Mason's Morsels

Countless beads of sweat dangled and dropped from Jarvis Moss’ face as he left the practice field at Dallas Cowboys headquarters on Thursday morning. After all, just because you’re local and used to the stifling conditions doesn’t mean it won’t leave you soggy and in need of a shower.

But when Moss walks onto the Texas Stadium turf for Saturday night’s game, he’ll do so with a large contingent of his nearest and dearest looking on — about 30 strong.

But they won’t all be in matching No. 94 jerseys. Moss is a rookie; it takes time to get everyone outfitted. “My brother and little sister got a jersey, but that’s about all right now,” he said.

Moss was drained late Thursday morning, but happy nonetheless. His knee made it through a second straight day of practice, and his gallop was returning to normal after he favored the left knee he injured during practice on Aug. 6.

“(The knee) is actually doing really good. I’m really excited about that,” Moss said. “My legs the past few days have been back under me and it’s showing. I’m out there competing and that’s just a really good feeling for me especially since I’ve got family and friends coming to the game. Just feeling a little healthier and ready to go.”

But Moss is not at 100 percent just yet.

“He has to go through a healing process,” Head Coach Mike Shanahan said. “Before he got hurt he was looking extremely good and hopefully he can pick up where he left off.”

For now, Moss is just happy that he’s on the field with the club and not in the tub, to rephrase a players’ cliché.

“I’m just really excited to be healthy — finally,” he said.

ATTENDANCE REPORT: A right calf injury sidelined Demetrin Veal … Wide receivers Rod Smith and Brandon Stokley remained sidelined, but Stokley caught passes lightly during the session … Offensive tackles Jacob Rogers and Ryan Harris both reamained out with knee and back injuries, and Ben Hamilton remained sidelined due to his concussion … Four defensive linemen did not practice: Gerard Warren, Sam Adams, Demetrin Veal and Alvin McKinley.

ANOTHER CHANGE UP FRONT: Just over one week after Montrae Holland moved up to the first team at right guard, Adam Meadows found himself running with the ones as right tackle, while Monday night starter Erik Pears was with the second unit at left tackle during Wednesday morning’s practice. Meadows had been seeing some time at both left and right tackles with the first string during practices in which first-team left tackle Matt Lepsis did not participate.

“We try to switch about every other practice,” Meadows said.

While Meadows ascended to the first team on the depth chart at right tackle last November when George Foster struggled, he did not see much playing time as he grappled with a hamstring injury. He first began dealing with hamstring problems at training camp last season, when he joined the Broncos and jumped right into work after two years out of football. Such problems have not cropped up this year.

“Last year I came in, I was here five days and I pulled a hamstring and I missed two weeks after that. Then I pulled a hamstring at the end of the year,” Meadows recalled.

“I think it was a matter of conditioning. But I definitely spent time in the offseason getting in shape, and being able to stay on the field is the fruit of that.

“Am I hurting? Yeah, but I think we’re all hurting. I feel pretty good.”

WHO’S WHERE: Aside from the Pears/Meadows shift at right tackle, the first-team offensive line remained the same as Wednesday morning, with Matt Lepsis at left tackle, Chris Myers at left guard, Tom Nalen at center and Montrae Holland lining up at right guard … With Adams absent, Jimmy Kennedy took his spot on the first team at defensive tackle alongside Amon Gordon … Nate Webster lined up with the first team at strongside linebacker.

JUST SCRAPPING: The punt work during the special-teams portion of practice saw a few players shove each other. The most dramatic came when Denver’s Bill Alford and Dallas’ Jerheme Urban shoved each other, although their tussle was quickly defused by teammates.

POINTS OF EMPHASIS: Red zone work, in both team, seven-on-seven and one-on-one formats … Punt and special teams work.

NOTABLE PLAYS AND PLAYERS: Daniel Graham, early in the seven-on-seven period of practice, getting a step on Dallas safety Roy Williams for a reception in the right flat from Jay Cutler … Tony Scheffler recovered from a lost potential touchdown, making a catch in the back of the end zone during team work … Cutler and Quincy Morgan, collaborating on a letter-perfect touchdown in one-on-one work that saw the football drop perfectly into Morgan’s grasp just inches beyond the outstretched hands of Dallas cornerback Anthony Henry … Glenn Martinez had a tough outing in his second day back; he dropped two passes in one-on-one work then broke open downfield in seven-on-seven work, only to have the Patrick Ramsey pass intercepted by Cowboys cornerback Courtney Brown. Martinez later grabbed a pass from Ramsey that was behind him, reaching back to snare the football … Brandon Marshall made a pair of receptions in tight coverage during team work … Ian Gold notched an interception … Deion Sanders attended practice and conversed with Shanahan; the two were together with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994 … Jim Bates verbally lacerated his players at one point during team work. “If you can’t leverage-tackle here, we’ll move on, I’ll guaran-damn-tee you that!” he bellowed. “I’m tired of seeing that.”

Photos:

More to come tonight … until then, vaya con Dios.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Training Camp, Jarvis Moss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.