5 ‘noteworthy’ points Cowboys v Jaguars: Deuce Vaughn, Mazi Smith, Eric Scott Jr,…

The Dallas Cowboys “lost” the opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday afternoon, bringing us to one-third of the way through the preseason. Keeping note of preseason victories and losses is a foolish game, but keeping track of the game on Saturday is a sensible investment. Dallas looked incredibly terrific in some ways, a little less so in others, and it feels safe to say that they verified a lot of our suspicions about this squad over the last few months.

A good night’s sleep on anything might sometimes help you readjust what you saw, or thought you saw. Here’s a day after game review, which we’ll be doing all year.

Let’s get started.

The Deuce Vaughn phenomena is a lot of fun, and it very well could be true

Deuce Vaughn carries the ball eight times for 50 yards and one touchdown, with 26 yards coming in one swoop. But they were 8 incredible carries.

Vaughn sweeping through the NFC East like he did the Big XII has always seemed like something only the most optimistic Cowboys fan could believe was conceivable, but Saturday put a lot of wind in those sails.

It didn’t harm Vaughn’s overall stock (see the full stock report after the game here) that Malik Davis was unimpressive or that Rico Dowdle fumbled. For number 42, the arrow is pointing primarily upward.

Eric Scott Jr.’s return to earth was unavoidable

Gravity equals 9.8 meters per second squared. This is an unavoidable truth of life. Another reality about the force of gravity is that it is unavoidable. What goes up must come down, which means rookie cornerback Eric Scott Jr. was due for a poor game.

There has been nothing but buzz surrounding Scott Jr. since Dallas traded up for him. He worked with the first team throughout minicamp and has impressed almost everyone thus far in training camp (not to mention having the first interception of camp, even if it came off of a tipped pass).

Hopefully, his performance on Saturday (which was poor if none of this is evident) was just him adjusting to the professional level, and it all served as a learning experience. There is evidence, however shaky, to support this notion.

The Cowboys are lucky to have some very excellent cornerback depth, but if Scott does not become the next DaRon Bland (a lofty goal), they may have to reconsider who they carry at the bottom of the depth chart.

There appears to be some disagreement about Mazi Smith’s performance

The Cowboys’ first-round choice received some praise in the aforementioned stock report. Smith, Mazi. Smith’s effort was not what the kids term “a deuce,” but it improved as the game progressed.

To this point in camp, it appears that we have been navigating a minefield of Smiththoughts and/or takes. He hasn’t popped or had an incredible highlight, and with a first-round label on him, this has caused some concern.

Let us all take a deep breath. He’ll be just fine.

No kicker will ever be flawless

Maybe it’s just the general optimism of the season, but I wasn’t angry when Brandon Aubrey missed an extra point on Saturday.

Who knows if this is due to a growing apathy for the Cowboys’ kicking difficulties. However, he batted.750 on the night by hitting his other kicks, including his lone field goal attempt.

A reasonable posture on Aubrey is to be dubious in general, but we have seen him attempt four kicks that were not at River Ridge in Oxnard and he made the majority of them. This isn’t about settling for less or being overly generous. He has only had one kicking session on an NFL field (that we have seen). Let’s try it again.

It felt like nobody “lost” a roster spot

There are a handful of players around their third or fourth year of service with the Cowboys that plenty of us had effectively written off any future 53-man roster prediction. We all know the names.

Did anybody really lose one on Saturday in your opinion? It’s hard to say yes. The likes of Simi Fehoko and Kelvin Joseph both had nice moments and while that in and of itself is hardly enough to lock them in, it feels like everyone in this sort of box did their job with regards to holding the line.

Truth be told roster spots (in terms of deep down the depth chart) are more earned on the practice field than through the three preseason contests, but obviously these games matter. Perhaps somebody will have a whoopsie or two against the Seattle Seahawks or Las Vegas Raiders that will make cutting ties all the more easy, but that day was not on Saturday against the Jaguars.