OXNARD, Calif. — The Dallas Cowboys and coach Mike McCarthy conducted a simulated game on Tuesday, which means they probably lost.
When you're 6-10 and conducting simulated games you want to be sure to be as close to the real thing as possible.
The best news coming from the Cowboys' simulated game on Tuesday was Dak Prescott threw actual passes. He and teammate Amari Cooper, who is also being held out for precautionary reasons, ran some individual 2-minute drills by themselves.
The Cowboys have two more days here under the tortuously hot 72 degree temperatures before flying to Phoenix to play the Arizona Cardinals in their second fake game of the season, and then they return to Texas.
Maybe then they'll start practicing football.
Right now, the California Cowboys have perfected the art of resting, and injury prevention time.
"I think Coach Mike has done a great job of helping us out and giving us all a day," Cowboys rookie linebacker Micah Parsons said. "Time to stretch, to do yoga, and things like that."
These Cowboys may not be able to perfect the go route, shedding blocks or press coverage, but they are crushing down dogs, warrior 1 and side crow.
Thus far, this first real camp under Mike McCarthy has painful echoes to another Cowboys coaching great, Uncle Wade Phillips.
From the light practices to the inclusion of the HBO cameras for "Hard Knocks," training camp in Oxnard looks like a day at the beach for the Cowboys.
It was my spouse who during the 2007 Dallas Cowboys training camp nicknamed Wade, "Coach Cupcake." It was "Coach Cupcake" and "Camp Cupcake." The names stuck, and Wade could never escape either.
Her assessment was based on covering his first training camp. Alas, all of these years later and she will be the first to admit she was not wrong (about anything).
Wade was succeeding Bill Parcells, who was not one for extensive rest periods.
McCarthy is not Wade, who was simply a decade ahead of his time.
"It's different. I entered the NFL in 2003 and the rules were different back then," said Cowboys offensive line coach Joe Philbin, who was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2012-15.
"You have this nostalgic view of what the NFL was. It's not going back to the way it was in 2003. You just have to work with the rules that are in place."
Between the paranoia of high-priced players sustaining an injury, the new 17-game NFL regular season schedule, and the rules agreed to by the NFL Players Association and the NFL, football practice doesn't look like football practice.
And because the Cowboys had the extra preseason game, this NFL training camp looks like more like a YMCA summer camp.
Just need "The Dallas Cowboys Ford Truck Jerry Jones Glory Swimming Hole" and we're there.
Less than zero of the coaches out here prefer it this way.
"The hitting is not the issue, it's the restriction of the time," Cowboys secondary coach and passing game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. said Tuesday. "In 2011, I had some really good friends who were on the NFLPA, and I told them, 'You are going to hurt the young players' (with the new practice restrictions) with the time away from the building that we can't meet with them.
"The physical part they are going to have. Across the league, as coaches, we want more of that mental time in the meeting room."
The Cowboys had their first practice here on July 22. The next day was off.
Between the start of camp on July 22 and Aug. 10, they have had eight off days from practice.
"It really has magnified the performance at practice," Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. "At practice, you better really be on it because every rep will be really evaluated. I don't know if (the rules) have made it harder but it's super important."
McCarthy said he has made it a point not to go too hard in preseason.
He learned his lesson when he was in Green Bay in his first season as head coach in 2006 and he witnessed firsthand the results of trying to be Mr. Hard Guy football coach, and his team looked dead as a result.
It's 2021 and he has no such concerns.
These Dallas Cowboys are both tanned and rested, and Camp Cupcake rolls on.
