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Texas NFL Capsules: Cowboys coach undecided on using starters Thursday
IRVING (AP) — Wade Phillips has watched the tape and wonders what all the fuss is about.
He realizes the Dallas Cowboys aren't scoring touchdowns because of problems running, throwing or both. And the defense he coordinates was quite unimpressive in the latest game, a loss at Houston.
But Phillips maintained Monday that things aren't as bad as they seem. He acknowledged "some mistakes on just our base stuff and that bothered me," yet insisted the bigger obstacle for Dallas is that opponents are digging deeper into their playbooks than he's willing to do for games that don't count.
"I thought the last two games we pretty much had the short stick by what we did offensively and defensively," he said. "When they put four and five (receivers) out there and you don't come after them, they've got a big advantage."
Phillips said that during the Houston game, he told coaches he realized there were certain plays they should be running at certain times — he just didn't want to until the regular season.
"That's what we believe in," he said, "and I still believe in that."
He also believes players need to show a certain proficiency to build confidence for the opener, which is why he's considering using his starters in the final preseason game Thursday night, at home against Miami. He threw that out as a possibility after the Houston game and said Monday it is still up for debate.
Phillips hasn't used starters in the finale his three previous seasons with Dallas. So even considering it indicates at least some displeasure in how the preseason has gone.
"We didn't play (the Texans) like we were ready for the regular season," Phillips said. "That doesn't mean we won't be ready in two weeks."
A mitigating factor in Phillips' decision could be what Miami plans to do.
If the Dolphins play backups, the Cowboys would be in a no-win situation. Success would be dimmed by the caliber of competition; failure would be magnified.
Phillips further downplayed the importance of preseason results by noting the Colts are usually terrible in the preseason and terrific in the regular season. He also described the mind-set in Buffalo when he was defensive coordinator.
"Marv Levy didn't want to play anybody anytime in the preseason," Phillips said. "He would say, 'We're going to play them a half,' and then after the first series he would say, 'Are we going to get them out of there?'"
Dallas didn't practice Monday, giving players consecutive days off the field as they begin moving toward regular-season mode. They'll practice in pads Tuesday, then be off Wednesday. Thus, there's little time to really emphasize much.
The running game needs the most work.
Part of the problem for Marion Barber (23 yards, 12 carries) and Felix Jones (21 yards, nine carries) is running behind a line missing two starters with injuries. Phillips also brought up play-calling again.
"We've got a lot of plays we haven't used," he said. "I mean, our base plays, our strongest plays from last year, we probably haven't run as much."
Rookie receiver Dez Bryant, linebacker Keith Brooking, defensive end Marcus Spears and safety Gerald Sensabaugh have been cleared to practice but may not play Thursday. They're expected to be ready for the opener Sept. 12 at Washington.
Right tackle Marc Colombo is expected to practice next week and could play against the Redskins.
The prognosis isn't clear for left tackle Kyle Kosier. He's about two weeks into a recovery from a sprained knee ligament that's supposed to take 4 to 6 weeks.
"He's going to start some of his rehab this week and we'll see where he is," Phillips said.
The Cowboys released receiver Terrell Hudgins and tight end Scott Sicko, both rookie free agents. They're also going to cut safety Pat Watkins; tight end Martellus Bennett already tweeted it.
Bryant, meanwhile, tweeted that he'll be playing Thursday, even though Phillips said no decision has been made.
What do you think of all the locker-room news coming out via Twitter, (at)sonofbum?
"I've got to follow more people," he said.
Jerry's dream: Long wait for 4th ring ends at home
IRVING (AP) — Jerry Jones has three Super Bowl rings, each representing something special: the first, the repeat, the new coach.
If he gets another this season, it might mean more to him than all the others combined.
While every NFL team wants to win the title every year, to Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, there's more at stake this season.
It starts with the wait since the last championship, 15 years and counting, the longest drought the franchise's storied history. As owner and general manager, Jones has been blamed for letting his ego get in the way, from firing Jimmy Johnson after back-to-back titles to refusing to hire a "football guy" to run the front office. But now he's steered them back on course.
The Cowboys have won the division twice in three years under Wade Phillips and have a roster filled with guys in their prime, like Tony Romo and Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware and Jay Ratliff. Sure, Bill Parcells brought in those players, but he's been gone long enough to be a footnote if Dallas wins in February; plus, you can almost see Jones smiling, winking and pointing out who hired Parcells.
Then there's the big reason this is a big year.
The Super Bowl is coming to Cowboys Stadium, the $1.2 billion palace Jones built basically because he could. No team has played a Super Bowl in its home stadium, and for this team to play the game in this stadium — well, it's almost too much to process, even for a dreamer like Jones.
"I will make a deal with whoever is listening: If we win, it'll be the (Super Bowl) ring I wear," Jones said, laughing during a recent interview with The Associated Press. "I joke that before the last one, I said, 'If you'll just let this one happen, I'll never ask again for anything of this nature.' And we got it. So I've been trying to figure out how to make another deal all these years since."
Jones won three titles in his first seven years in the league. It's an incredible feat under any circumstance, but especially his.
An Arkansas oil man, he sold practically everything he had to buy a sinking organization. His first move was firing Tom Landry and replacing him with a former college teammate who'd never worked in the NFL. OK, so that guy was Johnson and Troy Aikman was there for the taking with their first draft pick. The Cowboys went 1-15 that season, which many figured would be typical under their unusual new regime.
Jones had the last laugh when Dallas won the Super Bowl following the 1992 season. And again after the '93 season, when he refused Emmitt Smith's contract demands until the club lost its first two games and a frustrated Charles Haley put a helmet through a wall. Jones had an extra dose of satisfaction after the '95 season, when he won with another coach — Barry Switzer, who'd been an assistant coach when Jones and Johnson were in college and had been Johnson's rival as a college coach.
The years since have been agonizing for Jones. There were seasons doomed from the start because of salary cap woes. Other years provided false hope.
"You could've owned a nice piece of this team betting me that it would be that long before we had (another) Super Bowl team," he said.
A breakthrough came last season. The Cowboys won a playoff game for the first time since 1996.
Although they were eliminated the next week — "Such a lost opportunity, as healthy as we were," Jones still regrets — that taste of postseason success provided something solid to support the owner's infectious optimism about the upcoming season. Dallas fans have been happy to catch the fever.
"I would have to say right now there's more anticipation and joy in thinking what we had ahead of us this year than at any time since I've owned the Cowboys," Jones said.
Part of it is the minimal turnover of the roster and coaching staff. However, there also are plenty of obstacles. The offense has struggled all preseason. Injuries are already mounting. There's also a schedule that Jones says "will sober you up quick" — road trips to Minnesota and Green Bay and consecutive, late-season games against last year's Super Bowl teams (New Orleans at home on Thanksgiving, then at Indianapolis).
Still, there's a quiet confidence in the locker room indicating this club is embracing those high expectations. Unlike the in-your-face swagger of the 1990s Cowboys, these guys don't mention the Super Bowl. Their attitude is that they'd prefer others saying it for them.
The organization itself is happy to point out why this would be a great year for another Lombardi trophy.
The Cowboys are making a big deal out of this being their 50th anniversary season, wearing commemorative jersey patches and honoring former captains at every home game. Those patches would go from novelty to part of team lore if they wind up on a Super Bowl highlight reel. And you can be sure those old-timers will pass along words of wisdom when they visit the locker room.
There's also the unpopular reality that whichever team wins this Super Bowl could have a long reign because of the unsettled labor contract.
Worst-case scenario, there wouldn't be a Super Bowl in February 2012. It's no coincidence Jones landed the Super Bowl for this season and not the next one.
"I sure didn't want to wait, knowing what we had coming up," Jones said.
Jones certainly knows all about it.
As part of the executive committee for the league's management council, he's "directly involved in the strategies and decision-making," and has been for two previous rounds of labor talks. He's also part of the NFL broadcasting committee and chairman of the NFL Network committee.
"Every attempt will be made not to have a work stoppage," he said. "We have no way of knowing whether we will or not."
Jones also is quick to note that no matter what the new system looks like, "we're ready for it." In other words, there won't be a repeat of the harsh salary-cap payback for trying to squeeze out one more title run in the late 1990s.
The glory days of Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith seem like forever ago to Cowboys fans. In football terms, they were. The Triplets have been retired long enough to be reunited in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Smith's ceremony was just last month. It's possible Jones could get a gold blazer himself one day; he's been nominated before. And think about how much it means to the NFL that he's revived the prominence of "America's Team." You can even quantify it: Forbes magazine last week valued the club he bought for around $150 million as now being worth $1.8 billion, tops in the league and a team that got more valuable in a bad economy.
Weeks away from turning 68, Jones has few regrets and one wish — a fourth ring to cinch his legacy.
"I'm well aware," he said, "if you win a Super Bowl, or Super Bowls, that's an important part of how you're viewed in sports."
-- Jaime Aron
Two injured Cowboys workers settle with Jerry Jones
DALLAS (AP) — Companies controlled by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones have paid out about $10 million to the two employees seriously injured in the 2009 collapse of the team's practice facility, the attorney for the pair said Monday.
Attorney Frank Branson said the payments in cash and other benefits to team scout Rich Behm and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis totaled about $5 million each. The payments settle lawsuits the two brought against Cowboys Center Ltd. and Blue Star Development Co.; Cowboys Center owned the steel and fabric facility as well as the land on which it stood.
Behm was paralyzed from the waist down and DeCamillis suffered a broken vertebrae when the building collapsed in a wind storm on May 2, 2009. Both still work for the team, which wasn't sued.
Branson also disclosed that a previous settlement with the builder, Summit Structures LLC of Allentown, Pa., paid Behm $19.5 million and DeCamillis $4.5 million.
"Based on what these men and their families have been through, it would be hard for anybody to say there's too much money to give them," Branson said.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said the team had no comment.
Behm and DeCamillis filed identical lawsuits last August alleging gross negligence on the part of Summit and its Canadian parent, Cover-All Building Systems Inc. They added the Jones companies as defendants in March, making the claim that the entities knew, or should have known, that the facility had structural issues that made it hazardous.
Despite the allegations detailed in the lawsuits, the relationship between the two Cowboys employees and the team has remained positive, Branson said.
"The Cowboys have been supportive of Rich and Joe from Day One, and Rich and Joe have remained supportive of the Cowboys," he said.
A lawsuit filed by the Cowboys alleging professional malpractice, fraud and misrepresentation by Summit and Cover-All is still pending in federal court.
Cover-All is in receivership after filing for protection under Canadian bankruptcy laws in March. The company later issued a safety warning saying it had reason to believe that some of its buildings may not meet building codes for wind and snow.
In a report released last October, the National Institute of Standards and Technology said the Cowboys' facility collapsed in winds of 55 mph to 65 mph, far less than the 90 mph wind speed specified by engineering standards.
-- Danny Robbins
Cowboys release Hudgins, Sicko
IRVING (AP) — Wide receiver Terrell Hudgins and tight end Scott Sicko have been released by the Dallas Cowboys.
The move was announced Monday. Both players signed with the Cowboys as free agents following the 2010 draft.
The 6-foot-4, 251-pound Sicko created an Internet stir when, after going undrafted, he said he was turning down the NFL to continue his education at New Hampshire. Sicko later ended up with the Cowboys.
Hudgins played college ball for Elon.
Foster emerges as top back for Texans
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston running back Arian Foster wants to get one of his offensive linemen into the Pro Bowl. He certainly wouldn't turn down an invitation for himself.
Foster has emerged as Houston's top running back at training camp. That's a hopeful sign for a team that ranked 30th in the league in the category last season (92.2 yards per game).
Foster capped an impressive training camp with an 18-carry, 110-yard performance against Dallas on Saturday. He's secured the starting job heading into Thursday's preseason finale against Tampa Bay, a remarkable accomplishment after he went undrafted last spring and spent most of last season on Houston's practice squad.
The 6-foot-1, 227-pound Foster rushed for 2,964 yards in four seasons at Tennessee, second on the school's all-time list. He could've jumped to the NFL after his junior season, but opted to stay in school, a decision he now regrets.
The Vols went 5-7 in 2008, Foster rushed for only 570 yards and his draft stock slipped.
He was invited to play in the Senior Bowl after the season, but pulled a hamstring in the final practice before the game. Foster missed the NFL combine, and couldn't recover in time to impress scouts before the 2009 draft.
He spent the weekend of the draft in Arizona with family and friends, playing cards and golf while the teams made their picks. When he wasn't chosen, Foster virtually gave up hope he would ever play in the NFL.
"Initially, I was just distraught," he said. "As a little kid, you just want to get your name called. That's what you dream about. That didn't happen, so I basically thought that my career was over. I really didn't know anything about the undrafted free agent process. I thought I was done."
But teams did start calling, and the Texans saw enough potential to sign him.
"We saw a lot of talent in college," coach Gary Kubiak said. "There was some knocks (on him) coming out that were keeping him from being a drafted player. We took a chance on him, and we battled him last year with some of those knocks, and he's kind of grown up."
Kubiak encouraged the rookies before training camp began, but Foster's new teammates weren't so supportive in the locker room.
"When I first starting coming in here, you could feel the looks like, 'Oh, he's going to be gone.'" Foster said. "You could just feel it. They might not mean it intentionally, but they say it with their eyes. You could see it, you could feel it."
Foster injured his other hamstring at camp, and was demoted to the practice squad. He tried to impress coaches with his work ethic throughout the season, but worried every day that he'd be cut by the following week.
"You're always doubting because on the practice squad, it's like you're expendable, very expendable," he said. "If they need somebody, and they need room, you're the first to go. That's hard living like that. It's tough, but you try to make it so they don't want to let you go."
While Foster quietly worked, Houston unsuccessfully searched for a dependable running back. Ryan Moats and Chris Brown fizzled, and Steve Slaton, who led all rookie rushers in 2008, fumbled too much the next year and missed the last five games with a neck injury.
The Texans finally turned to Foster, who ran for 218 yards in Houston's final two games, both victories.
"When the opportunity came," he said, "I made the most of it."
Foster concedes that he's got something to prove to every team that snubbed him in last year's draft. Undrafted free agents rarely make it in the NFL, but Foster is proud to live up to the tattoo on his left biceps that reads, "Against All Odds."
"I've been told that I shouldn't accomplish anything that I have in my life," he said. "I wasn't supposed to go to college, I wasn't supposed to play on varsity in high school. I definitely wasn't supposed to go to the NFL, I definitely wasn't supposed to start.
"I wasn't supposed to make any noise," he said. "Now, it's that I'm not going to play for very long. I like hurdles, man. They define you."
Notes: The Texans placed rookies Trindon Holliday (thumb) and Ben Tate (ankle) on injured reserve, expected moves that reduce their roster to 75 players. ... K Kris Brown sat out Monday's practice with a foot problem (plantar fasciitis). Kubiak said Brown will return on Tuesday. ... LB Xavier Adibi was back at practice on Monday after sitting out most of training camp with a groin injury.
-- Chris Duncan
