Dallas Cowboys at Las Vegas Raiders stock report: Trey Lance, Deuce Vaughn rise after performances
The Dallas Cowboys checked all of the boxes on Saturday night against the Las Vegas Raiders as far as most fans were concerned.
Offensively… they scored a touchdown.
Defensively… they scored a touchdown.
On special teams… they were good from the stratosphere.
While kickoff was rather late and we all had to put on a second pot of coffee, the Cowboys looked solid in their first win of the exhibition period. The Oxnard portion of training camp is coming to a close and it is starting to become easier to see who we think this team can be when they get rocking and rolling against the Cleveland Browns in three weeks.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, what exactly did we think of the game in question? As always we have put together our stock report for you following the game and this one is rather rosy.
Let’s begin.
Stock Up: Marshawn Kneeland
I’ve often said that we would revere the draft selection of DeMarcus Lawrence a little bit differently if not for Zack Martin being a part of his class and the lone player selected ahead of him, and it is starting to feel like we are in a similar place with Tyler Guyton and Marshawn Kneeland.
Kneeland he led the stock report last week he is doing so again because he was all over the place while in action against the Raiders. He is so powerful and so strong and such a clear force that he may wind up mitigating the loss of Sam Williams to some degree. This sounds obvious because it was the goal, but that it now seems possible is a testament to who he is as a player.
We have made a lot about what the Cowboys do and don’t do in the second round of the NFL draft, and early returns suggest that whatever they have done this year is the right thing.
Stock Up: Juanyeh Thomas
Full disclosure here, I left Thomas off of the 53-man roster prediction from this past week. The safety position was starting to feel a bit crowded and obviously Markquese Bell was coming off of quite the game.
Allow me to offer my deepest and most sincere apologies. Thomas is quite the playmaker. He manages to always be around the action and in a positive way. This was certainly the case early on in Las Vegas before the notables were pulled.
Stock Up: Marist Liufau
To date it seems like Marist Liufau has, more than anything, been known as the draft pick that could have been a running back. He announced himself in full order on Saturday night.
Marist clogged holes and arrived with a thud every time a ball-carrier thought about getting to the second level. He certainly seems to have steadied the lack of physicality that we saw at the linebacker position down the stretch last season.
Stock Up: Deuce Vaughn
It does not seem like an exaggeration to say that many people had written Deuce Vaughn off of the team. While it remains to be seen what is going to happen over the course of the next few weeks, he certainly managed to generate positive attention once more.
The reality of the situation is that Vaughn made a number of plays once he got in and that’s all that can be asked of him. Expecting him to be the exact player he was at Kansas State is impractical, but it is not a far stretch of the imagination to believe that he could be a weapon in the overall offensive scheme.
Stock Up: Andrew Booth
Early in this game, Cowboys newbie Andrew Booth got beat rather badly by Vegas’ Tre Tucker. But wow did he respond.
Basically from that moment on Andrew Booth made any tackle that he was charged with, regardless of how tough or difficult it appeared to be. He seems like a player who is going to do a fine job of cleaning up the mess and not allowing anything to get beyond him.
Stock Up: Trey Lance
Trey Lance threw a touchdown in this game and it was so much fun to watch.
This score punctuated what was unquestionably the best drive of the preseason for Dallas and obviously of Lance’s time that we have seen in this uniform. Overall in the game he used his legs to a significant degree, it is not difficult at all to see how athletic he is and how someone could fall in love with it as a quality of a franchise quarterback. He even chipped in a rushing touchdown in the final minutes.
Ultimately this was a step in the right direction for Lance.
Stock Up: Ryan Flournoy
If you didn’t notice the touchdown that Lance threw was to Ryan Flournoy and it was great to see the rookie draft pick reach the endzone.
To this point it’s felt like different wide receivers have each had their moment at a certain point throughout camp but that Flournoy was sort of lacking there. Catching a touchdown in a preseason game is certainly quite the moment.
Stock Up: Brandon Aubrey
We obviously have no questions about Brandon Aubrey but we can’t leave him off of here because the man drilled a 66-yard field goal to end the first half!
Stock Up: Cooper Beebe
The moments were not large in attention for Cooper Beebe, but that is sort of the point here. He started the game at center for the Dallas Cowboys and everything went according to plan.
Does this mean that he will be the starting center Week 1 at Cleveland? The team likely isn’t fully confident in that quite yet just due to the enormity of playing the center position. But we certainly feel more confident in that idea after Saturday night, right?
Right!
Stock Up: Kemon Hall
If you get a pick six you make the stock report. Those are the rules.
Seriously though, this is an incredible play. Mike Zimmer’s defense seems to be quite good at generating takeaways.
Stock Down: Jalen Cropper
As noted in discussing Ryan Flournoy the wide receivers have all sort of had their turns impressing the team to this point. That list includes Jalen Cropper.
But the battle at WR5 and namely WR6 is getting more difficult and mistakes can haunt you. Unfortunately for Jalen Cropper he had a fumble in this game. He has still made a huge case for keeping him on the roster, but you do wonder if that will work against him.