SPORTSDAY

For the first time this season the Cowboys did not score on their first drive of the game when Jason Witten was stopped 4 yards short on a third-down play.

However, Witten's touchdown catch with 30 seconds left in the opening frame marked the 12th time in the seasons' first 13 quarters they have scored. The only time they didn't score came in the fourth quarter in the opener at Cleveland when they ran out the final 10 minutes of the game.

We've talked at length about the Cowboys' weapons. The truth of the matter is that no one in the locker room can say for sure who will have a big day until game time.

If the defense tries to take away Terrell Owens, you've got Miles Austin or Patrick Crayton. Stuff Marion Barber, and Felix Jones can get loose. Leave the middle open and Jason Witten will run wild.

"Guys make impacts in different ways," Austin said. "Last game, T.O. had the big blocks downfield. He caught two big passes, but it was his blocks that were making the difference. This week, you never know. If they try to do the same type of defense, we'll continue to do what we did last week. If they don't, he'll get off. One way or another, hopefully we can put some points on the board."

So who exactly will go off against the Redskins and why? My guess is that the running game has a big day since Washington will be without Jason Taylor.

During the first half, Miles Austin decided to ditch the brace he was wearing on his right knee.

"Cut the shackles off," Austin said. "Let's go."

Austin proceeded to show why coaches buzzed about him all spring, picking up where he left off before injuring his knee covering a kickoff after catching a TD pass in a preseason game.

Austin probably won't catch a lot of passes this season, but he might land a few knockout punches. His 52-yard TD catch in the fourth quarter certainly put the Packers down for the count. Austin's other reception, a 63-yarder that set up the Cowboys' previous score, was also a haymaker.

Not that this should be a surprise, but Miles Austin will be active for tonight's game against Philadelphia after missing the season opener with a knee injury.

It's the process of elimination here. Wade Phillips said the Cowboys will have four receivers active. They didn't call up Mike Jefferson from the practice squad over the weekend. And Austin had a good week of practice.

I'm not sure Austin will wear the brace on his knee, but it will be heavily taped. He suffered a Grade 3 tear of the MCL during the Denver preseason game and returned to practice last week.

Maybe he doesn't take all of the No. 3 receiver snaps that Isaiah Stanback took vs. the Browns, but he will get a lot.

The Cowboys didn't draft a wide receiver in April because they didn't think there was an impact player in this year's crop. The knee-jerk reaction after one week is that they were wrong.

Denver's Eddie Royal leads the league with 168 receiving yards after abusing DeAngelo Hall and the Raiders. Royal, who made Cowboys first-round CB Mike Jenkins look bad during a preseason game, had nine catches and a TD in Oakland while Brandon Marshall watched from home.

Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson, who the Cowboys will see Monday night, has Philly folks thinking the Eagles have finally hit on a high draft pick at receiver. The little fella displayed his big-play ability in a rout of the Rams, catching six passes for 106 yards (including a 47-yarder) and returning a punt 60 yards.

Jerry Jones considered trading up into the second round to get Indiana WR James Hardy, who went to Buffalo with the 41th overall pick. The Broncos took Royal with the next pick, and the Eagles snatched Jackson at No. 49.

In the Cowboys' defense, their passing game didn't appear to be a problem while Tony Romo was throwing for 320 yards in Cleveland.

The Cowboys are expected to sign Brooks Bollinger today to be the No. 3 QB.

WR Mike Jefferson, who was promoted from the practice squad for the season opener, will probably be the guy cut to make room on the 53-man roster. QB Richard Bartel will probably be released from the practice squad to make room for Jefferson.

If OL James Marten clears waivers, he'll go to the Cowboys' practice squad. Just a guess, but I think OLB Tearrius George will be the guy to go.

The Cowboys' Pro Bowl skill players performed like guys who will be headed back to Hawaii.

Tony Romo threw for 320 yards while completing 75 percent of his passes. Marion Barber rushed for 80 yards and two TDs on 16 carries. Terrell Owens had five catches for 87 yards and a TD (and thought he should have been credited for another score). Jason Witten caught six balls for 96 yards.

But Patrick Crayton's performance was pretty darn good, too. The goat of the playoff loss to the Giants caught six passes for 82 yards, including one spectacular catch on a ball behind him when he was tightly covered.

Crayton thought about his crucial drop against the Giants every time he caught passes during the off-season. It still weighs heavily on his mind.

"It doesn't wash it away," Crayton said of starting a new season with a good game. "It's a start, but it's still there."

The Dallas Cowboys open with a 28-10 win on the road. Plenty of numbers for Cowboys fans to enjoy. Tony Romo goes 24-for-32 for 320 yards. Marion Barber scores twice and Cleveland's Derek Anderson musters just 114 passing yards. Also, three Cowboys receivers had more than 80 yards receiving each. Next up, the Philadelphia Eagles, who had the other blowout win of the day.

(Photo by Michael Ainsworth/Dallas Morning News)

Here are two matchups worth noting.

DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis vs. Joe Thomas and Kevin Shaffer

Everyone talks about Ware taking on Thomas. Both Ware and Ellis will matchup against Thomas, considered one of the best young tackles in the game, after only one season. The Cowboys will flip both Ellis, the strong side backer, and Ware, the weakside one, today. Ellis and Ware like to use their hands a lot when they rush.

Ellis said Thomas and Shaffer do a fine job in knocking hands away when pass rushers attack. Thomas will see either Ware or Ellis in one-on-one matchups. It will be interesting to see if Shaffer gets some help, when Ware moves to his side.

Patrick Crayton made a big deal last season about the Cowboys breaking the NFL record for points in a season.

The Cowboys fell 101 points shy of the 1998 Vikings record, finishing second in the NFL with 455 points. And the Patriots shattered the record, putting up 589 points.

The record is no longer a concern for Crayton.

"Man, I don't know.," Crayton said when asked about the record. "New England set it up there high. What is it, 580-something? We'd have to average 30 something or 40 points per game. It'd be a hell of a year. If we can get wins and not a scoring record, I think will take that."

Crayton is setting goals on a much more short-term basis this season. His primary goal is to execute every play properly, which isn't quite as quotable as declaring in September that his team will break records.

There is no doubt that Isaiah Stanback, who is wearing a harness to protect a shoulder dislocated less than two weeks ago, will be able to play in Sunday's season opener. Judging by Stanback's performance in today's practice, he might make an impact against the Browns.

Wade Phillips reports that Stanback caught pretty much everything in his radius during the windy workout at Valley Ranch. That included some highlight type of catches, including at least one one-hander.

"We might ought to put a harness on him all the time," Phillips said.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi points out that, like the Browns, the Cowboys have a Pro Bowl quarterback who came out of nowhere, a big WR who puts up huge numbers and an awesome tight end.

And that's only the start of the similarities between the Browns' and Cowboys' offenses. It's almost eerie how similar the units are, right down to their injury concerns entering this weekend's season opener in Cleveland.

The Cowboys will not make a move at No. 3 quarterback until next week at the earliest but they had their leading candidate, Brooks Bollinger, in for a visit to Valley Ranch.

Bollinger, 28, is in his sixth season out of Wisconsin, spending his first three seasons with the New York Jets and the last two with Minnesota. He has completed 201-of-343 passes for 2,155 yards in 19 games with eight touchdown passes and eight interceptions. He started nine games for the Jets in 2005 and was 2-7.

In the preseason finale vs. the Cowboys last week he completed 6 of 18 passes for 62 yards without a touchdown or an interception and was sacked twice.

Just wanted to make that clear in case the Cowboys change their mind about Brooks Bollinger being the guy they want as the No. 3 QB.

Of course, it's understandable that the Cowboys aren't too interested in a guy who apparently finished third behind Todd Bouman and Joey Harrington in the Ravens' one-day QB competition.

The Cowboys will add a QB next week, so the salary won't be guaranteed for the whole season.

WR Isaiah Stanback is practicing today, 10 days after he dislocated his left shoulder on a kickoff return against Houston.

Stanback, who hopes to postpone surgery on the shoulder until after the season, looked fine while running routes and catching passes in warmups. He was able to get his hands above his head to catch a pass on a crossing route without any problems.

Of course, contact will be the real test for Stanback's shoulder, which is protected by a harness. But there is at least a possibility that he'll play in the season opener, which would give the Cowboys a third receiver.

As expected, Tampa Bay cut QB Chris Simms, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Jerry Jones said on draft day that the Cowboys would be interested in a young, experienced QB to groom behind Tony Romo. A story in the St. Petersburg Times mentioned that Simms hoped to hear from the Cowboys and Packers after getting cut.

The Cowboys are confident in soon-to-be-40 Brad Johnson as Romo's backup, but a third QB would definitely seem to have more value than, say, an 11th offensive lineman.

Reports out of Arizona have WRs Jamaica Rector and Jerheme Urban as bubble guys on the Cardinals' roster. If the Cardinals cut one of those guys, don't be surprised if they end up in Dallas.

Jerry Jones made it clear last night that the Cowboys won't sign a receiver who has never worked with Tony Romo. Rector and Urban have experience with Romo and the current coaching staff, as the Cowboys cut both last August.

The 5-10, 183-pound Rector, a Celeste, Texas, product, caught a ton of Romo's passes when they were both scout-team guys in 2005. Rector spent that season on the Cowboys' practice squad and started the '06 season on the 53-man roster after leading the team in preseason yards and catches. He was cut in October '06, signed to the practice squad and let go again after being hampered with injuries during last season's training camp.

Urban (6-3, 207) was one of the Cowboys' last cuts last season after spending the last couple months of the '06 season on the practice squad. He caught 22 passes for 329 yards and two TDs last season with the Cardinals.

Wade Phillips didn't exactly gush with praise about Danny Amendola or Mike Jefferson today. Rector or Urban might be upgrades as fill-ins for Sam Hurd and Miles Austin.

Richard Bartel is expected to play the entire preseason finale for two reasons: 1) No sense in risking an injury to Tony Romo or Brad Johnson; 2) the Cowboys want a long look at Bartel before determining whether his time at Valley Ranch is done.

Even if Bartel has a spectacular performance, it'd be tough to see a scenario where the Cowboys keep him on the 53-man roster. He has a strong arm, but he simply hasn't shown enough progress to merit a roster spot, especially with the Cowboys needing to carry several injured players on the 53 to start the season.

The Grapevine product, who was out of the Cowboys' plans after final cuts last season until Carolina picked up Matt Moore off waivers, is probably playing to stick on the practice squad for the second consecutive season. He's the only in-house candidate to be scout-team QB, but he's competing against every other QB around the league who will be cut this week.

Matter of fact, SI.com's Don Banks considers Johnson an above-average backup QB. He ranks Johnson 11th among the NFL's 32 backups.

11. Dallas: Brad Johnson -- Johnson is the only quarterback on the list who won a Super Bowl as a starter. The Cowboys offense wouldn't be as potent vertically if he were to take over for Tony Romo, but few passers have been more accurate or adept at knowing where to go with the football.

The biggest knock on Johnson is that he lacks arm strength. But he threw catchable deep balls in the last two games, completing a 37-yarder to Miles Austin and throwing a pretty pass that Mike Jefferson couldn't find on a corner route.

Johnson's career stats compare favorably with Troy Aikman -- not saying Johnson is a Hall of Famer, just he's had a pretty darn good career. He certainly can't be expected to perform like a Pro Bowler as a 40-year-old, but the Cowboys are confident that he wouldn't lose games if pressed into duty with all this talent around him.

Of course, the Cowboys could use a young QB to develop as Tony Romo's long-term backup and/or future trade fodder. Matt Moore, No. 15 on Banks' list, would have been a perfect fit.

WR/KR Isaiah Stanback is able to lift his arms to shoulder level, a good sign of progress after dislocating his left shoulder Friday night. His plan is to try to rehab the shoulder and play this season wearing a harness.

Stanback will still have to get a second operation on the shoulder, but he wants to wait until after the season, as he did last year.

"Everybody on this team plays with pain," Stanback said. "If that's what it's gotta come down to, that's what I gotta do."

Stanback said it took him about 10 days to return to practice after suffering the same injury last season, so there's a chance he could be ready for the season opener in Cleveland.

Miles Austin is expected to miss four to six weeks with a sprained MCL in his left knee. That means the best-case scenario is that he returns for the second regular season game.

"I don't really want to deal with timelines," said Austin, who is concerned about aggravating the injury if he tries to come back before he's completely healthy. "When it's ready, I'll be ready to go."

Austin appeared to be establishing himself as a key component of the Cowboys' passing game before getting injured. He followed up an impressive performance in the preseason opener vs. San Diego (five catches, 64 yards) by making two great catches (37-yarder followed by skying for a TD on a fade route) in Denver.

And then he got hurt on the kickoff after his touchdown grab. Talk about frustrating.

Jerry Jones said the Cowboys aren't interested in signing Joe Horn. If that's a surprise to you, perhaps you missed it when Jerry shot down Horn rumors in June.