Cowboys at Rams day after thoughts: It is okay that Trey Lance did not light it up

We have all had an opportunity to sleep on Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys game (if you haven’t then… my goodness) and sometimes doing this can offer a different perspective than we initially had. Marinating is good for the soul.

Something new here on the blog this season will be my column offering a handful of thoughts “the day after” each Cowboys contest. These may wind up coming out two days after the game just due to the scheduling of all of the fantastic work of our staff here, but they will always be written the day after each game is complete.

The purpose of this exercise is to see how we may feel now that the initial moment of the game’s passion has left us. Opinions can change after enough time to digest has passed. For comparison’s sake, my initial thoughts on the game are in the stock report that can be accessed here. There is also a video version of this exercise that will be linked to a bit further down.

Let’s begin.

It is okay that Trey Lance was not amazing

A very good friend of mine in Rob “Stats” Guerrera covers the San Francisco 49ers for the Gold Standard Network. I remember vividly the wars that he fought in the name of Trey Lance and about Trey Lance and in the aftermath of Trey Lance throughout everything that the Niners went through in that era.

He messaged me on Monday after browsing through some Cowboys-related content and asked if I found it to be amazing how polarizing Lance is as a player. Cards on the table I told him that we are sort of used to that around here what with, oh I don’t know, literally everything associated with the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, whoever that is at any given moment in time.

It is true that Lance is polarizing and has his fans and that his poor performance on Sunday seems to have caused waves in the ocean we were all anxious to finally explore; however, there is no need to panic or freak out or make any wide-sweeping assumptions about him one way or another.

Like Lance, Dak Prescott is obviously a polarizing player in terms of how people view and discuss him. We needn’t project the feelings or emotions or analysis of one situation onto another. The reality of the situation with Lance is that he showed a handful of moments worth exploring on Sunday but that he still appears to be extremely raw as a quarterback looking to play in the NFL. That is okay and can be the end of it.

With two preseason games left to go it is possible that Lance turns a corner and looks amazing or that he simply does not have whatever “it” is at this level. Again, there is no need to rush to judgment.

The preseason is all about taking things one step at a time and we should offer that idea to everybody involved, including ourselves when it comes to talking about it.

Markquese Bell may have found a new/old home

I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical (more in an interested way) to see what Markquese Bell would look like. Flipping players back and forth has not necessarily shown to be a great idea with regards to Dallas Cowboys defenders (see Byron Jones or Tyrone Crawford for examples in recent memory if you need to).

Obviously Bell had played safety before so this isn’t a totally new thing for him, but wow he looks like a player with such purpose in Mike Zimmer’s defense. The sample size is small (you can say this about anything right now) and there are other safety options on the team that stand out in Donovan Wilson and Malik Hooker, but it feels like Bell needs an important role on this team.

Learning in the middle of the defense how to (and how not to) play and defend the run is likely something that Bell has carried further back in the unit. Perhaps the Cowboys cracked the code a little bit here and have a player who can do some versatile things for them.

It feels like nothing really massive happened which is normal

As noted in our Bell discussion, the sample size everywhere is small. It barely exists. It is literally just enough to constitute being defined as a sample size.

If you were looking to come out of this game with a massive takeaway one way or another then you may not have been living in proper reality.

Today’s day and age is such that the preseason is more ceremonial than anything. The games obviously matter to a certain degree, but they matter so little in the grand scheme of things that defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer reportedly called the game without a play sheet.

Dallas will hold another joint practice with the Rams this week which will serve as a larger opportunity to come away with legitimate takeaways. But given the low-level attention surrounding the practice compared to a game, that is exactly the way coaches want it this time of year. They are working very hard to keep how hard they are working close to the vest.

The preseason matters. But it kind of doesn’t. And that is okay.