IRVING, Texas– Following Sunday's game in Miami that saw him with a few more negative plays than usual, offensive tackle Tyron Smith simply chalked it up as a bad game.
But he's making sure to put him behind and move on quickly in this short week where the Cowboys play host to the 10-0 Panthers Thursday at AT&T Stadium.
"It was one of those days where my technique wasn't on point," Smith said Monday in the locker room. "But I have to make sure I clean it up for the next game."
Against Miami, Smith was flagged for holding twice (one was declined) and gave up a sack to Dolphins' rusher Oliver Vernon, who was active all day, finishing with a sack, five tackles, two stops for loss and four quarterback hits.
However, head coach Jason Garrett said his All-Pro left tackle graded out better than it might have looked.
"Tyron actually played really well in the game," Garrett said. "He did have some, a handful of plays, where they did a good job beating him on a pass rush or he had a couple of those penalties. But if you watch the whole game, he really did a good job. He certainly wasn't happy about it, but we have to recognize the good stuff and have to try to correct the other stuff."
[embeddedad0]Garrett made sure to point out that his matchup with Vernon had a lot to do with Smiths' struggles.
"50 is a good player. He challenged Tyron in a few different situations and got home a little bit," Garrett said. "The thing you love about Tyron Smith is he keeps battling back and competing the right way. He certainly did that (Monday) in the game."
This year, Smith has been penalized nine times, although just seven have been accepted. The nine flags is tied for second on the team with Zack Martin. Morris Claiborne leads the team with 11 flags against him with nine penalties accepted.
