it's for the wrong reasons like penalties or giving up sacks.
And for the most part, that's why Davis hasn't been noticed too often.
He's doing his job, going about his business. Plain and simple, Leonard Davis is doing what the Cowboys have asked him to do:
Dominate the line of scrimmage. Push people around. Provide huge lanes in the running game. Win the one-on-one battles, especially in the fourth quarter.
Davis is doing all of that.
Now, he isn't the only one on that line who is playing well. Quietly, of course, Colombo is off to a great start. Andre Gurode seems to have this center position figured out now and continues to play better each week.
No one ever talks about Kyle Kosier, but I don't seem him getting beat that often and he probably gets called for the least amount of penalties.
Adams had a few mishaps in last Sunday's win over the Bears, but I've said many times before, give me him to protect my quarterback's blind side any day.
It's too bad Adams has often been an easy target for fans and media to pick on. And that seems to be a trend with offensive linemen. You see a big, strong guy who is rather quiet in his demeanor. He doesn't get too excited or upset about anything, and all of a sudden he's labeled as someone who doesn't care.
Davis knows that all too well.
"That's what people would say about me when I was in Arizona," said Davis, who played the last six years with the Cardinals. "The media guys would say that I didn't have any heart or that I really didn't care about winning or losing. But those guys don't know me. Just because I'm not a big rah-rah guy in the locker room, it doesn't mean that I don't care. That always bothered me when people said that about me."
And that wasn't the only thing that bothered Davis from a media standpoint.
He's heard all of the criticism from his personality, to his on-field demeanor to his actual play.
And from the day he was drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in 2001, the expectations were overwhelming and at times, probably too high for Davis. Especially when you play for the Cardinals.
Did you know Davis didn't play the same position for consecutive years until his fourth and fifth seasons in the league?
He started out at right guard as a rookie, but then had to make a switch to right tackle in the last preseason game of his second season. He came back to right guard in 2003, but then was moved to left tackle in 2004, where he played the last three years until signing with the Cowboys, who have put him back at right guard.
But it was that 2004 season, his first at left tackle, when he said he realized that he was fighting an uphill battle with the media.
"We went and played St. Louis and I went up against (Leonard) Little all day and didn't give up a sack. And we won the game," Davis recalled. "But then (Rams left tackle) Orlando Pace gave up like two sacks, and it wasn't a big deal. But no one said anything about me.
"We played the Patriots and I didn't give up a sack. And then we went to Atlanta and then later on, we played (Julius) Peppers in Carolina. I didn't give up any sacks, but nobody was saying anything about me. That's just the way it is. But once things went the other way, that's when you hear it."
But Davis said he handles it the same way he handles blitzing defenders - he shrugs them off.
"I've always done that," Davis said. "I know what's real. I know what the reality of things are. I'm not going to whine about what someone else says when they've never played a down or whatever."
The fact is, Davis is just in a better fit here in Dallas.
Not only is he playing on a line that he calls the "most talented" group he's played with before, but he's probably on the best team of his career, too.
And think about Davis' strength - his strength. How many times did the Cardinals get the chance to run out the clock late in the fourth quarter and just wear on people? No, Davis probably spent most of his games, and career, pass-blocking for guys like Jake Plummer trying to rally his team from 14 points down.
But it's a different story here in Dallas.
