10 takeaways from Cowboys 17-7 loss to Broncos in preseason opener

Dak Prescott. Micah Parsons. Zack Martin. CeeDee Lamb. Trevon Diggs. DeMarcus Lawrence. Ezekiel Elliott. Tony Pollard. Anthony Brown. Jourdan Lewis. Dalton Schultz. Jayron Kearse. Malik Hooker. Leighton Vander Esch. Dorance Armstrong. All of these players sat. Barely that happened in the Dallas Cowboys’ preseason opener against the Denver Broncos on Saturday night could be considered an indicator for how the regular season will look.

Thank goodness for that, because it was all bad for the club in a stinker of a performance. The Cowboys picked up where they left off in 2021, committing a mountain of penalties that stymied offensive drives and continued opposing ones. The Broncos, playing the same number of backups as Dallas, were able to capitalize on those opportunities and held on to a 17-0 halftime lead to send the Cowboys back to the Pacific Coast 17-7 losers in their opener.

Here’s 10 notes from the game.

QB Will Grier didn’t play but his case for QB2 improved

The Cowboys got the ball to start the game, but didn’t do much with it thanks to some errant passes from Cooper Rush. Locked in a battle to be Dak Prescott’s backup, Rush missed a wide open Jalen Tolbert on the first third down. On the second series Rush was almost pick-6’d and then made an overthrow on third down again.

On their third drive, Rush did connect with Dennis Houston on a 3rd-and-12 for a conversion, which may have settled him down. Or not, as the Cowboys went for it on 4th-and-2 instead of trying a 55-yard field goal (with shaky kickers who need to prove themselves) and Rush threw a pick.

Rush finished his day after one drive in the third quarter. He was 12 fo 20 for 84 yards and the one interception with a 48.8 passer rating.

Ben DiNucci, who is seen as a camp arm trying to hold onto a career at this point, came in and the offense looked much better. He led the only scoring drive, a touchdown pass to Simi Fehoko.

Tyler Smith starts off his pro career

All eyes are on the Cowboys’ first-round pick Tyler Smith, who got the starting nod at left guard while his camp competition Connor McGovern went in at right guard while Zack Martin took the game off.

Smith had great push on a rush on 2nd down, moving the Broncos’ D-lineman into the second level. On the next play, he wrestled his man to the ground in pass protection.

Cowboys DL getting great push

Both…