Dallas vs. Houston: Cowboys Preseason Week 4 Preview
The fourth preseason game, a mere 10 days before the Dallas Cowboys' regular-season opener, typically features the least playing time from front-line players of any preseason game. Most of the starters and many key contributors won’t even dress for the matchup, but for many of the players who do take part, this could be the most important game of their lives.
By 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 5, between 600 and 700 players will become free agents as teams narrow their rosters down from 75 to 53. Just over 300 of these will become practice squad players, while the remainder will be looking the end of their football lives in the face.
With this reality rapidly approaching, the fourth preseason game presents one final opportunity for players considered to be on “the bubble” to make a good impression not only on their current team, but on the 31 other clubs that will be looking to improve their rosters over the weekend.
As is the case in all preseason games, the primary goal is to walk off of the field Thursday night without suffering any long-term injuries to the guys who do play, and the teams will look to solidify the status of those bubble players.
News and Notes
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First Wave of Roster Cuts
The Cowboys made several moves Monday afternoon in order to reach the 75-man roster maximum by the league’s 4 p.m. ET deadline.
"#Cowboys cuts and transactions just now @1053thefan pic.twitter.com/EK4fxIDbA6
— mike fisher (@fishsports) September 1, 2015"
The most notable, although not surprising, of these moves are those that relate to injuries.
The team placed cornerback Orlando Scandrick on season-ending injured reserve (IR) with his torn ACL and placed offensive tackle Chaz Green, a third-round pick in the 2015 draft, on the reserve players unable to perform (PUP) list. Linebacker Mark Nzeocha, a seventh-round pick in this year's draft, was placed on the reserve non-football injury (NFI) list.
The moves will put these players out for the first six weeks, at which point they’ll be eligible to return to the team or will be placed on injured reserve.
CowboyHQ’s KD Drummond broke down each of the moves on Cowboys Crunchtime this week.
Still No Clarity for the Running Backs
One of the top storylines surrounding the 2015 edition of the Cowboys throughout the offseason and training camp has been the running back position.
As Nick Eatman of DallasCowboys.com wrote, we are now less than two weeks away from the regular-season opener with somewhere in the neighborhood of zero carries left for the two main contenders, Darren McFadden and Joseph Randle, and yet we don’t have much more of an idea of who, if anyone, will wind up being “the guy.”
Considering the fact that the Cowboys went 12-4 while featuring the NFL’s leading rusher in 2014 and that player is no longer with the team, it is understandable for fans to be anxious about how they are hoping to replicate the success of the 2014 team this year. But come September 13, we should get an idea of how the team plans on deploying these two runners, as well as Lance Dunbar.
Do Your Best General Manager Impression
This time of year, there is a great deal of discussion surrounding who will and will not be a part of the final 53-man roster.
Blogging The Boys' Interactive Roster Builder gives you the chance to cut down the Cowboys' up-to-the-minute 75-man roster to a 53-man version, name a practice squad and more. The program gives you the chance to show off your best impressions of owner/general manager Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones, assistant director of player personnel Will McClay and head coach Jason Garrett.
Latest Injury News
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Because it is the preseason and teams are not required to produce official injury reports, it can be difficult to maintain complete records of all the players who will be unavailable for each preseason game. As an alternative, here is a list of players who have suffered injuries and could be unavailable for Thursday’s game against the Houston Texans.
| Player | Position | Injury |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony Hitchens | LB | Foot |
| James Hanna | TE | Knee |
| Devin Street | WR | Ankle |
| J.J. Wilcox | FS | Shoulder |
| Rolando McClain | LB | Knee |
(All injury information courtesy of David Helman of DallasCowboys.com.)
The biggest news on the injury front this week was the activation of linebacker Rolando McClain from the PUP list Monday, as reported by Rob Phillips of DallasCowboys.com. This move means the highly talented but enigmatic McClain cannot be placed on the reserve PUP list at the end of training camp, which would force him to miss six weeks of the regular season before returning.
As it stands now, once he completes his four-game suspension, he will return to the team and, depending on his conditioning, will be ready to work his way back into the defensive lineup Week 5 against the New England Patriots.
Position Battles to Watch
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Rather than focusing on battles between the teams as in a regular-season matchup, it is probably more valuable for fans to watch the battles between guys playing the same positions for the Cowboys, vying for their roster spot or to establish themselves as contributors in certain roles.
Dustin Vaughan vs. Jameill Showers
Coming into training camp, word around the Cowboys, including that of Babe Laufenberg, a former Cowboys quarterback and current analyst and contributor to the Dallas Morning News, was that Dustin Vaughan was set to make a serious run at overtaking Brandon Weeden as the Cowboys' second-string quarterback.
This made sense, of course, as the Cowboys clearly saw something in Vaughan during his rookie campaign, causing them to hold him on their 53-man roster through the full 2014 season.
However, as ESPN.com's Todd Archer wrote, Vaughan failed to run with that perceived opportunity early in camp, and although he played relatively well against the San Diego Chargers, there’s another young QB in camp who is doing whatever it takes to earn the job.
Not only is rookie Jameill Showers, who went undrafted this May out of UTEP, taking snaps at quarterback, he is also taking snaps on all four of the Cowboys' special teams units (kickoff, kick return, punt and punt return), as he told Dan Turner of DallasCowboys.com.
“It kind of started off as a little joke,” Showers said. “Coach [Rich] Bisaccia (special teams coach) came up to me and said, ‘I could get you some reps on special teams,’ and I was like, do what you gotta do, Coach. Now I’m on all four (special teams units) of them.”
This versatility could give Showers a slight leg up on Vaughan should the two be relatively even in their play as field generals.
Both Vaughan and Showers struggled to get much going Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings, but Thursday should offer each an extended opportunity to make his case for being a part of the 53-man roster.
Ken Bishop vs. Davon Coleman
For the first time in several years, the Cowboys will likely release players on the defensive line whom another team will decide are better than the last defensive lineman or two that they have, and they’ll claim them on waivers after the cuts are made. The loser of this battle will likely be one of those guys.
Ken Bishop and Davon Coleman came to the Cowboys in 2014, one as a seventh-round pick (Bishop), the other as an undrafted free agent (Coleman). With all of the injuries to the defensive tackles in camp this year, they have played quite a lot in games, giving the coaches plenty to evaluate in addition to what they know from 2014 and practices in 2015.
Coleman started the Cowboys' regular-season opener in 2014 and was active in the Week 2 matchup against the Tennessee Titans before being released and placed on the team's practice squad for the remainder of the season. Bishop was active for Weeks 1, 3 and 4 before being placed on the practice squad, only to be recalled to the active roster for the playoffs and playing well against the Green Bay Packers.
With Nick Hayden and Tyrone Crawford firmly entrenched as the starters at defensive tackle and Terrell McClain and Jack Crawford likely to be the first group of alternates, there is probably only room for one more defensive tackle.
The way these guys play against Houston could go a long way in deciding which of these young players, if any, wind up on the roster.
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Prediction: Cowboys 17, Texans 23
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With so few predictable players taking part and coaches seeking various objectives, it’s difficult to predict the exact outcome of a fourth preseason game.
Garrett has shown the last two years that he doesn’t place much weight in winning preseason games, opting more for the goal of evaluating individual players. That won't change Thursday, and the Cowboys will fall to 0-8 in the preseason since 2014.
Prediction: Cowboys 17, Texans 23
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