Dallas special teams unit, generally mediocre under the now-deposed Bruce Read, has been fairly mistake prone so far this preseason. Botched catches, big returns and costly, badly timed penalties are certainly ugly, and that, perhaps, is why many Cowboys fans have been vocal in their concerns about the unit.
But according to new Special Teams coach Bruce Read, these mistakes are a necessary evil when it's the preseason. The key, he says, is to limit them to the games that, at the end of the day, don't count for anything but a learning experience.
"You take a little flak about some of the things that happen, penalties and all those things, but what we're trying to do is make sure these things happen now, in the preseason, and not in the regular season," DeCamillis said on Tuesday. "That's our goal. And if they don't see them and they don't have those things happen to them in the preseason, it's not going to register with them."
DeCamillis went beyond accepting the mistakes as inevitable, actually expressing some sense of relief that they have made mistakes, and believes that this will ultimately aid in limiting them.
"I know not everybody's glad, but I'm glad it happened," he continued. "Because I think you can learn from some of those things."
