Cowboys Corner

Bradie goes pink

Inside linebacker Bradie James is planning on wearing pink cleats and pink gloves this week. He’ll also have a pink captain’s patch, as will the other team captains, and towel off with pink Gatorade towels. It’s part of the NFL’s “Crucial Catch” campaign, aimed at getting women over 40 to get mammograms each year.

 

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the Cowboys will host their Breast Cancer Awareness game on Oct. 25 against Atlanta.

 

James’ Foundation56 is dedicated to breast cancer awareness. His mother, Etta, died from breast cancer while he was in college.

 

“It’s definitely special for me,” James said of breast cancer awareness month. “I have a passion for it, because my mom lost her battle with breast cancer. It’s good that we can do some things. I’m happy that the league is picking up on breast cancer awareness month. We’re going to go out and honor all the survivors and all the people who have lost their battle and just promote awareness.”

 

-- Charean Williams

 

A rookie set to return

The beaten-up Cowboys rookie class has a player back on the field. Inside linebacker Jason Williams returned to practice Wednesday and made it through the whole thing. He could get some playing time Sunday at Denver on special teams.

Williams suffered a high ankle sprain in the third preseason game against the 49ers. He was expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

"He's come back a lot sooner from the high ankle sprain than we thought he would and did pretty well today," Phillips said.

Jeff Caplan

Ware has neck strain

But don't worry, DeMarcus Ware won't miss Sunday's game at Denver. He actually sustained the injury in the second quarter against Carolina and stayed in the game. He participated in the full practice Wednesday.

That's twice in three games that Ware has taken a blow to the neck/head area. He was knocked woozy early on in the season opener at Tampa Bay. He missed just one series.

Jeff Caplan

Barber practices; Felix sits out

Marion Barber practiced Wednesday in a limited capacity, coach Wade Phillips noted, but Barber was able to do more than last week.

Phillips wouldn't commit to saying that Barber will play, but he did say he's optimistic, so it does seem rather promising that he will give it a go. Phillips said Barber felt as if he could have played Monday against Carolina.

Felix Jones did not practice with a posterior cruciate ligament strain, and his availability for Sunday is highly doubtful.

Jeff Caplan

Bradie James: "I think we don't need to be sexy anymore"

Linebacker Bradie James wants the Cowboys defense to just go out there and play physical, hard-nosed, straight-up defense. Forget about the fancy stuff, he says. Well, he said it like this:

 

"I think we don’t need to be sexy anymore. I think we just need to go out there and get ugly wins. I’ll take these ugly wins. The sexiness and trying to make big plays and all the gambling that we do, we don’t need to do that defensively. I think this team just needs to go out there and just play ball. It doesn’t have to be glamorous, just go out there and get a win and then we’ll take it and we’ll move forward. There’s no need to bring sexy back, just go out there and win and play hard."

 

I'm not sure if James is indicting Wade Phillips' scheme as being overly involved with gimmicks or not. In the opener at Tampa, the Cowboys got burned in the first half while trying to stunt and run blitz, and actually outschemed itself. At halftime, James and fellow inside linebacker Keith Brooking went to Phillips and told him they needed to go to their base defense. Which they did and had more success.

 

Jeff Caplan

Jenkins beats out Scandrick as starter

Orlando Scandrick announced that Mike Jenkins will start Sunday against the Broncos. It was supposed to be Scandrick's turn to start in the co-starter rotation set up by Wade Phillips before the season. But, a combination of Scandrick's tough game against the Giants and Jenkins' better play against Carolina, including an interception, had the coaching staff re-thinking the starting job.

"As of right now, they named me the starter for the week," Jenkins said, "and I’m just going to keep doing what I was doing, keep my same mentality and go out there and play."

Jenkins' prize is covering his Florida pal Brandon Marshall and another solid receiver in Eddie Royal.

Scandrick, as he typically does, stood front and center, made no excuses and vowed to improve and earn his shot at starting again.

"I didn’t play as well as I wanted to when I got my opportunity," Scandrick said. "The NFL is all about timing and opportunity, so I’m going to have to wait my turn now."

Jeff Caplan

Felix, Barber uncertain

Felix Jones was in good spirits Wednesday morning. He had a few brief words for the media and said that it is a possibility that he could be out through the bye week with the strained PCL in his knee.

Obviously, it looks extremely doubtful that he'll play this week at Denver. The Cowboys play at Kansas City the following Sunday before heading into the bye week.

As for Marion Barber, he typically avoided the media like the plague we must be. To his surprise he passed a group of writers on his way to meetings and before a word could be uttered, he broke into a slight run and motored down the hallway. Will he play Sunday? Maybe.

Jeff Caplan 

Flozell up to old tricks -- er, trips

To follow up on Charean's prior blog post about potential fines coming down, it looks like a Giants fan has way too much time on his hands. On the other hand, by spotting the latest Flozell Adams infraction and posting it for the whole wide world to see, he might have helped the league make it three fines in three games on big Flo, quite a run to start the season.

Flozell, fined last week for leg whipping Justin Tuck, did it again Monday night against Julius Peppers. The nifty, yet illegal and dangerous, little move went undetected by the refs, but it didn't sneak past the attentive eyes of this Giants fan.

Jeff Caplan

Fines?

There are two possible fines this week: Flozell Adams for tripping Julius Peppers. He was not penalized on the play. He was fined each of the first two weeks -- $5,000 for a shot to the head of a Bucs cornerback and $12,500 for two illegal tripping plays in the Giants game. He has four penalties this season, for two of which he has been fined. Felix Jones was penalized 15 yards for a leg whip on Quinton Teal.

-- Charean Williams

Felix has durability problem

The Cowboys obviously made the right decision to select Felix Jones over Rashard Mendenhall last year. But we now are seeing why Jones wasn't rated over Mendenhall. He isn't an every-down back, and the Cowboys are going to have to limit his touches probably the rest of his career. 

Jones has played in only nine games in his two seasons and has had only 78 touches, including kickoff returns. Yet, he had hamstring and toe injuries last season, landing on injured reserve, and he has had quadriceps and knee injuries this season. He is expected to miss Sunday's game at Denver with his PCL sprain.

I asked Wade Phillips if there is a concern about Jones' durability.

"He has had some [injuries], but he had no problems in college [at Arkansas] that I know of," Phillips said. "We have had different players who sometimes get banged up, and later on have no problems. He didn't come with a history of it certainly. [Isaiah] Stanback, even in college, had a lot of injuries and then when he got here, he had a lot of injuries. That has not been the case with Felix."

-- Charean Williams