untung99.biz: Cowboys vs Jaguars 5 thoughts on Deuce Vaughn Mazi Smith Brandon Aubrey and more

We are officially one third of the way through the preseason as the Dallas Cowboys “lost” the opener on Saturday afternoon to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Keeping track of wins and losses in the preseason is a foolish game, but tracking the playing of the game on Saturday is a wise investment. Dallas looked really good in certain respects, obviously a bit less in others, and it feels safe to say that they confirmed a lot of the priors that we have had about this team for the last few months.

Some times a good sleep on something helps to recalibrate what you saw, or thought you saw. Here’s a day after recap of the game, something we’ll be doing all year.

Here we go.

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The Deuce Vaughn phenomenon is a ton of fun and might very much be real

All told Deuce Vaughn carries the ball 8 times for 50 yards and one touchdown, with 26 of those yards coming in one fell swoop. But they were 8 magnificent carries.

Envisioning Vaughn running through the NFC East like he did the Big XII has always felt like something even the most optimistic Cowboys fan was afraid to let themselves believe was possible, but Saturday put all sorts of wind in those sails.

It certainly did not hurt Vaughn’s overall stock (read the whole stock report following the game here) that Malik Davis was underwhelming or that Rico Dowdle put the ball on the ground. The arrow is pointing very much in the upward direction for number 42.

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Eric Scott Jr. coming down to earth was inevitable

Gravity is 9.8 meters/second squared. This is a fact of life. Another fact within the force that is gravity is that it is inevitable. What goes up must come down and that means that rookie cornerback Eric Scott Jr. was due for a down sort of performance.

From the moment that Dallas traded up for Scott Jr. there has been nothing but hype around him. He got work with the first team during minicamp periods and has impressed just about everyone through training camp so far (not to mention that he had the first interception of camp, even if it came off of a tipped pass).

Hopefully his performance on Saturday (which was not good if none of this is obvious) was just him acclimating to the professional level and it all serves as a learning opportunity. There is data, however loose, to justify this theory.

The Cowboys are fortunate to have some very solid cornerback depth but if Scott does not turn into the next DaRon Bland (a high bar to clear) they may have to re-think who they carry at the bottom of the depth chart.

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We discussed everything that happened on Saturday afternoon on The Postgame on the Blogging The Boys podcast network. You can watch The Postgame following every Dallas Cowboys game as it streams live on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe to the BTB YouTube Channel right here.

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There seems to be some division on how Mazi Smith played

In the aforementioned stock report, some kudos were given to the Cowboys first-round pick. Mazi Smith. Smith’s performance was not what the kids are calling “a deuce” but it got better as the game wore on.

To this point in camp it feels like we have been wandering through a minefield of Smiththoughts and/or takes. He has not popped or had an amazing highlight and with a first-round label on him that has led to some impatience.

Let’s all just take a breath. he will be fine.

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No kicker is going to be perfect, ever

Maybe it’s just feeling the general optimism associated with this time of year, but I was not outraged that Brandon Aubrey missed an extra point on Saturday.

Now, maybe this is actually because of a growing numbness to the Cowboys having their fair share of kicking woes, who knows. But he batted .750 on the night by making his other kicks, including the lone field goal attempt that he had.

A justifiable stance on Aubrey is relatively the same, be skeptical in general, but we have seen him attempt four kicks that were not at the River Ridge in Oxnard and he made most of them. This isn’t settling for less or being too generous or anything like that. He has had one kicking session (that we have seen) on an NFL field. Let’s go another round.

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It felt like nobody “lost” a roster spot

There are a handful of players around their third or fourth year of service with the Cowboys that plenty of us had effectively written off any future 53-man roster prediction. We all know the names.

Did anybody really lose one on Saturday in your opinion? It’s hard to say yes. The likes of Simi Fehoko and Kelvin Joseph both had nice moments and while that in and of itself is hardly enough to lock them in, it feels like everyone in this sort of box did their job with regards to holding the line.

Truth be told roster spots (in terms of deep down the depth chart) are more earned on the practice field than through the three preseason contests, but obviously these games matter. Perhaps somebody will have a whoopsie or two against the Seattle Seahawks or Las Vegas Raiders that will make cutting ties all the more easy, but that day was not on Saturday against the Jaguars.