Dallas City News

The Cowboys are just six days into their training camp, and two days into padded practices, but things have already heated up. The resounding takeaway from those in attendance on Wednesday was that the team as a whole seemed to be especially spirited. Mike McCarthy set the tone early, and his players responded.

The Cowboys had their first Mojo moment of the new year on Wednesday, with a series of five two-point attempts. On top of that, the Cowboys had quite a few offense versus defense drills throughout the day, and it led to a fair share of tense moments.

The back and forth only continued throughout the practice. In the Mojo moment, the defense ultimately won the battle three to two. Dak Prescott hit Jake Ferguson in the endzone to start, but the series was decided on the final attempt thanks to great coverage from Donovan Wilson.

The Cowboys rotated their quarterbacks in and out all day long, and there was a barrage of both touchdowns and interceptions throughout the day, a reflection of how this practice just went back and forth. Willie Harvey Jr., a linebacker signed from the UFL, had an especially active day on defense and set himself apart.

Before long, the highly competitive nature of the practice boiled over, and we had our first scuffle of camp when rookies Caelen Carson and Brevyn Spann-Ford brought each other to the ground.

Scuffles like this are commonplace in training camp, of course, and coaches often try to toe the line between encouraging maximum intensity without crossing the line into outright fighting. Based on the reactions to this first interaction, McCarthy and the rest of the coaches probably aren’t too worried.

Still, it was the cherry on top of a practice in which the intensity could really be felt all the way around. It will be interesting to see how this carries over into future practices, especially with Thursday being an off day. For one day, though, things were more than chippy in Oxnard and certainly fascinating to observe.