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IRVING, Texas -- A few weeks ago, defensive tackle Jason Hatcher challenged his teammates to stop the roller coaster the Cowboys have been on the past few years.

The team hasn't won consecutive games since a three-game win streak last December. The Cowboys (2-2) are currently in first place in the NFC East, but in some ways it doesn't feel like it given the 0-2 mark on the road.

Cornerback Brandon Carr said the team can't find a way to get off the roller coaster.

"You want to be consistent that’s the whole thing," Carr said Monday, the day after the Cowboys' 30-21 loss to the San Diego Chargers. "I get tired of saying it, the whole roller coaster thing, it’s real and we still haven’t found an answer to it. But all you can do is come to work each day and prepare and get ready for the next opponent we're going to face."

Carr called the loss to the Chargers humbling and said the defense was embarrassed. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers threw for 401 yards with three touchdown passes. The Chargers offense kept the Cowboys' defense on the field for the bulk of the third quarter. The Cowboys' had seven offensive snaps in the third quarter as Rivers and the Chargers scored 20 unanswered points.

"It makes your stomach hurt," Carr said. "It gets your emotions and everything into it, it's just not a good feeling. We have too many good ballplayers, good coaches, just overall a good program, a good organization and we should be winning these games. It's tough to win on the road, but the good teams get the job done and we have to find a way to look within ourselves and get the job done."

ARLINGTON, Texas – When is the last time the Dallas Cowboys’ defense played this well?

“I can’t recall when I’ve seen us play better. Ever,” owner/general manager Jerry Jones said.

Gotta love some of that good ol’ Jerry hyperbole, huh?

It’s not like Jerry had to go all the way back to the '90s glory days to recall a time when Dallas played pretty darn good defense. How about the last time the Cowboys made the playoffs?

Then again, the 2009 season does seem like so long ago. That’s when the Cowboys closed out the regular season with the first consecutive shutouts in franchise history, clinching the NFC East division. Dallas allowed the second-fewest points in the league that season.

Not coincidentally, the Cowboys’ lone playoff win since 1996 came in 2009.

This might not be the best defense during the owner’s 25-year tenure, but the Cowboys have legitimate reasons to be confident that they have a playoff-caliber defense again.

Monte Kiffin's unit gave up a lot of yards in Week 1, but the defense forced five turnovers and keyed the Cowboys’ win over the Giants. The Cowboys held Kansas City to 17 points and 313 total yards in a losing effort in Week 2. And the defense was dominant in Sunday’s rout of the St. Louis Rams, holding Sam Bradford’s bunch to 232 total yards and seven points.

The Rams’ offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack in the first two games, couldn’t block the Cowboys. Dallas had six sacks, including two by DeMarcus Ware. That had a lot to do with St. Louis’ inability to convert on third down (1-of-13).

“It’s just one more step to trying to get where we want to go,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “We’re still trying to establish our identity.

“Just across the board, we want to be that physical, aggressive, high-energy defense. Everybody swarming, everybody getting to the ball, guys in the right position to make plays, just flying around and having fun. This is Week 3. We still have some more progress to go, but this is a step in the right direction.”

Defensive tackle Jason Hatcher, who had a sack for the third straight game, added: “The sky’s the limit for this defense. We’ve just got to keep the bar high and work during the week.”

IRVING, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys' defenders showed up for work on Monday after beating the New York Giants 36-31 in the opener, they were not greeted with a lot of congratulations.

They did receive a quick congratulations on forcing five of the six takeaways, but defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin pointed to the six pass plays of more than 20 yards they allowed, including four in the fourth quarter.

In the past, the deficiencies might not have been talked about as much.

“To me, I feel like winning brings them out, because they look at where, ‘Yeah, you got a win, but what did they do wrong?’” DeMarcus Ware said. “That’s what we really harped on this week on some of the big plays that we gave up. We didn’t really talk about how many turnovers we had or how much pressure we got. We talked about the big plays that we gave up, and we can’t play that type of defense.”

The Cowboys are not only learning what they can do in Kiffin’s scheme, but also what they can’t do.

“Definitely the big plays, we need to eliminate,” linebacker Bruce Carter said. “We’ve got to get that communication-wise with the secondary and just make sure everybody is on the same page.”

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has just one multiple-interception game in his last 31 starts. He might not have the variety of weapons Eli Manning has in New York, but he has Dwayne Bowe and Donnie Avery, who can beat the Cowboys on slants the way the Giants did.

“We feel like we’re not going to get beat with slants and it’s up to us to get up there,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “If they get a slant that’s fine, make the tackle, eliminate the big play and that’s something that we control. We control our own effort out here, ‘OK they caught the slant, but we make a tackle and it’s a 5-yard gain as opposed to a 15-, 20-yard gain, a big breakout play.’ But like I said, there’s things we can tweak. We’re still learning as we go right now. This is our first year in the system and this is essentially game No. 6 that we’ve been playing against pretty much live bullets.”

IRVING, Texas – As Todd Haley walked to his car outside Arrowhead Stadium on Oct. 11, 2009, he kept saying the same thing.

“I told them all about Miles,” Haley said.

Haley was in his first year as Kansas City’s head coach, with an earlier three-season stint with the Dallas Cowboys, where his tenure overlapped with Austin's.

Austin finished that 2009 contest with 10 catches for 250 yards and two touchdowns, including the 60-yard game-winner in overtime as the Cowboys dropped Haley’s Chiefs to 0-5.

“(Haley) talked about him all week as far as a guy with an incredible motor and a work ethic like none other,” said Brandon Carr, Austin’s current teammate and a starting cornerback for the Chiefs that day. “He came and showed up and validated everything that coach told us that week and put on a good show.”

Carr wasn’t the only current Cowboy on the Chiefs’ roster that day. Brian Waters was Kansas City’s left guard.

“We just had this conversation (Wednesday),” Waters said. “I told him, ‘We didn’t know who you were.’ We were all looking at each other like, ‘Who in the world is 19?’”

Forgive Waters, because he was not in the defensive meetings; now, he said he hopes Austin “has that type of day again. I hope I’m on the right side of that this time.”

Said Carr, “Miles got his name from 2009, that performance. We heard a lot about him going into that week. He showed up and took over the game. That’s those games that kind of spark players' careers, and that was a catalyst for him to get to where he is right now.”

IRVING, Texas – Miles Austin has two footballs in his house on display.

One is from his kickoff return for a touchdown against Seattle in the 2006 playoffs. The other is from his touchdown catch in overtime that beat Kansas City on Oct. 11, 2009.

At least he thinks it’s that football. It’s the one somebody gave him in the postgame haze.

“That would be pretty cool if it was,” Austin said. “It might be.”

Austin finished that game in Kansas City with 10 catches for 250 yards -- a Dallas Cowboys record -- and two touchdowns in the first start of his career. He started that day only because Roy Williams suffered bruised ribs the previous week.

On Sunday, Austin will return to Arrowhead Stadium for the first time since his introduction to the football world.

“People bring it up more than I think about it,” Austin said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing feeling. I felt like for me personally it was a great way to be able to start and make a splash for the first time offensively. But at the end of the day you realize that my job’s not to talk about what I’ve been doing but to continue to do my best. You kind of snap back into reality on the plane ride home.”

Except the amazing feeling didn’t really end when the Cowboys landed at home because they had a bye the next week.

“It might’ve lasted one or two extra days,” Austin said.

Jason Garrett called Austin’s game one of the best days he has had in football, Super Bowls included. Garrett’s father, Jim, a longtime Cowboys scout, got to know Austin when the receiver played at Monmouth University in New Jersey. He helped tutor him more than a few times. Austin was still a raw receiver when Jason Garrett arrived in 2007, but Garrett saw the potential.

It took time, in part because of injuries, but Austin exploded that day.

“When a guy like that who comes from where he comes from and goes about it the way he does has that kind of success when he gets his opportunity, to this day I still kind of feel the thing down the back of the back of my neck,” Garrett said. “It’s what this thing is all about. He goes about it the right way. He’s a pleasure to coach. It was a great day for him. It was a great day for our team.”

And it could have been better. A 22-yard touchdown pass was just out of his reach in the corner of the end zone in the first quarter, and another potential touchdown was poked away in the second quarter by Brandon Carr, who is now Austin's teammate in Dallas.

“I don’t want to call it nervousness, but I was anxious to play,” Austin said. “I didn’t play enough up to then to be completely comfortable with always going back to the huddle. … The fact that I was starting and at least in the starting two, there was a feeling that you’re always going to be back in there the next play. That was a little different.”

Austin nearly won the game with 2:16 left in regulation with a 59-yard touchdown catch and run that gave the Cowboys a 20-13 lead. But the Chiefs tied it with 24 seconds to play.

On the Cowboys’ second possession of overtime they faced a second-and-15 from their 40-yard line after a penalty. Austin caught another short pass and then outraced the defense to the end zone, looking up at the video board as he ran with a smile on his face.

“To be honest, I smile all the time when I run,” Austin said. “I’m just breathing out of my mouth. I look like this all the time. People say, ‘Man, you smile a lot.’ Nah, I just breathe out of my mouth all the time.”

He didn’t get tackled until he got to the end zone … by his own teammates.

“That was a good time,” Austin said.

Austin started the final nine games in 2009, and finished with 81 catches for 1,320 yards and 11 touchdowns to earn the first of his two Pro Bowl appearances. He became the first player to reach 250 receiving yards in his first start and the third with more than 200 with Anquan Boldin (217 in 2003) and Mark Duper (202 in 1983).

Austin followed up his performance in Kansas City two weeks later with six catches for 171 yards and two scores against Atlanta. He had three more 100-yard games that season and two others with at least 90 yards.

Before his breakout season, the only affirmation he received came from defenders like Terence Newman in practice.

“I mean, it’s not like you’re going to ask someone how you are,” Austin said, “It gave me confidence to work harder.”

But he doesn’t look at the Kansas City game as the day he proved he play.

“That thing, ‘I know I can play,’ that’s every week you have to prove you can play,” Austin said. “You have to prove yourself to your own teammates, to yourself, to the organization.”

Four years ago, Austin's great-uncle, his mother’s brother and sister and cousins were at the game, making the drive from Nebraska. On Sunday, his uncle and some cousins will be back in the stands.

“I’m not going to say it feels like yesterday,” said Austin, who has never watched a replay of the game, “but it doesn’t feel like it’s been crazy long either.”

IRVING, Texas -- If it’s Tuesday it’s time to wonder about some Dallas Cowboys-related topics.

In this week’s installment of Five Wonders, we wonder about the cornerback play after Sunday’s game, Phil Costa’s gameday future, and Anthony Spencer's involvement on defense.

And away we go:

1. I wonder when Anthony Spencer will be, you know, Anthony Spencer. He was encouraged by some of the running he did late last week, but the defensive end has not done much since July 25 knee surgery. Can the Cowboys realistically expect him to come in and play 60 snaps a game with limited practice time? To me, that’s asking too much. I wonder if they will work him in slowly in passing downs and allow George Selvie to take the run downs, setting up a three-man rotation at defensive end along with DeMarcus Ware. That would be the smart thing to do, especially if Selvie plays as well as he did against the Giants. I was skeptical of Selvie after his two-sack performance against Miami in the Hall of Fame Game, but I might have been wrr ….. wrr … wrong about him.

2. Worry is a word Jason Garrett abhors, but I wonder if at least some people worry about the cornerback play Sunday. The Giants had three receivers go for more than 100 yards, and Eli Manning had 450 yards passing. It was just too easy for Manning to throw slant after slant after slant to Hakeem Nicks or Rueben Randle or Victor Cruz regardless if Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne or Orlando Scandrick were in coverage. The Cowboys kept linebackers Sean Lee and Bruce Carter hugged to the A gap at the snap, and the cornerbacks gave free releases mostly at the line to allow easy completions. With some good, accurate passers coming (Peyton Manning and Denver in a month), the Cowboys will have to tighten that down or live with not just a bending defense, but an entirely too flexible defense that gives up too many big plays.

3. With Brian Waters getting more acclimated to the Cowboy Way, I wonder what happens to Phil Costa. Somewhat surprisingly, the Cowboys dressed eight offensive linemen on the 46-man roster Sunday, with David Arkin joining Costa and Jermey Parnell as the backups. The Cowboys normally like to keep seven linemen active to increase their flexibility in other spots. If they revert to that old form, then Costa would appear to be the odd man out (as well as Arkin) because Mackenzy Bernadeau can play center. The Cowboys would be covered in case of injury at any of the three interior spots, making Costa a little superfluous. But before you start wondering about a trade involving Costa to, say, Pittsburgh, who lost Maurkice Pouncey for the year, I would offer some hesitation that a strength today might be a weakness in the future. Costa is a low-cost insurance policy in case something was to happen to Bernadeau, Travis Frederick or any interior linemen.

4. The Cowboys ran 74 plays against the Giants. They ran that many in a game just four times last season and went 1-3, losing to Baltimore (79), the Giants (83) and Washington (75), and beating Cleveland (78). Much has been made about Chip Kelly’s offense in Philadelphia and how many plays he wants to run per week. I wonder if the Cowboys have a similar philosophy, but just haven’t told anybody. The more plays you run, the more the other team is off the field. The Cowboys had the added benefit of four takeaways by the defense that allowed them to run more snaps and hold the ball for 37:10. The Cowboys had only two games last season in which they held the ball for a longer amount of time (Baltimore, Cleveland).

5. I wonder if the Cowboys will get that conditional seventh-round pick from Chicago in next year’s draft. In order for it to happen, tight end Dante Rosario will have to be on the Bears’ 46-man gameday roster for eight games this season. Rosario was inactive in the Bears’ win against Cincinnati, but the Bears released Kyle Adams on Monday, which would seem to clear a spot for Rosario. A wonder inside the wonder when talking trade: I wonder if the Cowboys will have to fork over their seventh rounder in 2015 to Indianapolis for Caesar Rayford. For that to happen, Rayford will have to be on the Cowboys’ 53-man roster for five weeks. Rayford was inactive against the Giants and will need time, but pass-rushers are hard to find. If I’m a betting man (and I’m not, unless it’s for entertainment purposes only), then I think there is a better chance the Colts pick up that extra selection rather than the Cowboys getting that pick from the Bears.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Observed in the locker room after the Cowboys’ 36-31 win against the New York Giants:

Romo says he’s fine: Quarterback Tony Romo said he will have X-rays on Monday after taking a shot to his ribs before halftime by Justin Trattou and Mathias Kiwanuka. Romo completed 11 of 16 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown in the second half and admitted it took him time to get loose.

“You have to suck it up and go,” Romo said. “It’s part of playing football.”

Takeaways but a lot of yards: For the first time since Dec. 14, 2003, the Cowboys recorded six takeaways in a game. They blanked Washington 27-0 on that night but needed an interception return for a touchdown by Brandon Carr to seal Sunday's game. Eli Manning threw for 450 yards and had three 100-yard receivers on Sunday, but he was also intercepted three times to go with his four touchdown passes.

“We gave up a lot of yards,” linebacker Sean Lee said. “We have to improve that, but I thought we did a good job in a lot of ways."

Home, sweet home: Jerry Jones finally has a win against the Giants at his $1.2 billion stadium. The Cowboys were 0-4 against the Giants, with the defeats coming by a total of 16 points and in a variety of disappointing ways. Jones finally sold the naming rights to the stadium, which is now called AT&T Stadium, this summer.

“Well, I’m going to do whatever it takes to beat these Giants,” Jones said. “I changed the name of the stadium.”

ARLINGTON, Texas -- My thoughts on the Dallas Cowboys’ 36-31 win against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium:

What it means for Dallas: The Cowboys finally claimed a victory over the Giants in Arlington after losing the first four in the $1.2 billion stadium. Maybe all they needed was a name change to AT&T Stadium.

The Cowboys have now beaten the Giants in seven straight season openers, including the past two.

Sunday was another strange, thrilling game against their NFC East rivals despite six takeaways and two defensive touchdowns by the Cowboys. Dallas was unable to salt it away until linebacker Sean Lee recovered an onside kick with 10 seconds to play.

Safety Barry Church returned a fumble 27 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, and cornerback Brandon Carr picked off a deflected Eli Manning pass and returned it 49 yards for a touchdown with 1:50 to play to make it 36-24.

Stock watch: Tight end Jason Witten went over 9,000 career receiving yards, and he also caught two touchdown passes in a game for the first time since Dec. 12, 2010, against Philadelphia and only the third time in his career.

Taking it away: Monte Kiffin has preached takeaways since taking over as defensive coordinator, and there was no better way to start the season than how the Cowboys defense did in the first quarter.

On the first play, DeMarcus Ware recorded an interception for the first time since 2006 that set up a field goal. On the second drive, Church ripped the ball free from running back David Wilson at the Dallas 10 for a George Selvie fumble recovery. On the third drive, safety Will Allen had his first interception since 2005.

The Cowboys did not record three takeaways in any game last season and last had three in a quarter on Nov. 13, 2011, against Buffalo (fourth quarter).

About that running game: The Cowboys spent the offseason talking about running the ball more and running the ball better in 2013 after a horrid 2012.

It’s not that the Cowboys ran the ball poorly against the Giants; it’s just that they didn’t run it very much. In the first half, Romo threw the ball 33 times and the Cowboys had 12 rushes. For the game, the Cowboys ran it 23 times for 87 yards and DeMarco Murray had 86 yards on 20 carries, but they couldn’t close out the game on their own. Last season, the Cowboys had seven games in which they ran it more than 22 times.

What’s next: The Cowboys play at Kansas City next Sunday for the first time since 2009.

IRVING, Texas – Guard Brian Waters knew a few Dallas Cowboys before arriving this week.

He was a teammate of coach Jason Garrett’s briefly in 1999, when he was trying to make the team as a fullback/tight end out of North Texas. He knows Jason Witten and DeMarcus Ware from Pro Bowls and their work with the NFL Players Association.

He knows nobody better on the team than cornerback Brandon Carr.

They were teammates for three years in Kansas City, and as a fifth-round rookie out of Grand Valley State, Carr sought advice from Waters frequently.

“Just a great teammate,” Carr said. “More of an off-the-field mentor. He just taught me how to be a pro, how to conduct myself both on and off the field with things like that.”

Carr now tries to pay it forward the way Waters did with him.

“You see me in the locker room talking to young guys or trying to take young guys under my wing, it’s the same type of things that I was told when I came up,” Carr said.

Most significant move: After cutting Sterling Moore, the Cowboys have only four cornerbacks on their 53-man roster with Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick and rookie B.W. Webb.

Moore was a late-season pickup off New England’s practice squad last year and offered versatility with his ability to play in the slot. Webb struggled in two of the five preseason games, giving up two touchdowns in Thursday’s loss to Houston.

Claiborne did not play in any of the preseason games because of a sore knee, but he must be ready to play in the season opener against the New York Giants.

The roster is hardly settled and the Cowboys will likely have their eye on cornerbacks by other teams.

While there are a few surprise players on the 53-man roster, the biggest might be Nate Livings, last year’s starting left guard. He did not play in the preseason because of a second surgery on his right knee in six months and does not appear to be close to returning anytime soon.

The Cowboys faced a financial question on Livings because his $1.7 million base salary is fully guaranteed. Whether he is on the roster or not, he would count $2.4 million against the cap this year.

Even if he were healthy, Livings would not have been a lock to start again. The Cowboys are ready to go with Ronald Leary, who is also recovering from knee surgery and missed three preseason games.

Wait til next year: Safety Matt Johnson did not play in a game last year because of recurring hamstring injuries and was eventually placed on injured reserve in November. He was placed on injured reserve Saturday, ending his season because of a foot injury suffered in the Aug. 4 Hall of Fame Game against Miami.

The hope in the offseason was that Johnson could compete for a starting spot but he was felled again by injury.

While the Cowboys could not hold a roster spot for him for a second straight year, they did not want to give up on eventually getting something out of their 2012 fourth-round pick, so the injured reserve made the most sense.

Why didn’t the Cowboys put him on the returnable injured reserve list? He would have had to have spent one day on the active roster and then made the switch to IR. The roster spot was too valuable.

What’s next: Do not expect this to be the 53-man roster for the season opener against the Giants. The Cowboys will look at the waiver wire for upgrades to the bottom end of the roster.

Possible additions could come at the offensive and defensive lines, linebacker and cornerback. They have few experienced backups at defensive line and linebacker.

There are several players the Cowboys would like to get to the practice squad provided they clear waivers, like Alex Tanney, Jason Vega, Micah Pellerin and Brandon Magee.

Cowboys moves: QB: Alex Tanney; WR: Tim Benford, Danny Coale, Anthony Armstrong; RB: Kendial Lawrence; DB: Micah Pellerin, Xavier Brewer, Jakar Hamilton, Sterling Moore; LB: Brandon Magee, Caleb McSurdy, Cameron Lawwrence, Taylor Reed; DE: Thaddeus Gibson, Jabari Fletcher, Jerome Long, Jason Vega; OL: Ray Dominguez, Demetress Bell, Edawn Coughman, Kevin Kowalski; IR: S Matt Johnson

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Like they did prior to the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 4 against the Miami Dolphins, most of the Dallas Cowboys’ regulars are doing pre-game conditioning because they will not play in Thursday night’s preseason finale vs. Houston.

Tony Romo, DeMarco Murray, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Bruce Carter, Sean Lee, Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick, Justin Durant, Will Allen, Barry Church, Tyron Smith, Jason Hatcher, Nick Hayden, George Selvie, Doug Free and Travis Frederick ran a series of sprints two hours before kickoff before heading into the locker room.

Claiborne practiced Monday and Tuesday, but coaches decided it was better for him to not play a handful of snaps after missing three weeks with a jammed knee. Claiborne will enter the Sept. 8 season opener against the New York Giants without any preseason work.

Guard Ronald Leary, who is in contention to be the starting left guard, was also among the players running. He has yet to practice since undergoing surgery on his knee on Aug. 16.

Tackle Jermey Parnell was not spotted among the group of players running, which could be a sign he will start at right tackle. He has played in only one preseason game this summer and could be the opening-night right tackle.

IRVING, Texas -- On the physically unable to perform list for the first six weeks of the season, Jay Ratliff can play as many as 10 regular-season games or as few as five for the Cowboys this season, depending on his fitness in October.

Will they be his final regular-season games for the Cowboys?

The salary cap would seem to indicate it will be. Ratliff is scheduled to count $8.232 million against the cap in 2014. That’s a lot of money for a player who has been unable to play a full season since 2011 and whose sack total has decreased in each of the past five seasons.

Cutting Ratliff now would put only $6.928 million in dead money against the 2014 salary cap. Designating Ratliff a post-June 1 cut next year would create $5.5 million in space in 2014, but also leave nearly $4.2 million in dead money in 2015.

The best maneuver for the Cowboys would be to make a clean break. Take the full $6.928 million hit of bonus proration in 2014. A straight cut now would save the Cowboys $1.304 million in cap space next year.

More importantly, Ratliff would not be on the books in 2015.

Dez Bryant and Bruce Carter will be unrestricted free agents following the 2014 season. Tyron Smith could be locked into the fifth-year option of his rookie deal. The team must decide to use the option on Smith by next spring. That money is guaranteed by the first day of the 2015 league year. They have time to do a deal with Smith.

Bryant and Carter would be more pressing, and Bryant would seem to command megabucks if he has the type of 2013 season many anticipate.

By clearing Ratliff off the 2015 cap, the Cowboys would be able to structure these contracts in a more even way if they want. Or they could make the second-year base salaries high knowing they would restructure them anyway to create room, as they have done with Brandon Carr and Tony Romo, and not have to knock all those salaries down to the minimum and create larger cap numbers in the future.

The Cowboys have made this sort of quick-and-clean decision before. In 2009 they cut Terrell Owens and took a cap hit of nearly $9 million all in one season rather than spread it out over two. To a smaller degree, they did the same thing this offseason with safety Gerald Sensabaugh.

The clock is ticking on Ratliff for a variety of reasons. The salary-cap clock is always ticking for the Cowboys.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Cowboys’ starting defense didn’t allow a touchdown this preseason, but that’s not the statistic it's proudest of.

Turnovers were the hottest topic of discussion on the defensive side of the home locker room Saturday night at AT&T Stadium. That, of course, is a continuation of what we’ve heard at Valley Ranch and in Oxnard, Calif., and every other stop the Cowboys made this summer.

To this point, the players are following through on all the gum flapping. The Cowboys have forced nine turnovers in four preseason games, including three by the starters in a little less than four quarters of work.

The concept for trying to force turnovers is far from revolutionary. It’s been the primary emphasis since Jason Garrett took over as head coach midway through the 2010 season, and that’s not exactly unique in the NFL.

It just seemed like lip service last season, when Rob Ryan’s injury-ravaged defense forced only 16 turnovers, tied for the fourth fewest in the NFL. That’s what makes the mostly meaningless first four games under new (but old) defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin so encouraging.

“Every year, you say the same thing,” said safety Barry Church, who ripped the ball out of Bengals receiver Marvin Jones’ hands to halt a Cincinnati scoring threat in the first quarter. “But once you buy into the system, it works. It really does.’

It worked for Kiffin -- and his lieutenant, defensive line coach Rod Marinelli -- for years in Tampa. The Buccaneers ranked among the NFL’s top 10 in turnovers forced in six of Kiffin’s final nine seasons, including five top-10 finishes. With Marinelli as defensive coordinator, the Chicago Bears forced the most turnovers in the league last season after finishing third and fifth the previous two years under him.

The scheme helps, but this is much more about a mentality than any X’s and O’s adjustments.

“It’s all about getting the population to the ball, everyone swarming and trying to pick the ball up,” said cornerback Brandon Carr, who recovered the fumble forced by Church. “It’s all about effort. It’s the will to want to get the ball out.

“We have a good system in place. We have been working since OTAs trying to get the small details down and trying to get on the right page to get the chemistry down. At the end of the day, it comes down to the will to want to get the ball out. Do you want to take the ball away?”

Added linebacker Sean Lee, who forced a fumble on the starting defense’s first possession of the preseason: “It needs to be a habit.”

Owner/general manager Jerry Jones is quick to point out that the defense’s personnel should be upgraded for the Sept. 8 season opener, when defensive end Anthony Spencer and cornerback Morris Claiborne are expected to start after missing all of the preseason due to knee injuries. At some point this season, former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jay Ratliff might even be able to play.

Three starters down, the defense has looked the part in the preseason.

“We’ve just got to keep that up,” said defensive tackle Jason Hatcher, who scooped up the fumble he helped Lee force in Oakland. “We’ve got an explosive offense that had a heck of a night tonight. Why wouldn’t you want to go out there and take the ball away and give it to your offense? We keep honing in on that, we’re going to go far.”

So when the final votes were tallied on this #NFLRank project and we added them all up by category, these were the three teams that had the most players on the two lists combined:

1. San Francisco 49ers: 15 (27-9-1 record past two seasons, defending NFC champions)

2. Seattle Seahawks: 13 (12-6 last season including a first-round road playoff victory in Washington)

3. Dallas Cowboys: 10 (22-26 the past three seasons, no playoff appearances since January 2010)

Something seems off here, and it's not that we're overrating the 10 Cowboys who made the lists. The six who have been revealed so far -- Miles Austin, Tony Romo, Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Anthony Spencer and Jay Ratliff -- are all players of significant talent and/or accomplishment. If anything, you could argue that Romo (the 13th-ranked quarterback) and Austin (the 30th-ranked wide receiver) are underrated. And the four Cowboys yet to be revealed are, as you might expect, even better. You can almost certainly guess their names.

Rather, this list stands as the latest piece of evidence that the Cowboys are a team that is somehow less than the sum of its parts. They should be a better team than they have been in recent years, and the time to prove it is now. The 2013 Cowboys should win the NFC East and end the Dallas playoff drought, and if they don't, the world will have ample license to label them underachievers.

It's not hard to figure out how it's come to this. There are several very accessible excuses. For example, none of the 10 Cowboys who ended up in our rankings is an offensive lineman. This is no coincidence. The Cowboys have made a science of ignoring the offensive line in favor of splashy skill-position talent. They went 29 years without selecting an offensive lineman in the first round before finally taking tackle Tyron Smith with the ninth overall pick in 2011. They went offensive line again this year in the first round with center Travis Frederick. In the meantime, they have brought in and increased the power of offensive coordinator Bill Callahan, whose pedigree is as an offensive line coach. Finally, the Dallas front office seems to understand the need to prioritize the line so as not to squander the talent of Romo and his weapons. But there are years worth of neglect to overcome and holes that remain to be filled.

There is the issue of health. Several of the great Cowboys players on these lists have had trouble keeping themselves on the field the past few years. Ratliff stands as an obvious example, and there are others. I'm not saying these guys are or aren't on the list of players yet to be revealed, but players such as running back DeMarco Murray and linebacker Sean Lee are young leaders whom the Cowboys are counting on both now and in the future. The players who are to be the foundational building blocks have to find ways to keep themselves healthy if the team is going to play to its potential.

And there's Romo, of course, who's the franchise quarterback in Dallas now more than ever. The massive contract extension he signed this offseason, along with his own increased role in the game-week and game-day design of the offense, mean there's even more pressure on him now than there's ever been before. For all of his brilliance, there have been too many times when he's let the Cowboys down -- most recently the three-interception performance against Washington in the Week 17 game that decided last year's division title.

There's blame to go around. Add owner Jerry Jones' poor drafting and coach Jason Garrett's shaky play calling to the list if you want. Dumping the Cowboys' befuddling failures on one person or one group would be unfair. In the end, though, the facts are these: There are a lot of very good players on the Cowboys, on both sides of the ball. Yet they have played three full seasons now since the last time they finished over .500.

It's time now to stop the underachieving. The NFC East is eminently winnable. Robert Griffin III's health is in question in Washington, as is the defense. The Giants gave up more yards last year than all but one other team in the league. The Eagles are rebuilding under a new coach, implementing changes that will take time and likely delay their return to consistent contention. The Cowboys and all of their #NFLRank-ed players should look at this division, which they were one game from winning in each of the past two seasons, as theirs to claim. It's time to move past the problems that have held them back and find a way to win that deciding game for a change. If they don't do it -- and I mean this year -- they're going to look back someday and shake their heads at all of the talent they squandered in its prime.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys’ starters will play more Saturday than in any of the four other preseason games, and Jason Garrett knows what to expect from the Cincinnati defense: a lot of pressure.

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Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, the former Cowboys assistant, won’t have his full complement of players but that doesn’t mean he will back down.

“Zim’s an aggressive, competitive guy," Garrett said. "He brought it all in the first preseason games. That’s just his nature. He’s brought it all since I’ve known him. That’s what makes Zim great. You’ve got to be ready for that stuff.”

The Cowboys saw some of that aggressiveness during last year’s regular-season meeting at Paul Brown Stadium, which they won 20-19. Tony Romo completed only 58.1 percent of his passes and was sacked three times.

The Cowboys will not have a full game plan, but it will be the most involved of the preseason.

“You have to be ready for anything,” Garrett said. “One of the things we believe in is hopefully you’ve structured your offensive and defensive systems in such a way that you don’t have to game plan. You can kind of go by your rules to handle all of the different things you may or may not see. So hopefully we will be able to do that as a football team."

Sean Lee, DeMarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher, Brandon Carr and Bruce Carter have seen sparse action in their first two preseason appearances.

“[The Bengals are] a good football team,” Lee said. “They’re a playoff-caliber team. We had a really tough game against them last year, so we know it’s going to be a tough challenge and we’re going to have to be ready for it.”