[Underdog]

Health Insurance
Starter Hurt, But Cowboys Rolling With New Men


IRVING, Texas - This is the very reason the Cowboys loaded up on cornerbacks this off-season.

Terence Newman needs time off for his abdominal strain to heal and will probably miss Sunday's game. Without rest, it could become something more serious like a sports hernia, which would require surgery and potentially threaten the Pro Bowler's season.

While Newman played his first four years without missing any games, he turned 30 before the season began and fellow starter Anthony Henry will be 32 midway through the season. Henry has missed seven games since signing with the Cowboys before the 2005 campaign.

"It got to a point where I couldn't do my job," Newman said. "I definitely had to say something to the trainers to get it corrected. You never know what it is, you could have prostate cancer or something."

The team learned its lesson at the position last season, when injuries to starters forced backup Jacques Reeves into a full-time role, starting 13 games. He and fellow reserve Nate Jones left the team through free agency this off-season, making cornerback a position of both need and opportunity. The Cowboys needed to stock up on young depth, and had the opportunity to really bolster their coverage group by trading for a potential playmaker.

The unit went from an understaffed one to a real strength with the additions of Adam "Pacman" Jones, and rookies Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick. Even though there is no real timetable for Newman's return, the Cowboys might be in better shape on the corner than the times they were missing a starter last year. The group is young and inexperienced, but they do have more natural talent than the crew that left in the off-season.

From early in training camp, the plan was to make Jones the primary backup to both Newman and Henry. It didn't take long before he was starting, as Newman left the morning practice July 28 with a groin injury. Jones started the season opener in Cleveland when the Cowboys elected to rest Newman, who returned to action the next week as the nickel corner. Newman started the next two weeks, but said his injury, in the crease between his leg and midsection, flared up last week and forced the Cowboys to reevaluate the situation.

Newman didn't practice Wednesday. He said it would be a bad idea to go all week without testing the injury, then try to jump into the lineup on gameday. He said the pain slowed him during the three-game return, and admitted he played his worst against Washington Sept. 28, allowing a couple of touchdown passes. When Newman has played, the Cowboys allowed on average 243 passing yards per game, but just 161 through the air when he was out of the lineup.

"I don't want to take the easy way out and say it was because of an injury," Newman said. "I put myself in that position and I didn't make plays. If you look at the film you could see that my turnover when I run is nothing like it's been the last four years. It was just a little different."

The absence of Newman makes the Cowboys look wise for sinking so much into the position.

"I would probably have to move to cornerback and cover a couple guys," said linebacker DeMarcus Ware, joking about what the team would do if they hadn't restocked in the spring. "From us drafting a lot of cornerbacks, you can see they're out there running all the time and it's a lot of stress on their legs. I'm glad we did draft them."

The rookies have a full load playing on defensive sub-packages. Jenkins lines up wide right when the Cowboys use four cornerbacks and slide Henry over to cover a tight end, and Scandrick has replaced Newman as the slot cornerback in nickel and dime situations. Both have special teams duties, with Scandrick among the team's leading tacklers in the kicking game.

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said the team was hoping to play more man coverage going into the season, but that changed with an unhealthy Newman.

While the Cowboys play a combination of man and zone in the secondary right now, the plan to eventually use mostly man coverage hasn't changed, according to Phillips, it's just dependent on Newman's availability. With a youth movement filling in for now, the defensive backs will play primarily in soft coverage, allowing underneath throws and forcing teams to three-step drop against them. One defender said press coverage could help lead to more pressure against quick passes, but the Cowboys have been giving receivers plenty of space. This takes away from the effects of the front seven's pass rush, but it also cuts down on deep passes.

"It's because it's three wide receivers, too, and four wide receivers," Phillips said, referring to the soft zone cushion. "And Green Bay had really good receivers, Cincinnati had really good receivers, and of course this week (against Arizona) we're running into the same thing. If the guys aren't good enough man-to-man wide, they're going to get beat. I think it's silly going to something you're not adept at yet."

If the entire secondary was healthy, the defense would be free to play more aggressive. Roy Williams' injury seems to have had as big an effect on the secondary as Newman's.

The Cowboys have shown a few different looks when teams have thrown multiple receivers at them this year, but since Williams was hurt in the second game, they have mostly used a single safety, Ken Hamlin, instead of the six-DB dime package they worked on so much during training camp. Pat Watkins moved from his role coming in for Williams on the dime, to that of a base defense starter. That moved Courtney Brown in to play next to Hamlin in the dime set. Brown's still young himself, so the team had most often defended extra wide receivers with only Hamlin back deep, which takes away the man coverage option.

"In football you break the field into quarters," Scandrick said. "With a single safety, you're limited in the things you can do because he can only cover his third. With double safeties, they can split halves or they can split quarters."

Arizona won't be at its best in the passing game since receiver Anquan Boldin won't play, but Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner have a pretty good rapport built up.

Phillips said Boldin was the guy Arizona moved around more, and Fitzgerald primarily lines up in the same spot, out wide. That would pit him against Jones and Henry, a matchup with which the Cowboys can't be too disappointed.

Henry plays better against large wide receivers, and Jones has been arguably the Cowboys' best defensive player the last few games. He has six passes defended on the season, including three Sunday. The word most often used when discussing Jones in the preseason was 'rust,' but he has been rock solid so far, save a few dropped interceptions.

Against Fitzgerald, the Cowboys secondary might be facing their toughest competition yet.

"It's troubling in that we have a Pro Bowl player that's not able to play," Phillips said. "Now we have three really young players, and I'm counting Pac as a [25] year old guy who is new with us, and the two rookies playing . . . it just takes some time for those guys to play all the things you would like for them to play even though they have ability. We're coming along slowly there."

Of course, the players aren't going to make any excuses about age and experience.

"Whoever's in the game has to step up and play," Hamlin said. "Whether it be Terence or Orlando or Mike Jenkins or Adam or whoever. Whoever's playing the game, they're held accountable to know what's going on and be ready to play."

For the first time in years, the Cowboys should have confidence they can get through an injury to a key member of their secondary, like Newman. After all, they loaded up on insurance in the off-season.