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 Friday, August 11
Cowboys fulfill need for speed
 
 By John Clayton
ESPN.com

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- The Texas Motor Speedway is one of the landmarks on the spacious drive from Dallas to the Cowboys' training camp site. It's idle during this summer weekday, giving way to activities 90 minutes north.

New Cowboys offensive coordinator Jack Reilly is conducting daily time trials. A 40-second clock keeps starting and stopping. Tempo. Tempo. Reilly keeps moving offensive linemen in and out of huddles quickly, trying to let quarterback Troy Aikman take snaps with 10 seconds left on the clock.

Joey Galloway
Joey Galloway represents Dallas' shift to a faster receiving corps.

Then the race begins. Joey Galloway turns on his afterburners on a deep route. Rocket Ismail streaks toward the end zone on another. Halfback Chris Warren, still with 4.4 quickness in his early thirties, pushes the speed on linebackers trying to cover him on deep routes. The only differences between Cowboys camp and the Texas Motor Speedway is that vehicles in Wichita Falls are more expensive and run on Gatorade, not gas.

"It's going to be fun," a re-energized Aikman said of his new offense. "It's fun because of the people we have. In practice, we are creating problems for our defense, and it's been a while since our defensive coaches have talked like that. It's exciting."

For Cowboy fans, it's exciting to hear the energy back in Aikman's voice. During the Chan Gailey years, Aikman allowed himself to become too robotic in his approach to the offense. The fun wasn't there. Neither were the points.

"You have to be able to score points, and to do that, you have to make big plays," Aikman said. "If you can get six or seven 20-yard running plays in a game, then you don't need a passing game. Unfortunately in this league, you can't do that. So you have to throw the football."

From the sounds of Aikman's voice, you hear the frustration from his difference with Gailey over the direction of the offense.

"You have to be good at throwing the football, and we've not been very good at it," Aikman said. "Chan wanted to run the ball. Jack recognizes how important it is to put pressure on defenses with the pass."

Aikman looks like a race-car driver given the keys to the Batmobile. The accessories are his weapons. Galloway, Ismail and James McKnight are his rockets that he can fire downfield. Warren is a stealth weapon that will catch defenses by surprise from the backfield. Emmitt Smith is the anchor at running game.

But the one that excites Aikman the most is tight end Jackie Harris, who had almost been given up for retirement in backup roles in Tampa Bay and Tennessee over the past four seasons. Harris is the closest possession tight end Aikman has had since the retirement of Jay Novacek.

"Jackie might be the biggest acquisition of them all," Aikman said. "If teams roll up coverage on Joey and Rocket, which they will, we're going to get a lot of 'cover-two' zones and should be able to run the football. That also opens up a lot of inside stuff with Jackie. His strength is that he's almost like a basketball player who knows where the holes are in a defense and is great getting open when he has his back to a defender."

If Harris is a basketball player, coach Dave Campo is going to treat him like Patrick Ewing. He's not going to use him up early. Harris is 32. Campo isn't using him too much in practices and won't abuse him in exhibition games. To fit into the fast-paced offense, Harris was asked to go from 257 pounds to 242 pounds to regain his quickness.

The interesting thing about Troy is that you can talk to him, and he'll listen. I don't want to say any names, but other quarterbacks I've been around didn't listen.
Joey Galloway, Cowboys wide receiver

"Actually, I'm down to 240 and feel too light," Harris said. "Being lighter helps me with my breaks and my separation. We're probably going to use a lot of two-tight end sets because they didn't just bring me in here to be a third-down player."

In fact, the best case scenerio is for Harris to catch between 50 and 70 passes, but much of that will depend on how defenses cover the Cowboys new speed receivers.

"The defense is going to pay a lot of attention to Galloway and Rocket and that gives me a matchup against safeties and linebackers," Harris said. "I feel I can win most of those battles."

What's fun in practice is watching Galloway go against Ryan McNeil, the Cowboys' best remaining cornerback. During the morning practice Thursday, McNeil knocked Galloway to the ground with a quick jam of his hands. "I haven't been jammed like that in a few years," Galloway said.

Competitive by nature, Galloway came back to the line and gave Aikman a motion to get him the ball. Galloway flew by McNeil, who was expecting a short route, and went for a touchdown.

"The interesting thing about Troy is that you can talk to him, and he'll listen," Galloway said. "I don't want to say any names, but other quarterbacks I've been around didn't listen. This makes for an easier transition."

Galloway forecasts an offense that should score 25 to 30 points a game, but Galloway is the home-run threat. He has taken unfair criticism in Seattle for not going across the middle, but he wasn't really asked by Seahawks coaches for those routes.

"Do you think a quarterback calls a play, and I'm saying I'm not going to run it?" Galloway said. "In Seattle, there was always a stretch guy in the offense, and that was me."

Aikman said that Galloway runs routes better than he expected. His biggest problem is adjusting to Galloway's speed. The deep balls aren't as much of a problem because Aikman needs to only drop back quicker and heave a long throw that Galloway will run down.

"With Michael Irvin and others, I knew how long it took them to get to a spot," Aikman said. "Joey gets to a spot so fast and his location is different because he can get downfield so much faster. That makes the angles of throws completely different. We struggled at minicamps on the comebacks and other passes. But in camp, everything's clicked."

Galloway jokes that Aikman can't overthrow him. "Trust me, I can out-throw him," Aikman said.

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
 



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