OXNARD, Calif. -- A daily review of the hot topics coming out of Dallas Cowboys training camp:
With Tony Romo sitting out of the afternoon workout Brandon Weeden took the first-team full-pad reps for the first time in camp. He completed 13 of 18 passes in team and seven-on-seven drills. In the two-minute drills he directed the offense to a game-tying 41-yard field goal by Dan Bailey at the end of regulation. Weeden completed six of eight passes on the drive, and his best throw might have been one of his incompletions.
With nine seconds left, Weeden looked in the end zone for Dez Bryant, but Morris Claiborne was in good position.
“In that situation you have three points,” Weeden said. “We have a great kicker so you can’t turn the ball over. You’ve got a chance to make a play and put it where he can catch it or nobody else ... I knew the DB wasn’t going to catch it. That’s the main thing.”
Weeden took all of the first-team reps in the spring but noticed a difference in running it with pads on for the first time.
More than anything it’s in the run game and the pass rush,” Weeden said. “You’re banging. It’s more of a bomb went off back there. That’s what a game will be like ... With the pads on it’s easier to do that stuff. Without pads, you can’t really do a lot of that stuff we’re trying to do now. It was good. It feels like real football.”
The hit of the day might have belonged to rookie linebacker Anthony Hitchens in one-on-one pass rush drills with running backs. Hitchens flattened Joseph Randle in the drill and immediately had fellow linebacker Justin Durant jumping on his back in celebration. To Randle’s credit, he responded in his next two reps, including a good standstill with Orie Lemon. All of the running backs not named DeMarco Murray struggled in the pass-protection drill. When coach Jason Garrett had Murray go up against Bruce Carter in the daily offense vs. defense matchup, Murray won the matchup.
Offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Callahan is considered a very technical coach. During individual drills, the offensive line worked on the proper way to throw a forearm shiver as they moved up on combination blocks. Callahan explained that the move has to be short and quick and the lineman cannot wind up or get his arm outside the framework of his body. The work paid off later in running drills with some good combination blocks from the line.
Caleb Hanie had his first extended work of camp with Romo sitting, moving up to the second team. He was late on a throw to tight end James Hanna, who beat linebacker DeVonte Holloman, allowing Holloman the chance to recover and make the pass deflection. He was short on a deep throw to Jamar Newsome that gave Tyler Patmon the ability to make the break up.
After DeMarcus Lawrence went down with an ankle/foot injury, Martez Wilson seemed to kick in. Wilson had two sakcs in team drills (one of Hanie, one of Dustin Vaughan). He also added a pressure of Vaughan.