Posted by
Catmman on Thursday, July 30, 2009 2:49:53 PM
Attended the morning session of the Cowboys Training Camp today. Arrived at the Alamodome about 0740. Took my place in the "True Blue" Fan Club 'early opening' line. They opened the doors right about 0750.
Took a place in the endzone seating, initially second row from the front.. Figured his would be a good place to be in a position to get autographs when the practice was over. A couple in the front row, right in front of me, were picked to receive VIP passes to get field access, so their front row seats came open. Me and another guy jumped on them post haste. Now settled in the first row, things were looking pretty good.
The players filed out slowly. They were suited out in full pads today. Got some good shots of Nick Folk (#6, Kicker) warming up and doing some practice kicks. The practice started out light, mostly with special teams running through some drills. Also saw the punter Mat McBriar put up some punts. The punts looked good, nice hang time, good distance. Hopefully he's fully recovered from injuring his foot last season.
The only negative was when the team started running through their 'mini-scrimmage'. The players who weren't playing were blocking the view of the action, so those of us seated in the end zone couldn't really see much. Sitting on the fifty yard line would have been ideal to really see the run throughs.
Until the scrimmage there was really no contact, meaning the players weren't hitting each other much. During the scrimmage though, there were a few good licks but nothing major. Of course this is traning camp, so there won't be much if any really good hitting. Too much money being spent dontcha know for players to start kicking the crap our of each other in training camp.
The offense did a majority of their drills on my end of the field which was nice. Good looks at the 'Boys from where I was seated.
Marion Barber looks lean. He looks like he may have picked up a few steps on the speed, which is good. It looks like his breakaway speed is better than I've ever seen it which is another good thing. Didn't see any deep balls from Romo or any of the other quarterbacks today, though there were a few deep balls tossed yesterday. The rookie QB's Carpenter and McGee look like they've got pretty good arms, but I don't know much about them beyond that at this time. No deep drills from the offense today.
The defense was practicing at the other end of the field, so I didn't see any of what they did today.
Not to many players took the time for autographs at the end of the practice today, though I did get Miles Austin's autograph, which is nice!
Not going to the afternoon practice today. I'll be heading out for the practice tomorrow afternooon and all of us (the family) will head down, probably for both practices and to spend some time downtown on Saturday.