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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants could not have asked for a better first half in the NFC East title game. They have done everything they've wanted to do on offense and defense. They have come out fired up behind high-energy stars like Mathias Kiwanuka and Victor Cruz. And when they've made mistakes, the Dallas Cowboys have consistently failed to capitalize on them.

Eli Manning is 15-for-20 for 199 yards and two touchdowns in the game so far. Ahmad Bradshaw has 46 rush yards and two touchdowns -- one on the ground and one through the air. The Giants are rolling with a 21-0 lead and will get the ball back to start the second half.

The Giants have been picking on overmatched Dallas cornerback Terence Newman all night, and Newman has given them no reason to stop. Not that he's the only Cowboy who should be blamed for what's going on here tonight. Here is a list of costly Cowboys mistakes from the first half. It's not for the faint of heart:

• Tony Romo overthrowing Dez Bryant on third down on the first series of the game after Bryant had gotten past Corey Webster and could have had a long gain.
• Newman missing a tackle and allowing Bear Pascoe to hurdle him and convert a third down deep in Giants territory.
• Newman getting smoked by Cruz for a 74-yard touchdown reception.
• Alan Ball failing to corral a muffed punt that would have set the Cowboys up with good field position in Giants territory.
• Abram Elam completely missing a one-on-one tackle and allowing Bradshaw to run in for a touchdown.
• Gerald Sensabaugh failing to pick up a Brandon Jacobs fumble, which eventually bounced back into the hands of Manning.
• Romo going past the line of scrimmage before throwing the ball to Bryant for what looked like a big third-down pickup deep in Giants' territory down 14-0 late in the second quarter.
• Ball downing an excellent Chris Jones punt inside the 5-yard line after going out of bounds, leading to an illegal touching penalty and awarding the Giants the ball on the 20-yard line instead of inside the 5.
• Henry Hynoski pulling a repeat of the Pascoe hurdle job on Newman on the play just before Bradshaw's short touchdown catch pushed the lead to 21-0 with 1:09 left in the half.

It all adds up to this: One team came to play and the other team looks as though it did not. The Giants have been creative and quick and effective with their pass rush, which has deprived the Cowboys of a chance to take advantage of the Giants' secondary or even really find out if Romo's hand is OK. The Giants have kept the Cowboys off of Manning, which continues a trend. The Cowboys didn't sack Manning in the game three weeks ago in Dallas, and haven't tonight. And the Giants have blocked fairly well in the run game when they've needed to.

The game is not decided or out of reach, but a different -- and much more focused -- Dallas team needs to come out of the halftime locker room, or next week's playoff game is going to be here and not in Arlington, Texas.

Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com has a column up, and it's about the Dallas Cowboys' defense. Specifically, it's about first-year defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, who Tim says is struggling to coach something out of the same cast of characters that helped get the previous coach and defensive coordinator, Wade Phillips, fired a little more than a year ago.

Tim's hypothesis is that maybe it's not the fault of the coach or the scheme in Dallas, but that maybe we've all been overrating the players the Cowboys have on the defensive side of the ball:

The truth is that this defense has three cornerstone players -- outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, nose tackle Jay Ratliff and inside linebacker Sean Lee -- and a whole bunch of question marks. Throw a dart at the defensive depth chart and you're pretty much guaranteed to hit a draft need.

Cornerback Mike Jenkins has first-round talent and deserves credit for fighting through injuries all season, but he's on-again, off-again. Outside linebacker Anthony Spencer, another former first-round pick, has flashes of brilliance that are lost in long stretches of mediocrity.

Cornerback Terence Newman is way past his prime and looks like he's on his last legs after a few weeks of actually playing well enough to earn his massive contract earlier this season. Inside linebackers Bradie James and Keith Brooking are tough, old warriors whose glory days are long gone.

The rest of the defense is filled with JAGs, to borrow a term from Bill Parcells. The just-a-guy list includes safety Gerald Sensabaugh and [Orlando] Scandrick, even though they've been given five-year, $20-plus-million contract extensions this season.

It's an interesting point, for sure. Two years ago, when the Cowboys turned it on this time of year and won a division title, Spencer and Jenkins played like stars. They have not done so since, and as a result there are very few players on the Cowboys' defense who are. It's one thing when you have five or six guys playing like stars. It's quite another when you have only two or three.

The theory behind hiring Ryan was that the Cowboys underachieved on defense last season and needed a fresh voice to coax the talent out of all the talented players they already had in place. And while he's been able to get something out of Spencer and Jenkins (and, earlier in the season, Newman) that wasn't there a year ago, Tim's right that none of those guys is playing at a star-caliber level. Can they the rest of the way? Sure. We've seen it before for brief stretches with some of these same guys. But once this is all over, it seems the Cowboys are going to have to make some more serious and sober assessments of just what exactly they do have on defense.

So you know how much I like to mix it up with all of you on Twitter. It's the first thing I check when the wheels of the plane hit the ground, and when that happened at Newark Airport this morning I saw that @EZ_Money13 had sent me this bit of 140-character wisdom:

This loss isn't by any means on Romo but it's gonna b "the talk of the town" bc it was n December

And @EZ_Money13 is right, of course, but what I told him and what I believe is that that's plain silly. Not only that, it goes to show how silly all of this obsessing over Romo's December record is. Romo was 21-for-31 on Sunday for 321 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. That's not a good game for a quarterback, it's a great one. And if you're a quarterback and you throw a touchdown pass that puts your team up 34-22 with less than six minutes on the clock in a home game, you have every right to consider that game won.

The problem, as later tweeters pointed out, was that Romo missed badly on a third-down toss to Miles Austin just before the two-minute warning that would have, if completed, either padded the Dallas lead or at least allowed them to chew more time off the clock. But (a) Austin said he lost the ball in the lights and (b) are we really going to hit Romo for one of his 10 incompletions in a game in which the Cowboys scored 34 points?

No, the only way this loss is on Romo is if they asked him to go in and play nickel cornerback on the last two Giants possessions and he refused. Or if he had a mirror on the sideline and was reflecting light into the eyes of all of his defensive backs, rendering them unable to cover anyone in a Giants' uniform in the game's final five minutes. This loss was on the defense, plain and simple, and anyone who watched the game knows that.

This was on Rob Ryan, the first-year defensive coordinator who had the defense clicking so well in September but has been unable to find ways to stop teams at critical times in the past month. But it goes deeper than that. The Cowboys have personnel issues in the secondary that are costing them. Terence Newman has faded terribly after a hot start. Mike Jenkins makes plays, but he seems to get hurt or at least nearly get hurt every time he does. The mixing and matching of blitzes has resulted in miscommunications and coverage busts in the secondary, and Sunday night they paid for it at the hands of Eli Manning, who's having one of the best seasons of any quarterback in the league.

The Cowboys knew this was going to be a problem. Remember, they tried hard to sign free-agent cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in the offseason before the Eagles snatched him away. They were going to cut Newman to make room for Asomugha in their lineup and under their salary cap, and they believed he'd be a major upgrade. Asomugha hasn't played up to his hype in Philadelphia, but it's no stretch to believe he'd be doing better at this point than Newman is.

This is an area the Cowboys must adjust in the next offseason. They appear set to part ways with Newman and go with Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick as starting cornerbacks. They're committed to safeties Abram Elam and Gerald Sensabaugh. But they need depth in the secondary, and they need to add a playmaker or two, because the major problems they're dealing with now are personnel problems more than they are scheme problems.

Make no mistake: Ryan deserves his share of the blame and will surely accept it. The talk a couple of weeks ago about him as a head coaching candidate has cooled and will continue to do so as long as teams can throw and score at will against the Cowboys in the fourth quarter. But the Cowboys knew they were going into this season shorthanded on the back end of the defense, and lately it has begun to show up. Sunday night, it showed up big time, and it -- not the Cowboys' quarterback -- lost them a pretty important game.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Well, we thought there would be a lot of points in tonight's divisional showdown between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, and the first half did not disappoint. Even though it was the Giants' defense that scored the first points when Jason Pierre-Paul sacked Tony Romo in the end zone for a safety, the offenses didn't take long to get in gear, and the Cowboys hold a slim 17-15 lead with the Giants set to get the ball back to start the second half.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning is only 9-for-19, but he's made some very nice throws under pressure and has already hooked up with Hakeem Nicks fro 105 of his 146 passing yards. A couple of drops by Victor Cruz have hurt the overall numbers and cost the Giants yards. Romo is a more efficient 10-for-14, but for only 104 yards as he has so far been unable to work wideouts Miles Austin and Dez Bryant into the mix. Romo loves him some Laurent Robinson, though, especially when it's time to score a touchdown, and the Dallas run game doesn't look like it's lost much with Felix Jones subbing in for an injured DeMarco Murray at tailback. Guess all of that hype about the impact of fullback Tony Fiammetta's return was on the mark.

If one of these defenses is able to make some halftime adjustments and some second-half plays in coverage, that team could well run away with the game. But right now it seems more likely that the offenses will continue to rule the night and that many more points await before this one's over.

Some more thoughts on the first half:

• Real curious to see whether Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw plays in the second half. Word is he was benched for blowing curfew, but he's dressed and eligible to play. In his absence, Brandon Jacobs looks like a complete animal, running over people and inflicting pain on would-be tacklers the way he did early in his career.
• With the exception of the Gerald Sensabaugh pass interference penalty that led to Jacobs' touchdown, the Cowboys have to be happy about the way their red zone defense has played. They've held the Giants to field goals twice, including in the final two minutes of the half after Jones' ill-timed fumble gave them the ball at the Dallas 14-yard line. Earlier in the game, they held on after a 64-yard Manning pass to Nicks set the Giants up with first-and-goal on the four. Some credit for that stand, however, goes to questionable playcalling by the Giants, who called end zone corner fade routes on first and second downs and a weak draw play with D.J. Ware on third.
• Injuries are mounting for Dallas. Center Phil Costa is out with a concussion. Murray left with an ankle injury, and it doesn't sound as though they expect him back, which is why Jones is getting the carries. Hey, at least Jones should be fresh after sitting behind Murray all of these weeks.
• And from the irony department: Dan Bailey's 49-yard field goal with 15 second left in the half was 49 yards long -- same distance as the one he made and then missed at the end of regulation last week in Arizona.

Before I head off for the weekend, we have a bit of Friday news in the NFC East. The Dallas Cowboys have apparently agreed with free safety Gerald Sensabaugh on a five-year, $22.5 million deal of which $8 million is guaranteed. Calvin Watkins tells me it's a good deal for Sensabaugh, who's having a nice year for Dallas, because it gives him the stability he was seeking last year in free agency before he settled for the Cowboys' one-year offer. I love Calvin like a neurotic brother who calls me to complain when I don't like his stories enough, but he knows and I know there's no such thing as "stability" in NFL contracts. Still, good for Sensabaugh if this is what he wants. And I guess the Cowboys can cross safety off their offseason to-do list.

As for the programming note, and because I know you guys like to know what I'm up to...

I'm going to Dallas, obviously. Leaving tomorrow, having a nice Mexican dinner and maybe a beverage in Fort Worth and then going to the Giants-Cowboys game on Sunday night. Obviously I will be tracking the Redskins-Patriots game and the Eagles-Dolphins game and posting my thoughts on those as they end and throughout Sunday night and into Monday morning. But we all know it's all about Cowboys-Giants in the NFC East this week, and I'll be on the scene along with ESPNDallas.com and ESPNNewYork.com to get you all you need to know from there.

Enjoy the weekend.

» NFC Stock Watch: East | West | North | South » AFC: East | West | North | South

FALLING

1. Giants' offensive line. It hasn't really been any good all year, but now it has begun to cost them games. The Giants were absolutely manhandled up front by the Eagles' defense Sunday night, unable to find anything at all in the run game or give Eli Manning enough time to throw. Brandon Jacobs is getting booed by the home fans, but he can't make the holes himself. The Giants look like a team that will continue to be in every game they play, including the tough ones, but it's going to be difficult for them to put together a winning streak against their schedule if they can't win those physical battles in the trenches.

2. Cowboys' secondary. They hung on to beat Washington, but Rex Grossman had a pretty good day against them. They miss cornerback Mike Jenkins, and if the injury to safety Gerald Sensabaugh is serious enough to linger, they'll have a tough time patching it together in time for Thursday's game. The good things for Dallas are that its offense is good enough to outscore teams and its next two opponents aren't big-time passing teams. But the Cowboys' defense did show some cracks Sunday, especially on the back end.

3. Redskins' running game clarity. Actually, it seems kind of clear to all involved that rookie Roy Helu is the team's best back. But Mike Shanahan keeps giving Ryan Torain the starts and bringing in Helu later. Shanahan said this week that part of the reason for that is not wanting to give the rookie too much too soon -- a strategy that speaks to where Shanahan and the Redskins are right now as a franchise. They're thinking long-term, and they don't want to overload Helu mentally or beat him up physically if he's part of the long-term plans. So while it may feel frustrating right now, it's all designed to make things better in the long run.

RISING

1. Tony Romo, Cowboys quarterback. This was a game in which a number of things that had been going right for the Cowboys did not. They didn't dominate physically in the run game as they have been lately. They didn't make the stops they needed to make on defense. And yet, rather than force things the way he was when he was making so many costly mistakes earlier in the season, Romo was smart and efficient and deliberate and made all of the throws he needed to make to deliver a division win. He's in the middle of an excellent season.

2. Vince Young, Eagles quarterback. Man, did he look shaky for the first three quarters. He even looked shaky at times on that game-winning drive. But he made the plays he needed to make to deliver a win. And even if Michael Vick comes back healthy this week and Young doesn't start another game all year, he showed teams he added a win to his record as an NFL quarterback, which now stands at 31-17. That's Young's biggest selling point -- not the relative prettiness of his passes -- and if he wants to go find a starting job somewhere next year, that win is one more thing he can try to sell.

3. Eagles' and Cowboys' offensive lines. Maligned for much of the season as a weak spot, the Eagles' line has actually consistently ranked among the best run-blocking lines in the league. Sunday night, it also gave Young the time he needed to make plays. Their playoff chances are, at best, on life support, but their physicality up front on both sides of the ball is going to make them a tough team to play the rest of the way. As for Dallas, it is still shaky at center, and Doug Free isn't having a very good year. But the return of Montrae Holland to play left guard has really helped solidify things for them in the middle, and there's reason to think they'll continue to improve as the year progresses.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Seattle Seahawks provided the perfect opponent to solve the Dallas Cowboys' woes. Well, sort of. Dallas played a nice, but not great game Sunday afternoon on the day they inducted Drew Pearson, Larry Allen and Charles Haley into the Ring of Honor. The Cowboys should have played better, but they have next week to solve their issues. For the record: Dallas 23, Seattle 13.

Here's a recap:

What it means: Not really sure. The Cowboys beat up a Seattle team ranking next to last in total offense and rushing offense. Its defense ranked 13th overall but 18th against the pass. Seattle rushed for more than 100 yards for the first time in two weeks and the Seahawks completed numerous big plays in the passing game. But the Cowboys won, and that's all that matters in the NFL sometimes.

DeMarco Murray needs to start: Nothing personal against Felix Jones, but did you see the rookie from Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon? He rushed 22 times for 139 yards. He's now rushed for more than 100 yards in two of the last three games. Jones has rushed for more than 100 yards just twice in the regular season during his career. It might be time to move on from Jones and give things to Murray.

Defense plays OK: The Cowboys' defense pressured Seattle quarterback Tarvaris Jackson numerous times and picked up three interceptions. Terence Newman, Jason Hatcher and Gerald Sensabaugh were the men who did in Jackson. DeMarcus Ware didn't register a sack for the first time in three weeks. It seemed the Cowboys missed inside linebacker Sean Lee, who was out with a dislocated left wrist. Bradie James and Keith Brooking didn't do enough to slow the running game. It's clear the Cowboys need to clean up some things before taking on Buffalo next week. Anthony Spencer picked up his first sack since Week 3 versus Washington, and now has three on the season.

Miles Austin is out: Wide receiver Miles Austin injured his right hamstring in the first half and didn't return. It's the second time this season that Austin has battled hamstring injuries. He finished the game with two catches for 53 yards. But it was OK because Laurent Robinson, once again, is looking like a man who knows what he's doing on the field. Robinson had five catches for 32 yards with one touchdown. Dez Bryant also had a nice game, though he had zero catches in the second half, with four receptions for 76 yards. Defenses are jamming Bryant at the line of scrimmage and he continues to struggle to get off the line.

Red zone problems: The Cowboys went 1-for-3 in the red zone Sunday. For the season, the Cowboys have 26 possessions inside the red zone with just 10 touchdowns and 12 field goals on the season. This has been a problem area for the Cowboys in 2011 and moving forward, things have to get fixed.

What's next: The Cowboys host Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. It's Chan Gailey's chance to beat the man who fired him, Jerry Jones. Jones said firing Gailey was one of his biggest mistakes.

PHILADELPHIA -- Given the career record of Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid in games immediately following bye weeks, you almost wonder why the Dallas Cowboys would bother to show up here tonight.

So far, they haven't.

The Eagles, who are 12-0 in games right after the bye week since Reid became their coach, have roared to a 24-0 halftime lead over the Cowboys here at Lincoln Financial Field. They went 79 yards on eight plays for a touchdown on the first drive of the game and haven't looked back, dominating Dallas on both sides of the ball in one of their most impressive efforts of the season.

The game isn't over, and I do remember sitting in this same seat four weeks ago and watching the Eagles blow a 20-3 halftime lead to the 49ers. But they've been considerably better than the Cowboys in every phase of the game. They have not turned the ball over. They've converted all but one of their third downs and all but one of their red-zone opportunities. They've possessed the ball for nearly 21 of the game's 30 minutes and stayed away from the kinds of mistakes that were costing them chances to put teams like San Francisco away during their four-game losing streak.

Dallas' defense has been a wreck. They entered the game as the top-ranked run defense in the league, allowing 69.7 yards per game on the ground. But the Eagles ran for 140 in the first half -- 95 by running back LeSean McCoy and 45 by quarterback Michael Vick. The Cowboys have looked lost and confused in pass defense, too, as Vick has repeatedly been able to find open receivers in the middle of the field. The first-quarter wrist injury to inside linebacker Sean Lee has surely hurt, but it's not as though the Eagles weren't already doing whatever they wanted to do on offense before he went out.

The Eagles would, I think, be wise to grind this out with McCoy the rest of the way. Their offensive line is doing a great job of run-blocking, as it has all year. The lead is massive, McCoy likes a heavy workload and passing is really the only way the Eagles can commit the kind of rapid-fire turnovers that would grant the Cowboys opportunities. So I guess the Cowboys need to lock in on McCoy and the run game the rest of the way. Can't hurt, since they're already getting crushed in coverage.

At the beginning of the game, it appeared as though the Cowboys' plan was to blitz Vick with defensive backs -- a strategy that's worked for many teams this year. Safety Gerald Sensabaugh came on two blitzes on the first drive, but Vick is getting rid of the ball more quickly than he did earlier in the year, and that's helped him handle the blitz better.

When Dallas has had the ball on offense, it has been able to do very little with it. Martellus Bennett had an awful drop on a very nice Tony Romo throw that resulted in an Nnamdi Asomugha interception. Wideouts Miles Austin and Dez Bryant each played the whole first half without catching a ball as Romo completed just four passes -- two to Laurent Robinson and two to Jason Witte. DeMarco Murray's 74 yards on six carries are the lone Dallas bright spot.

Coming into the game, I felt the Eagles needed to win more than the Cowboys did. Philly is 2-4 and Dallas is 3-3, and the toughest part of the Cowboys' schedule is behind them. The Eagles have so far played with the same kind of urgency and determination they showed two weeks ago in their victory over the Redskins. The Cowboys are playing like a team that got punched in the face right away and hasn't yet recovered.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- A couple of thoughts on an ugly, field goal-infested first half of "Monday Night Football":

• A good, GOOD night so far for Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams, who has been taking on the Dallas Cowboys' pass-rushing monster, DeMarcus Ware, and winning the battles. Early on, the Redskins were helping Williams out by lining up tight end Logan Paulsen on that side, but Williams had Ware one-on-one for most of the season quarter, and Ware is without a sack or any real impact at all so far. Williams has the talent to handle anyone in the league, but consistency from week-to-week has been an issue during his brief career so far. He was great last week and great so far again Monday night.
• The Cowboys' passing game just isn't there. I don't know if Tony Romo's unable to get enough on his passes because of the rib fracture or what, but for the whole first quarter it looked as though he was just locked in on tight end Jason Witten and the Redskins knew and covered it. Dez Bryant clearly isn't 100 percent healthy, which is why Laurent Robinson got so many targets in the second quarter. But Felix Jones isn't producing anything in the run game, and the Cowboys need to find a way to gain yards downfield against the Redskins' secondary.
• Speaking of that secondary... do you think the Redskins missed LaRon Landry? He's been all over the field so far, delivering big hits and breaking up plays in his first game of the season after missing two with a hamstring injury. This makes an already good-looking Redskins defense that much better.
• And on the Cowboys' side defensively, this looks like a third straight outstanding game for inside linebacker Sean Lee, who has an innate ability to be around the ball. Lee, defensive end Kenyon Coleman and safeties Gerald Sensabaugh and Abram Elam have made big, athletic plays to help hold the Redskins to field goals, and Sensabaugh blocked one.
• You see the good and the bad with Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman, sometimes from play to play. His completion to Santana Moss against Alan Ball just before halftime was a thing of beauty, but then he took a bad sack that nearly knocked the Redskins out of field goal range. Fortunately for him and the Redskins, Graham Gano hit the 50-yarder to tie the game at 9-9.
• The Redskins led the NFL in time of possession through two games, and they held it for 8:36 in the first quarter tonight and 16:09 of the first half. They love to run the ball, and rookie Roy Helu appears to be eating into Tim Hightower's carries.
• The key for the Cowboys in the second half will be to generate some kind of pass rush and force Grossman into a game-altering mistake. The Cowboys need a short field with the way their passing game looks Monday.

Gerald Sensabaugh had an interception and a hand in a special teams touchdown for the Dallas Cowboys in their 23-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Yeah, I know the game's not over yet. And I want to see DeMarco Murray as much as the next guy does. But I'm in New Jersey and I'm not sure how much longer the power will stay on. So I thought it made some sense to get something down now, rather than later, about the Dallas Cowboys' preseason game Saturday night in Minnesota.

First off, everybody's going to want to talk about the defense, which gave up 216 yards to Adrian Peterson, Donovan McNabb and the Vikings in the first half. Peterson looked unstoppable, which he often does against many teams. The Vikings' offensive line beat up the Dallas defensive line in the run game, and Peterson cashed in for 69 yards on 11 carries. Safeties Gerald Sensabaugh and Abram Elam got burned on a long touchdown pass to Bernard Berrian, and it's very easy to come out of that first half saying the Dallas defense looks like more of the same from last season, when only the Broncos gave up more points.

But I'm not sure Cowboys fans should be so quick to get so down about this, and for a number of reasons.

First, and most importantly, it's only preseason. I'm constantly preaching here that you can't make sweeping predictions or evaluations about team performance in preseason, because you don't know what you're watching. Some teams game plan, others don't, and sometimes plays get called for the express purpose of identifying how a certain player will do in a certain matchup. To say the Cowboys' defense is in trouble because they gave up a bunch of yards in the first half Saturday night is a classic overreaction.

Secondly, they did do some good individual things. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick had a couple of nice pass breakups in big spots against Berrian. Jason Hatcher got his hand on a McNabb pass and Sensabaugh made a nice diving interception before the ball hit the ground. I thought Anthony Spencer was very active and busy around the ball, whether it was pressuring McNabb (he sacked him once) or making a play or a tackle in coverage. Overall, the tackling (which was a major issue for the Cowboys last year) was fine. Peterson had a couple of chances to break very long gainers and didn't. So while they didn't do a good job containing him at the point of attack, they did manage to keep him from completely destroying them.

Finally, the Cowboys are not at full strength on defense. They're still missing starting cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Terence Newman, and starting defensive end Marcus Spears. And those who are playing have only had a month's worth of practices in new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's new system. It's perfectly understandable if frustration from last season's defensive performance leaks into this season. But it's unfair to assume based on preseason games that it won't be better. It's a work in progress, getting healthier and more comfortable. And considering how strong the Cowboys' offense should be, remember: The defense doesn't have to be one of the best in the league to make them a contender. It only has to improve from the back of the pack to somewhere near the middle.

As for that offense, there were quite a number of highlights, which I'll hit as I mention some other things I saw:

1. Tony Romo looks great. He was pressured early up the middle (remember, they were starting a third-string center) but held up fine and threw with impeccable accuracy and confidence all night. He was 15-for-20 for 141 yards in the first half, and even some of his misses were well thrown. The near-touchdown on which Kevin Ogletree couldn't get his second foot in bounds was a perfect throw. The throw just out of Dez Bryant's reach at the goal line shortly before Felix Jones' touchdown run was in a place where Bryant was the only one who would have even had a chance to catch it. Romo's accuracy is his greatest strength, and it was on display Saturday.

2. Bryant is a physical beast. He can overpower defensive backs to make a catch. When he makes a catch, he's hard to bring down. He's 6-2, 225 with great hands and great instincts. Once defenses have Miles Austin to worry about as well as Bryant, Romo is only going to look better.

3. Jones continues to impress. But while Jerry Jones is out there saying Tashard Choice needs to play better on special teams to make the roster, Choice looked good on a couple of runs while spelling Felix. Murray was also set to play at some point Saturday (and I'll update with stuff on him if the storm allows), and as great as Jones has been this preseason, it's good for the Cowboys to see what their other options are for giving him a break and helping to keep him healthy.

4. Jesse Holley is working hard to make the team. Made a couple of very nice third-down catches, missed a tackle on a kick return ... mixed bag kind of a first half for Holley, but if Romo's comfortable throwing to him and he's making the catches when he does, that's got to help his case.

5. The offensive line got better as the game went along. As mentioned, there were some issues early with the Vikings getting pressure up the middle. Rookie Bill Nagy still looks like he needs to add strength, and Tyron Smith looked as though he was struggling with his footwork again on the first offensive series. But things tightened up as the first half moved along, and they were able to keep Romo clean and allow him to make his plays. On the sack, left tackle Doug Free got beaten by Jared Allen, who forced Romo up in the pocket where Christian Ballard got off a Nagy block to bring Romo down. I wonder if Nagy's supposed to hold that block longer, or if I'm watching the rookie too closely.

6. Shayne Graham should be the kicker. Dan Bailey and Graham each hit a mid-range field goal (37 and 38 yards, respectively) at this writing, but given Graham's track record I have to think he gets the job as long as he doesn't miss kicks in the preseason. He didn't look great on kickoffs, but the new rules make that less important this season.

Again, more later if I'm still online. But that's what I have for now.

Thoughts from the Cowboys' 20-7 preseason loss to the visiting Chargers.

Defense is what matters for the Dallas Cowboys. Defense is what killed them in 2010, and defense will determine whether or not they can rebound and return to playoff contention in 2011. And so, when you tune in to watch a Cowboys preseason game, you're going to watch the defense. And it is, as we mentioned in Camp Confidential, a work in progress.

New defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's defense is based on multiple and varied looks. It's intended to confuse the opposing offense, but before it can do that, the players playing the defense must learn the scheme and develop trust and confidence in it. Since the lockout eliminated OTAs and minicamps, the Cowboys couldn't start practicing their roles in Ryan's new scheme until a couple of weeks ago, and the lack of experience in the new system has shown in both of their preseason games so far.

The best example was Randy McMichael's touchdown catch from Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers. The Cowboys' pass rush had Rivers cold and he looked as though he was about to throw the ball away. But because cornerback Alan Ball and safety Gerald Sensabaugh had both gone after the same receiver, McMichael was wide open. Rivers saw him and found him for the touchdown, and Ryan had something to say to Sensabaugh when he came off the field.

There were good things that happened, too. Barry Church had an excellent game, knocking down a touchdown pass in the first half and making a great open-field tackle in the third quarter. And Ryan lined top linebacker DeMarcus Ware in several different spots -- left side, right side, dropped him into pass coverage. As a coordinator, Ryan's never had a player as good as Ware, and he's going to have more and more fun with him as everybody gets comfortable in the new system and he can keep moving Ware (and others) all over the field into unexpected spots.

But the question is how soon that will be. Can this Cowboys team learn and become comfortable in this new system in just two more preseason games and three more weeks of practice? There are still communication issues in the secondary, and injured starting cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Terence Newman haven't even played yet, so there's no way to even know if they'll be good enough to allow Ryan to do what he wants to do up front. Long way to go before the Cowboys' defense looks like a cohesive unit, and they don't have a lot of time.

Here are some other things I saw in the loss to San Diego:

1. The first-team offensive line looked good. Especially rookie right tackle Tyron Smith, who is big and strong and athletic and just looks like a nightmare to try and get past. They've been working with Smith on his footwork, specifically the alignment of his left foot, and it's a matter of him getting comfortable with the new foot position and trusting it. He looked better and protecting the outside Sunday night than he had in the first game. Fellow rookie Bill Nagy got the start at left guard and handled himself well, but he gets overpowered by stronger defensive linemen, as rookie David Arkin did a bit last week. If everyone's healthy (including starting center Andre Gurode), I still think either Montrae Holland or Phil Costa starts at left guard three weeks from now in New York. But Nagy and Arkin will still get opportunities in the meantime to show what they can do, and there are plenty of reasons to like both -- for the near future, if not immediately. You can always build strength.

2. I don't have anything, really, to say on Tony Romo. Yes, his interception was terrible -- terrible decision, terrible throw, terrible all the way around. But from the Twitter reaction you'd have thought it was his 700th consecutive pass attempt that resulted in an interception. His touchdown pass was a very good throw, and while it seems clear that those who don't like Romo will always be looking for reasons to point and shout, "See? Told ya!", he has offered no reason to worry and remains very low on the Cowboys' list of concerns.

3. Lonyae Miller and Phillip Tanner. With Tashard Choice and DeMarco Murray injured, the younger running backs on the Cowboys roster have had a chance to show their stuff. Miller looked good early, and the block he threw against the blitz early in the third quarter will show up on his personal highlight film. But his fumble will not, and fumbles can kill a fringe guy's chances of making the team. Tanner struggled in pass protection last week, but he looks like a better runner than Miller does. I don't think any defenders let up on the play after he lost his helmet on the touchdown that got called back, so on tape that's going to show up as a tough touchdown run. Difficult call, if it comes down to two of these guys for one spot, or if they're looking to see whether or not one can unseat Choice.

4. Oh, and the starting running back. Felix Jones, for the second week in a row... wow. Fast, tough and resilient. Guy is moving up those fantasy draft boards, I guarantee. He's running like he means it. His teammates like the spark he brings. He's seeing the field and his lanes from the backfield, and he's working for extra yards against a very good defense in a game that doesn't count. Everything you'd want to see out of Jones when presented with a chance to be the every-down guy, he's showing. My only concern? He's taking a lot of hits, and hasn't exactly shown himself to be Mr. Durable in the past. If he can hold up, he's got a chance to bring something special.

5. The No. 3 receiver issue. If it's Kevin Ogletree's job to lose, he didn't do anything to lose it Sunday. He looked very speedy and very determined, and we didn't see any of the Dwayne Harris magic we saw last year. Manuel Johnson was the down-the-roster receiver who made the strongest second-half impression with Stephen McGee under center. Which is probably another reason for Ogletree to feel good about things.

6. No blood in the kicking battle. Neither Dan Bailey nor David Buehler got a field goal attempt, and I'm not sure I get why neither got one in the final minute. Is it more important right now for the Cowboys to see these guys kick or see if their third-team offense can get in on fourth-and-goal? I guess you could say a 20-yard field goal would be a poor indicator anyway, but still. Why not put one of the kickers in a real game situation if you can?

7. Finally, I'm a little bit surprised by the choice of James Spader for "The Office." My hope is that it allows the very funny people that populate the rest of the cast to shine now that they don't all have to orbit Steve Carell.

When you take a day off, some things are going to slip through the cracks, and in my case one of those things Thursday was the long-anticipated signing of safety Abram Elam by the Dallas Cowboys. Happened pretty much right after I went to bed Wednesday night, and since I pledged not to so much as tweet Thursday, I was left no choice but to ignore it.

Fortunately, Bryan Broaddus at ESPNDallas.com did not ignore it, and he offers a nifty breakdown of what Elam is likely to do for the Cowboys' defense now that he's in the fold. Bryan says the schemes new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan are using in camp so far are exactly the same as the ones he used in Cleveland. He looked at tape from Browns games against New England and New Orleans and saw Elam as "responsible for what was happening on the back end with the secondary because of the exotic looks that Ryan was trying to give Tom Brady and Drew Brees.":

When Ryan would blitz, he would lock his secondary up in man coverage and use Elam floating in the middle of the field. It was Elam’s job to react to the ball once it left the quarterback’s hand and he was able to complete his job successfully. Elam was also asked to play man coverage in the scheme and did not appear to be a total liability with the ball getting out quickly because of the pressure that was being applied.

Elam is not a fluid moving player like Huff or Weddle on tape, but in visiting with my Browns sources, to a man they couldn’t say enough good things about the intelligence of the player, how well he fit as a teammate and how much faith Ryan had in him. Those same scouts also went on to say that Elam is not the quickest or fastest player at safety -- which can hurt him closing angles in space or in overall coverage -- but once he got to the ball he was going to be successful in making something positive happen.

It’s important to remember that coaches will always take the known over the unknown when coaching players. To Ryan, Elam is a known player. When putting in a new defense, you need players that you can trust.

This was obviously important to Ryan and the Cowboys, as was the versatility of Gerald Sensabaugh in a defense that requires its safeties to be able to switch between the free and strong spots somewhat freely. Elam wasn't the kind of free-agent signing that's going to pull in the headlines (or, as you saw, get me out of bed to write about him). But he is the kind of free-agent signing the Cowboys needed to be making this offseason -- one who fits a specific need and can do it in a way about which the coaches feel good and confident.

People who worry about the Cowboys' chances this year because they haven't done much in free agency forget how many good players the Cowboys already have on their team. They're loaded on offense and will score tons of points. What let them down last season was a defense that underachieved and allowed the second-most points in the league. But that defense still has DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer and Jay Ratliff and Mike Jenkins -- all of whom (except Ware) saw their play drop off in 2010 from where it was in 2009. Since none of them is especially old, it's reasonable to expect them to bounce back. Adding the right pieces around them, and bringing in a coach like Ryan to get the most out of them, could be all that's needed for a defensive recovery in Dallas. And a defensive recovery is all that's needed to vault them back into the playoffs.

Even before the draft, there was a very strong argument that the weakest area of the Cowboys’ roster was the secondary. Dallas’ pass defense was among the worst in the league last year -- but it wasn’t from a lack of quality pass-rushers. The draft is ancient history and the first wave (more like a tsunami) of free agency is just about behind us. But is Dallas vastly improved on the back end of its defense? Not even close.

The starting cornerbacks, Terence Newman and Mike Jenkins, were particularly poor in 2010. And the starting free safety, Alan Ball, was miserable in coverage. Gerald Sensabaugh, the starter at strong safety, had the best year of anyone in this secondary. But he really isn’t a great cover man, which shows how bad things were a year ago for the Cowboys. Dallas wisely kept him near the line of scrimmage. It also re-signed Sensabaugh, who was up for free agency. In the draft, the Cowboys only used one selection for secondary help, a fifth-round pick on Josh Thomas from the University of Buffalo. Thomas is considered a project.

Needless to say, this isn’t a good situation for the Cowboys. They are going to move Ball back to cornerback, where he belongs. And I believe Jenkins is a better player than what he showed last year. Their nickelback, Orlando Scandrick, could be poised to get more playing time. But in the end, I see Scandrick as best suited for his current role. Dallas does have two youngsters who could step up in their second NFL seasons in Bryan McCann and particularly Akwasi Owusu-Ansah. But neither of these two did anything to speak of in Year 1.

Are there free agents available who could help the cause? There are several intriguing safeties who have yet to be signed, and every one of them would be massive upgrades from what Ball did at free safety a year ago. On Wednesday, Dallas signed safety Abram Elam. He is a smart player with decent range. He isn’t afraid to insert himself or throw his body around. He is certainly an upgrade over what the Cowboys were playing with as a last layer of defense in 2010. But I still question if that is enough to really compete in their secondary -- especially with the rigors of the season and once injuries occur. The Cowboys should also look at free agents Dashon Goldson, Donte Whitner and Deon Grant at free safety; all are unsigned as of this morning.

I commend the Cowboys for keeping many of their own free agents and addressing their offensive line situation, especially since they were in a real bind financially. But their secondary is a huge problem.

Scouts Inc. watches games, breaks down film and studies football from all angles for ESPN.com. Follow Matt Williamson on Twitter @WilliamsonNFL.

Time once again for our nightly check-in, where we look back over the 24 hours that have just transpired and ask the open-ended question: How was your day...

Dallas Cowboys?

"You know, fine." Got to be getting old watching the Eagles sign half the world, but the Cowboys did finally lock in one of the two starting safeties they need, bringing back Gerald Sensabaugh on what appears to be his third one-year contract. Wonder what that says about a guy. They keep wanting him back, but ... not that much. I'd be surprised if Abram Elam weren't the Cowboys' next move, and after that maybe a No. 3 receiver. But everybody who's been harping on the Cowboys to sign free agents seems to forget how many good players they already have. Rob Ryan's coaching could be enough to fix what went wrong on defense last year, even with similar personnel. And the offense is loaded with talent. They don't need star-caliber pieces. They just need to fill holes. They'll do it. By the way, they also signed another kicker -- Kai Forbath, who was really good at UCLA, but is hurt now and may or may not be a factor in the David Buehler/Dan Bailey kicking competition that has the Metroplex riveted.

New York Giants?

"Restful." The Giants' players had the day off, to their coach's chagrin, but the front office made itself busy with minor moves, like signing defensive tackle Gabe Watson, who'll be a solid backup or rotational guy in the middle of their line, and bringing back Michael Clayton to help their receiver depth. Nothing new on Osi Umenyiora, who still wants a new deal or out and isn't any more likely today than he was yesterday to get either. Nothing new on Steve Smith or Kevin Boss, though the signing of Zach Miller by the Seahawks could get the Raiders interested pretty quickly. The Giants signed Ben Patrick on Monday to give them insurance in case Boss left, but they're not similar players. Patrick doesn't block the way Boss does, and they surely want Boss back.

Philadelphia Eagles?

"Oh, you know. Typical, three-signing day." The Eagles were off too, but they were at it again, agreeing to new deals with Ronnie Brown as a backup running back, Ryan Harris as a right tackle and Jarrad Page to add to their safety mix along with all of the young guys they have back there. All three came on one-year deals because apparently the whole league wants to play for the Eagles now and will take anything to do it. Jeremy Maclin also arrived in camp after missing the first five practices due to an illness that the team won't discuss, so hopefully he's okay. And nothing new on DeSean Jackson, who has to be wondering how much money is left for him.

Washington Redskins?

"Humbling." Yes, they're paying attention in Ashburn to what's happening at Lehigh with the Eagles. The whole league is. And if you're the Redskins, it can't escape your attention that your current starters at quarterback and running back are John Beck and Ryan Torain while the Eagles' backups at those spots are Vince Young and Ronnie Brown. But hey. Rex Grossman showed up Tuesday, which means it might not have to be Beck. Phillip Buchanon showed up, too, though we also learned that he's suspended for the first four games of the season. Once he's back, I think the Redskins' defense has a chance to be good. The offense, with question marks at quarterback, running back, receiver and offensive line ... that's another story.

My day was good. Spent some more time at Redskins camp. Had some nice conversations with Barry Cofield, Trent Williams, DeAngelo Hall, Lorenzo Alexander and others, and in the coming days I will be filling you in on the insight I gleaned from those conversations. I like getting out and talking to the players and coaches. I learn more from those conversations than I do from watching practice, though I know you guys want to know what I saw in practice. But yeah, my day was real nice. Looking forward to one more morning in Ashburn before I head home and then out to see the Eagles.

How was your day?