You all saw the game Cowboys played against the 49ers, and you all had to see Linebacker Jaylon Smith who, despite participating in less than half of the defensive snaps on Sunday, played pretty much his best game so far. Although he was on the filed for only a short amount of time, his workload was just the right amount, and it seems that it was just right for Cowboys. Smith made his career first sack on a strip-sack of San Francisco 49ers quarterback C.J., and that is, among all else, what got him his coach’s praise at Monday’s conference.
“Jaylon probably played his best game. He was around the ball a lot. He had the one big impact sack. That combination of guys playing that linebacker spot, they really showed up in the game” was a statement that Garrett gave on Monday news conference. If you follow Cowboys, then you know that this was their first game where they had a fully healthy linebacker crew. In that match, both Sean Lee (missed the previous two because of a hamstring injury) and Anthony Hitchens (missed the first four games because of a knee injury) were available, and Smith was there as a bonus.
Thanks to the fact that both Lee and Hitchens were healthy and game ready it cut deep into Smith’s field time, but nevertheless, he managed to play 32 of 66 defensive snaps, and boy did he bring his A-game. There was a fun part of the game where Smith did his signature “swipe” after the sack, indeed the fun part is when he did it twice just to make sure that cameras caught it. “It was a great feeling whenever you’re able to make a big play to help out the team. That’s what it’s all about. We’re all in it for the team.” Smith stated and continued “In those type of moments it reminds you when you were 7-years-old playing football. It’s definitely a blessing.”
One more thing made the Sunday game against the San Francisco 49ers very interesting, and it is the fact that Sean Lee limped off the field after a 40-10 victory. Garrett tried to downplay the significance of Lee’s injury by stating “We took him out because we wanted to get the other guys an opportunity to play at the end of the ballgame. We anticipate him being ready this week.” If this is Lee’s hamstring injury creeping back on him once again after he missed the previous two games, it probably will not be good news for Cowboys. But that is not all for the injury-plagued Dallas squad. As you could see neither defensive back Chidobe Awuzie (hamstring) and linebacker Justin Durant (groin) played on Sunday and Garrett said that they will be limited in practice Wednesday and “We’ll see how they do as the week goes on.”
