Dallas Cowboys to face Steelers Thursday with eye on Saturday’s practice with Rams

After roughly two weeks of training camp practices in Southern California, the Dallas Cowboys are primed and ready for Thursday’s preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is pleased that the NFL opted to reschedule the match-up that was to have occurred in last year’s game, before the pandemic wiped it away. And it will be the first capacity crowd for an NFL game since the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV 18 months ago.

Playing in the Hall of Fame Game has given the Cowboys an extra game and additional prep time as they look to bounce back from an injury-plagued 6-10 season. The regular season starts in five weeks, on Sept. 9, against the defending champion Buccaneers in Tampa Bay, but first thing’s first.

The Cowboys, will approach Thursday’s Steelers game with a dual focus, thanks to a having a dual practice with the Los Angeles Rams back in California less than 48 hours after kickoff. The Cowboys will return to Oxnard early Friday morning and take the day off before taking the field with the Rams on Saturday.

“I think the most important thing is we want to go out and compete, go out and establish our place now as a football team,” McCarthy said. “But I definitely am factoring in Saturday’s work. We’re looking at the combination of Thursday’s work and Saturday as one. We’re trying to find some balance in those reps. So the snaps on players on Thursday’s game will definitely be tied to their projected snaps in Saturday’s practice.”

The rookies and young players will be the primary focus on Thursday against the Steelers. Don’t look for many veterans to play long, if at all. Anyone nursing an injury will be held out.

Quarterback Dak Prescott has already been ruled out the game with shoulder strain. But the trio of backup quarterbacks — Garrett Gilbert, Cooper Rush and Ben DiNucci — will all play.

The Cowboys will use the preseason games to get a better sense of what they have behind Prescott. All three are competing against prospective backups on other rosters.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for DiNucci, who grew up in 90 minutes away in Pittsburgh and so in attendance he’ll have 15 family members. All were Steelers fans until DiNucci was drafted by the Cowboys two years ago.

“I got a lot of family that’s going to be out. It should be awesome,” DiNucci said. “Looking forward to getting in there and showing people what I can do.”

Thursday also will be the Cowboys’ debut of another Pennsylvania guy, rookie linebacker Micah Parsons, who was drafted 12th overall out of Penn State. It will be the first look at how the team plans to deploy Parsons in the new defense being installed by Dan Quinn. He has been used as middle linebacker, outside linebacker and edge rusher in practice during training camp.

Still, expect Parsons’ to see limited minutes. The Cowboys’ priority will be trying to evaluate young players who are fighting for roles and roster spots.

Some guys who have turned heads in camp include cornerbacks Nahshon Wright, Maurice Canady and Kelvin Joseph; linebacker Jabril Cox; receivers Malik Turner, Johnny Dixon and Osirus Mitchell; and tight end Sean McKeon.

With the veterans getting most of their work in during practice, McCarthy said the preseason offers the chance for young guys to come in and compete. “To me, this is what the preseason has always been about.”

More broadly, McCarthy said the team is pumped to show what it can do. The defensive players are looking to reverse that much-maligned narrative about their unit, which does appear to be slightly ahead and more impressive than the offense has been thus far.

“I am excited to play this game and come out of this thing healthy and get the quality work that we anticipate with the Rams on Saturday,” McCarthy said. “So this is a really good stretch for us. It will gives us a better idea where we are.”