Blogging The Boys

Felix the Cat returns to practice.

Felix Jones is practicing today for the first time since partially tearing his hamstring in the Oct. 12 loss to the Cardinals.

We'll get more from Wade Phillips this afternoon, but this is obviously a great sign that Jones will play Sunday against San Francisco.

Yessir.

The 2014 Final Four will be played in the new Cowboy stadium.

How cool is that?

Cowboys roundup and much more after the jump.

Can Greg Ellis be another Jim Jeffcoat? In the early '90s, coaches went to Jeffcoat and asked him to transition into somewhat of a role player for the good of the team. Jeffcoat said yes and produced, his numbers beared this out and the championships ensued. Is this the template for Ellis to follow?

IRVING – Jim Jeffcoat was reviewing tape of high school players, when he took a call on his cellphone regarding his days as a pass rush specialist.

The former Cowboys defensive end, who is the defensive line coach at the University of Houston, remembers when he was moved from an every-down lineman to a specialist.

"They came with the description that I would be the sixth man," Jeffcoat said. "About 30 to 35 plays a game. At the end of [the 1992 season] it gave me a different perspective. As we got closer to the playoffs, I did feel fresher, and I raised my game more."

I don't see why Ellis can't duplicate Jeffcoat's success or even succeed it. Jeffcoat played 12 years with the Cowboys and 15 years overall, finishing with 102 sacks. Ellis has played 10 years with the Cowboys and currently has 72 sacks. He's already been named NFL Comeback Player of the Year and a Pro-Bowler. I imagine Ellis will continue to howl a little bit and then do the right thing. And I'm totally fine about that. I'd rather someone complain before doing the right thing than someone who always says the right thing but never actually does the right thing.

The change has already began and results have been positive.

Two weeks ago, Spencer was told he would get more playing time over Ellis. Ellis would start, but the goal was to get a younger, faster player on the field.

Against the New York Giants, Spencer got 39 snaps to Ellis' 31, and the players combined for six tackles.

But in Sunday's win at Washington, Spencer got 24 snaps and Ellis 34.

If we can stay with this ratio, I believe we get the best of both worlds: a fresh rotation of D-lineman, a chance to get more reps for Spencer, and a chance for Ellis to do what he does best exclusively (getting to the QB) instead of trying to cover backs, tight ends and receivers out in the flat.

Good roundup of Cowboy articles and NFC East articles by Matt Mosley.

Check out the article about Jason Witten's ribs and how he's dealing with the pain. He took a painkilling injection before Sunday's game. That's one tough son of a biscuit-eating bulldog.

Romo and Will Smith. But inspirational and somewhat magical. Both loved by the lady folk. They were both at a Lake Highlands High School pep rally recently celebrating the school's volleyball team and football team.

Dude when I was in high school all I got was our school mascot mouthing the words to "It Was a Good Day." You guys get Romo and Will Smith? Dang. 

Apparently, high school pep rallies weren't enough for Romo. He also has a generous streak as seen here.

Shout out to DC_fan for his fanpost here.

In case you didn't know, Deion is NOT back on our bandwagon.

Miles Austin will be a restricted free agent after the season and the DMN is already discussing what type of contract he deserves. 

Miles Austin's knee injury is bad news for the Cowboys, but it got me to thinking, which is hard to do.

Austin will be a restricted free agent after the season, so how should the Cowboys approach him?

** Give him the low tender (which was $927,000 last year)
** Give him the second-round tender ($1.47 million last year)
** Give him the first-round tender ($2.017 million last year)
** Give him ther first- and thjrd-round tender ($2.562 million last year)

Dallas moves up in ESPN's Power Rankings.

Zach Thomas says we're getting our swagger back.

"You can't look ahead to Thanksgiving or look ahead to the Pittsburgh game," Zach Thomas said. "You've got to look ahead to San Fran. You've got to take this game like it's a playoff game again. That's how we felt like last week, that it was a must-win.

"I feel like we're getting our confidence going and getting our swagger back. So hopefully we can stay consistent and keep playing well."

Should this be our theme song then?