I had a great trip to the Hall of Fame last weekend, seeing the museum for the first time, and attending the enshrinement ceremony for Emmitt Smith on Saturday night. I did not stick around for Sunday night's game, though, and was on a plane headed home instead. As a result, I watched it very late Sunday night on the DVR. I took a few notes, but to be honest, I was dozing a little bit late in the game.
 
Anyway, some thoughts, in no particular order:
 
The first team offense was on the field for such a short time that it's tough to gain any serious insights. I have the same knee-jerk reaction as many do to the frustration in the red zone, but the reality is that forcing the ball to Roy is pretty unlikely to be the team's approach in "real" games this year, and I don't want to over-react to one possession in preseason.
 
The TV crew kept praising Pacman Jones, and I wasn't sure why. He had okay coverage, I guess, but it sure liked like Romo was targeting him all the way down the field - and successfully. That first incompletion was not broken up by Jones, it was just a bit off target. Romo still appears to have great chemistry with both Austin and Crayton; not so much with Roy. No news there, but I don't know how anybody could watch that and think the team would be better off without Crayton. I understand it would have looked different with Dez on the field, but I think that would be more to Roy's detriment than Crayton's.
 
I was pretty happy with the little bit we saw from Free. I was surprised how skinny Alex Barron looks, and hope that we don't need to see him play this year. I have read decent reviews of his practice performances, but he did not impress me in the game.
 
Buehler is the other big question mark coming into the season. I think that question mark is still there on field goals, although his one miss was fairly long (49 yards.) The good news is that of his five kick-offs, four went into the Bengals end zone, two for touchbacks.
 
I was pleasantly surprised by Stephen McGee, who I thought looked more poised, less tentative,  and was making quicker decisions than last year. Obviously, I don't want to see him play in the regular season, but I do want to see him develop.
 
Bowen and Butler really stood out to me on defense. Butler did some good things in limited chances last season, and it sure looked looked like that was not a flash in the pan. Bowen shows that the D-line rotation may be much improved from last year.
 
Well, this isn't much in the way of impressions, but there is still far too much preseason remaining, and I still hope to see players like Sean Lee before it is over. My overall impression of the team, though, is that they just looked like more of a team than they have in previous seasons. Our second team was better than their second team; our third team better than their third team. Everybody was on the same page. There have been too many years when it was the preseason opponents who looked like that, not Dallas, and I think you have to feel pretty good about that.