eight and three teams tied with seven.
OK, so that's two weeks into the season, still hardly a trend of any kind. Let's wait until like four weeks, after next Sunday night's game in Chicago and then a home game against St. Louis before we start coming to conclusions. Remember, the idea here is not to be first with a conclusion but to be right, meaning then you'll never have to say your sorry - or wrong.
Common sense, unless there is this pressing need to be an I-told-you-so-first kind of guy to combat self-esteem issues.
"Just don't overreact to the first game," Canty said was line coach Kacy Rodgers' message to the D-linemen after the Cowboys were torched for 35 points in the opener. "Just take practice to the game . . . take practice to the game."
So, better against the Dolphins (0-2), not great, but at least a step in the right direction. And as Phillips said following the game, "Obviously, we think we can do better."
How 'bout you?
