Cowboys Look Sloppy in Loss Against Texans

The Dallas Cowboys faced their interstate rival the Houston Texans on Saturday night in Houston in a game that was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for the season opener. Thing is the Cowboys looked worse than Lindsay Lohan before one of her rehab stints.  

The offensive line looked apprehensive, the offense overall seemed uninspired, and the defense never seemed to get off of the bus.

That made for a 23-7 drubbing at the hands of the Texans.

Maybe the Cowboys listened to too much Biggie while in Cali, and simply wanted to go back. They just wrapped camp and had to head back to Texas after a cool two weeks out west, who want to go back to Texas after that?

Well, certainly not the Cowboys.

The Houston Texans played inspired, excited, and focused football. They wanted the “coveted” Governor’s Cup, the championship piece the winning team takes home after these two meet in the preseason.

Either way, the Texans came to play and the Cowboys didn’t.

For starters, the Cowboys were missing two key pieces to their offensive line. Gone to injuries were right tackle Marc Colombo and left guard Kyle Kosier. These two behemoths were lost to knee injuries in training camp and opened two huge weaknesses for the ‘Boys: Lack of depth on the offensive line.

Also missing in action was rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant. The former Oklahoma State standout receiver is still nursing that high ankle sprain suffered way back in the early days of training camp in San Antonio, and will not see action until the opener against the Redskins.

But no matter the injuries and missing pieces for the team, the Cowboys were looking for something positive before their season opener. Maybe a little offensive continuity or red zone efficiency or how the team would respond to a few new wrinkles thrown into the offensive playbook by Jason Garrett.

If, by chance, any Cowboys fans stopped their channel clicker to look for any of that it was nowhere to be found good sir or madam.

Tony Romo was sacked, pressured, and hit for his time in the game and the running game was sick. But not in a good way, sick like in a “oh my gosh the Cowboys” may be in trouble kind of way. Thirteen total rushing yards for the night for 1.1 yards per carry. Even in preseason that’s scary.

The passing game was paltry and clumsy as Romo and his receivers were rarely on the same page.

Basically, the effort against Houston was clumsy and sparked a little cause for concern for Cowboys fans.

Yes the offensive can work out its issues and the defense is sure to get back on track in time for the Redskins in Week 1. However, the offensive line poses a pretty large problem. When will Kosier return and is Colombo on his last set of good knees? Remember he missed seven games last season with a broken fibula. The second string is not a squad that’s good enough to protect Romo week in and week out as they simply have not played enough to gel together.

The Texans, on the other hand, had enough energy to power the Cowboys' plane back from Cali. Houston’s starting running back Arian Foster has more than 100 yards rushing and quarterback Matt Schauab was efficient with a 91.6 quarterback rating.

Week 3, these teams will meet again. By then the Cowboys hope to have a full squad instead of one that resembles an infirmary.

-JH

You can catch Jason's radio show every Monday night at 8pm ET on www.blogtalkradio.com/cowboyjay

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