The Cowboys second team falters in the final minutes, allowing the 49ers to move in and take the lead and the victory tonight in Arlington, TX. Tonight was the 3rd pre-season game and is typically considered the dress rehersal for the season; if that is the case the Cowboys still have some work to do. They shows flashes of the team they should be given the talent level, but are still prone to small miscues, injuries, and stupid penalties that make you shake your head. More thoughts below:
- The offense was not as crisp as last week, but still looked pretty good even without two of their starting receivers playing. The downfall tonight was that the Cowboys seems to move the ball well but could not finish the drives, settling for either field goals, or in one case, a poor Romo interception. The offense will need to do a better job of capitalizing on every chance they get to score if they want to take on the teams of NFC East this fall.
- The defense had a solid first half by mixing it up and pressuring the San Francisco offense. It was a consistent effort that showed up until the two minute drill. This worries me slightly given how the Raven's game ended last season with the two huge defensive collapses that cost that game for us, but I will remain optimistic that we can improve and make the stops when we need them.
- Stanback is [un]officially put on notice: Word around camp this year has been that Stanback needs to show the coaches something to make the team and tonight didn't do much for a good impression with that costly fumble. At this point in camp rookie Ogletree has had a really nice camp and is slowly building a case to keep him around instead of Stanback.
- Penalties will kill you [eventually]: It seems like there were several penalties tonight that killed our offensive drives, put us out of field goal range, or caused our defense to stay on the field by giving the 49ers extra opportunities to extend drives. There just really is no excuse for some of these miscues, and I hope they can find the discipline to get these out of their system before the regular season starts.
All in all, there were some good things and not-so-good things to take away from tonight's game. They have one more preseason game next Friday to correct some mistakes; but since many starters don't play much of the final preseason game, it is safe to assume we will have to wait and see what happens once the regular season starts. Not exactly the vote of confidence, I know, but I feel with the talent we have they need to show me more...
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