OXNARD (105.3 The Fan) - Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett is not into calling out individual players in public. But he's begun the week by calling out his team as a whole after 10 days of work, including Sunday's Blue-White Scrimmage, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was asked to evaluate his team's performance.
"We're way far off as a team,'' Garrett said. "We're not even close.''
Maybe this is about a collective kick in the but as the Cowboys gear up for Saturday's preseason opener against the San Francisco 49ers.
Or maybe this is a true evaluation of some ups and downs that have occurred, from QB Dak Prescott and elsewhere.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's because a handful of the best players on this roster are in some sort of availability limbo. DeMarcus Lawrence and Byron Jones are both on PUP for a time. Tyrone Crawford is on short-term PUP. Sean Lee is watching from the sideline for a while. Zack Martin is watching from the sideline for a while. Amari Cooper didn't play in the Blue-White and didn't practice on Tuesday. Robert Quinn sustained a hand fracture on Tuesday and will miss a month.
Oh, and the leading candidate to be the team MVP, two-time rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott, is a contract holdout and was last seen riding an ATV alongside a beach in Cabo.
That's a lot of impactful talent that, if active, might get Dallas "closer'' to the Super Bowl contender it fancies itself as being.
" I thought there were some flashes on both sides of the ball and the kicking game, flashing in each of the three units,'' Garrett said of the Blue-White. "But we're not even close. Back to work. This is an important three-day stretch for us now."
The three days can certainly be spent readying the players who are mostly likely to play against the Niners. Cooper Rush is winning the backup QB battle over Mike White. They can continue to joust. Rookie Tony Pollard was the first-team running back on Tuesday. There is plenty of room for young defensive linemen like Dorance Armstrong, Daniel Wise, Joe Jackson and top pick Trysten Hill to shine and plenty of room for kid receivers like Reggie Davis, Jalen Guyton and Jon'Vea Johnson to make roster bids.
"The consistency you need with players, with units, throughout practice, young guys, how we communicate, we're just a long way off,'' Garrett said before backing down a bid, conceding that maybe the struggles are to be expected.
"I don't think it's unique,'' he said. "Six real practices into training camp, that's where teams are. ... It's incumbent on us to clean it up as coaches and get back here the next three days and really take the next step as a football team. ... We're not close.''
