Cowboys don't appear to have Woodson's secret sauce ingredients
If you go by Darren Woodson's knowledge of the game, it sure doesn't sound like the Dallas Cowboys have the "secret sauce" for winning a Super Bowl this season.
The former Cowboys safety and three-time Super Bowl champion was asked Wednesday what he thinks are the ingredients to winning in the NFL. His answer included two of the weakest areas on Dallas' roster.
"You have to win in the trenches," Woodson said before the Cowboys Kickoff Luncheon at AT&T Stadium. "That's the sauce. We can say what we want to say about Dez Bryant and Jason Witten and Miles Austin and [Tony] Romo but if you're not winning in the trenches, you're not winning a championship. At some point, they're going to have to ball up their fists … and they're going to have to win in the trenches for them to win football games. To me, it starts on the offensive line and then bleeds into the defensive side of the ball."
The Cowboys offensive line has been a work in progress all off-season. Tyron Smith is starting at left tackle and Travis Frederick will do the same at center. The other three positions are still uncertain with the season opener only 10 days away.
On the other side of the ball, the defensive line looked like so much of a strength in the off-season that the Cowboys didn't draft a single defensive lineman. But injuries have greatly changed that outlook.
Tyrone Crawford was lost for the season on the first day of training camp after tearing his left Achilles tendon, Jay Ratliff is out for at least the first six games with a groin injury, Anthony Spencer had arthroscopic knee surgery last month and Jason Hatcher is nursing a strained groin. All four entered camp among the team's top five defensive linemen.
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