Cowboys Ride For Free: I'm not sure he could improve upon his performance from last season, at least statistically, but I think we would be alright with him coming close to duplicating last season. I will say that it seems that the group of receivers around him seems to have stepped up a notch. Josh Cooper who also had a great season last year will slide back into his comfy role as the #2 option out of the slot, but the biggest improvement looks to be in Tracy Moore. Before the breakout of Blackmon last season, everyone was trying to guess who the go-to WR would be after the departure of Dez Bryant. It was pretty universally believed that either Blackmon or Moore would be the one to breakout, and as we all know (and have the Biletnikoff trophy to prove), Blackmon ended up being the man. Well it looks like all those that thought it would be Moore may have just been a year too late. The Junior (6'2, 233) has been a stud in the Spring Game, early scrimmages, and stepped up with 7 catches for 112 yards and a touchdown in the opener against ULL. Having him and Blackmon both running primary routes, with Cooper underneath as the check down option might make this passing attack even more deadly than last season. This Thursday should be a good barometer of that.
I don't know that they can necessarily stop the passing game of the Wildcats, but with our offense the goal is more to just slow the other team down. On the positive side for us, the Cowboy's 1st team D did hold ULL to 6 points and 177 total yards through the first 3 quarters before the backups came in and gave up some late points...of course, that was ULL.
CRFF: In the Pokes first game against ULL, they actually attempted 44 rushes to 43 passes, and that is usually the case with OSU, just the passing game receives more publicity. Joseph Randle is the primary back and he is coming off a solid 2010 season where he spelled Hunter and racked up just under 900 total yards from scrimmage. He had a nice 22 carries for 129 yards and 2 TDs last weekend before being pulled once the game got out of hand. Randle is a speedy/shifty back who is also a nice receiving threat. Jeremy Smith is his compliment as the power-back, and he handles a lot of the short yardage duty.