Injury prone starting running back DeMarco Murray saw his first OTA cut short on Tuesday after suffering a hamstring injury. Head coach Jason Garrett didn’t get into any specifics after the session, but said the team will proceed with caution so as not to force the issue with Murray or anyone else.

“We don’t want to put any of those guys in a situation where they’re going to take a backwards step,” Garrett said, per the Dallas Morning News. “Obviously you want them all out there, going 100 miles an hour. But you have to understand it is May 21, this is OTA 1, and we have a long way to go. So we’ll take a conservative approach.”

The good news: Garrett continued to say of Murray, “We anticipate to see him in the next few practices.”

Murray’s rookie season was cut short by a fractured ankle, and he missed six games a season ago with ligament damage in his foot. Dallas picked up Oklahoma State running back Joseph Randle in the fifth round of the 2013 draft to back up and play alongside the starter.

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Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo isn’t taking part in the team’s first organized team activities of the offseason as he recovers from a procedure to remove a cyst from his back. But he is present at Valley Ranch, giving the franchise quarterback the first chance to speak to the media since signing an unprecedented six-year, $108 million extension.

Like everybody in the organization, Romo was quick to point out that 8-8, Dallas’ record in each of the past two seasons, isn’t going to cut it.

“I love this organization,” Romo said, per the Dallas Morning News. “We’ve started something here. We haven’t achieved that goal yet. But I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we don’t…We were 8-8. That feels average. I don’t like being an average football team. I don’t like being an average quarterback who is a part of 8-8. I feel like we’re better than that.

“I feel like we need to do things to change that.”

Not only is Romo’s supporting cast a lot different than a year ago, the coaching staff has a new-look as well, keeping with Jerry Jones’ promise to shake things up following the team’s season-ending loss to the Redskins in week 17.

“The challenge of trying to get to where we want to go is extremely exciting, extremely tough, extremely challenging in a good way,” Romo said. “It’s not just me. It’s all the players, all the coaches, everyone in the organization is doing that. No one is content with an 8-8 football season.

“It’s going to be good. It’s going to be good around here.”

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NFL team owners have awarded Super Bowl L and LI to the Bay Area and Houston.

In Houston, Super Bowl LI will be played at Reliant Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, in 2017.

"I can't tell you how excited I am for Houston in being selected as the site for the 2017 Super Bowl," says Houston Texans owner Bob McNair. "This is a worldwide stage that will be constructed in Houston and the world will be watching. It's an opportunity to showcase our wonderful city, the NFL and the Super Bowl all at the same time."

Reliant Stadium last hosted the big game in 2004.  Houston hosted the game once before that, at Rice Stadium in 1974.

Details of Houston's 10-day festival, to be called "Super Bowl El Centro," and other plans, will be revealed Friday.

In the Bay Area, Super Bowl L will be played at the 49ers new stadium due to open in 2014 in Santa Clara, Calif. The Bay Area has hosted the Super Bowl once before, in 1985 when Super Bowl XIX was played in Stanford Stadium.

The last thing a play-caller wants is to be predictable. We can talk about execution all day and while the players obviously need to perform on the field, it’s the play-caller’s responsibility to put them in the best position to do that. Some plays have a higher success rate than others in specific situations, and the play-caller need to maximize that chances for success.

I’ve been breaking down the Cowboys’ formations in an attempt to determine how much predictability exists in their play-calling. Not all predictability is bad—it can be harnessed to secure big plays—but in general, we want the play-calls to be as unpredictable as possible.

Yesterday, I showed that the Cowboys rarely run the ball from Shotgun. We’d never expect a really high Shotgun run rate since the alignment is used mostly in passing situations, but I explained that the ‘Boys don’t use Shotgun solely on third down or in the fourth quarter. Further, they’re tipping their play-calls via the specific Shotgun formation; when Jason Witten is split out wide, the offense almost always passes the ball, regardless of the situation.

Below, I broke down the Cowboys’ 2012 Shotgun plays based on the down.

• First Down: 32.5 percent
• Second Down: 33.6 percent
• Third/Fourth Down: 33.8 percent

The distribution is pretty incredible with nearly the exact same number of plays across the three downs (if we count third and fourth down together). So while Dallas uses Shotgun on the majority of their third down plays, it’s not like they never run it on first or second down.

I also broke down the Shotgun plays via quarter. The first number below is the percentage of total Shotgun plays that occurred in each quarter. The second number is the percentage of those plays that were on third down. So in the first quarter, the Cowboys ran 15.1 percent of their total Shotgun plays, but 54.9 percent of those first quarter plays were on third down.

• First Quarter: 15.1 percent/54.9 percent
• Second Quarter: 24.6 percent/32.8 percent
• Third Quarter: 21.3 percent/33.6 percent
• Fourth Quarter/Overtime: 39.0 percent/26.4 percent

I think these numbers are telling because it shows that Jason Garrett doesn’t necessarily put a lot of Shotgun plays into the game plan. In the first quarter of games, the Cowboys don’t line up in Shotgun that often, doing so primarily on third down when they need to pass. By the second quarter, the Shotgun rate jumps substantially, suggesting the Cowboys have either scrapped their game plan by the second quarter or else just wait that long to call optimal plays. This trend to start the game with Tony Romo under center could be one reason the Cowboys start games so slowly.

Jonathan Bales is the founder of The DC Times. He writes for DallasCowboys.com and the New York Times. He's also the author of Fantasy Football for Smart People: How to Dominate Your Draft.

The Dallas Stars will unveil a new uniform and logo June 4 at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas.

Owner and Governor Tom Gaglardi, President and CEO Jim Lites, General Manager Jim Nill, Executive Advisor and Alternate Governor Mike Modano and Stars forward Jamie Benn will all be a part of the special event.

Special invitations to the event were sent in May to the media and full-season ticket holders.
 
"Since Tom Gaglardi took over as owner, we have been working diligently on a rebrand that is classic, simple and true-to-hockey," said Lites. "This event will showcase the results of that process to our loyal fans and will also provide us with an opportunity to announce several new developments about the future of our franchise."
 
The team said that, in addition to showing off the new logo and uniform, they'll address the current state of the franchise and will make a significant announcement regarding the 2013-14 season.
 

It created a buzz all over television and talk radio that lasted for days following Thursday's series-opening win that featured Rangers ace pitcher Yu Darvish and all-world Tigers ace Justin Verlander, Darvish was trotted back out for the eighth inning with a six-run lead and threw 130 pitches despite the fact the game seemed to be well in hand.

Darvish struggled early in the game and then cruised over the final four or five innings and gave a big favor to the Rangers' bullpen that had two rookie starters following him and then Derek Holland on Sunday, who failed to get out of the fifth inning.

Now, the second-year Rangers ace, who leads baseball in strikeouts and is 7-1 on the season, will make his next start on Tuesday night against the Oakland A's, a team that has had his number over his brief career, thanks partly to the fact that they like to work pitchers into high pitch counts, something Darvish is susceptible too as a strikeout pitcher.

The 130 pitches was a career-high since Darvish has been stateside. It wasn't rare for him to throw at least that many pitches, if not more, in Japan, where pitchers work just once a week instead of every fifth day.

He tied his previous career-high two starts ago when he threw 127 pitches against Boston in a win. It'll be interesting to see how long Rangers manager Ron Washington lets him go on Tuesday given all the backlash that came out of Thursday's start and with a bullpen that got worked pretty heavily on Sunday and Monday.

Ian Kinsler's trip to the disabled list definitely has some negative ramifications on the Texas Rangers. He was the team's leading hitter when he was shelved on Sunday and he's one of the team's leaders.

But there's also some positive things that come out of Kinsler being on the mend. First off, it lends to the call-up and playing time for super-prospect Jurickson Profar, who will get the majority of the playing time at second base while Kinsler is on the DL.

It also moves Elvis Andrus to the leadoff spot and creates a need for a new No. 2 hitter in the Rangers' lineup. That's where David Murphy comes in.

In his third straight game of hitting in the No. 2 spot in the Rangers' order on Monday, Murphy went 2-for-3, bringing his totals while hitting in the 2-hole this season to a .400 batting average with a big home run on Sunday night against the Tigers and five RBIs.

Over the course of his career, Murphy has hit .297 while hitting second in the lineup, where he's made just 19 starts in his career. Whatever the case, a new environment and new approach for Murphy has seemingly helped him break out of what had been a season-long slump

Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington is all about doing things right, doing the small things and "doing what the game asks" in regards to playing small ball and getting runs across the plate by any means necessary.

Based on his 2013 debut in Monday night's loss to Oakland, Washington is going to like what he gets from 20-year-old rookie phenom Jurickson Profar.

Baseball's top prospect made his Rangers 2013 debut on Monday after being called up to replace Ian Kinsler on the roster after he went on the disabled list and drove in the Rangers' only two runs in Monday's game.

He did it without a hit, but he got an RBI goundout and a sacrifice fly to fairly deep center, showing he's capable of the situational hitting that Washington loves so much.

"He handled his at-bats well tonight," Washington said after the game. "We scored two runs tonight. He got both."

With Kinsler on the shelf for 15 days, it's expected that Profar will get the majority of the time at second base but his future beyond that is very cloudy. He'll most likely return to Triple-A Round Rock when Kinsler returns, regardless of how well he does because there's simply nowhere for him to play as neither Kinsler nor shortstop Elvis Andrus are going to sit in favor of Profar.

It's been a long road back for Texas Rangers starting pitcher Colby Lewis after undergoing surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his elbow last summer.

Lewis began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago before having to halt it for a week due to some unrelated arm soreness. On Monday morning, he re-started his rehab campaign at Double-A Frisco, throwing 47 pitches. He wasn't too pleased with the results, but made it sound as if it's just part of the process of getting back after nearly a year off.

"I'm trying to get to where I can get big league hitters out," Lewis told ESPN Dallas. "In my mind, I don't think I can do that yet."

Lewis was sitting in the mid 80s with his fastball and topped out at 87 mph — not nearly fast enough to succeed in the big leagues, unless your name is Greg Maddux.

"I definitely need more reps," Lewis said. "I definitely need to get my arm strengthen up. Throwing 85 or 86 isn't going to cut it."

Lewis' return is anticipated seeing as how the Rangers now have three rookies in the rotation with Justin Grimm, Nick Tepesch and whoever is making starts for Alexi Ogando, who's on the DL — Josh Lindblom on Monday.

But the Rangers can't rush their veteran starter either because the last thing they need is for a major setback to derail for him for the entire season, and even if he does come back, it's impossible to know what the Rangers will get from him.

He's set to make at least two more minor-league starts before being ready for his return to Arlington, but it'll likely take a couple of more and it could be as long as a month before he's ready to roll at the big-league level.

As Cowboys receiver Miles Austin knows well, once hamstring issues start, they’re hard to stop, always seemingly cropping back up without warning--this has been a major hurdle for Austin over the past couple seasons, and it’s inspired the Monmouth product to change his workout routine this offseason in hopes that he can stay healthy and return to Pro Bowl form.

"I'm definitely strengthening my hamstrings a lot more than I have been," Austin said, per ESPN Dallas. "Just doing a different routine, a couple of extra exercises each day on our leg days. Just running hard and trying to compete at a higher level this time, that way it doesn't shock your muscles when you actually do it for real."

Head coach Jason Garrett said this offseason that the team is keeping a watchful eye on Austin in order to make sure that he doesn’t overwork himself and aggravate the hamstring, but Austin also doesn’t want to slow down too much.

"What he says about that, I assume at the end of practices we're working hard," Austin said. "And I'm going to continue to do that. I got to train as well as I can beforehand, but I can't be the player that I am (if I don't) practice hard, and I will continue to do those things."

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The son of legendary Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green, Jared Green, didn’t have any qualms about joining the Dallas Cowboys, his dad’s greatest rival through his Hall of Fame career. In fact as hard as it may be to believe, according to the Dallas Morning News, Jared Green--a second-year wide receiver--grew up wearing the jersey of Michael Irvin.

“I just had so much admiration for Michael Irvin and for my dad, I really wasn’t even rooting for a certain team,” Jared said recently. “I just had so much fun watching them go against each other.”

The younger Green said he recently had the opportunity to have dinner with Irvin.

“Learning from him from the receiver aspect and learning from my father at the DB aspect, you really can’t get any better than that,” Jared said. “I just feel very blessed and humble to be able to be raised by a hall of famer and to have close relationships to hall of famers.”

Green is expected to compete for that fifth receiver spot and, if he makes the team, he believes we could see something we never thought we’d see in a million years: His father, the great Darrell Green, in a Cowboys jersey.

“It would only make sense that a proud dad would wear his son’s jersey,” Jared said. “Any fan or any spectator should appreciate that.”

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In their never-ending effort to make the Pro Bowl something fans actually want to watch, the NFL is reportedly considering reworking the event so it’s “more like a game show,” according to ProFootballTalk.com.

This would include having incentives available to players throughout the game in order to, according to the NFL Network’s Albert Breer via PFT, “make it so every single minute of the game has some sort of thing that’s going to keep fans interested and engaged.”

The idea is that since no one really takes the game seriously as is, they might as well drop the charade of treating it like an actual football contest. Breer went on to say that the league doesn’t “feel the need to keep the integrity of what a normal football game is.”

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There hasn't been a more reluctant, bitter trip to the disabled list in recent memory than that of Texas Rangers catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who made just the second trip to the DL of his big-league career that's spanned two decades with an oblique strain.

Now, Pierzynski can finally get back on the field, something he's been champing at the bit to do for about a week now, as he was activated from the DL Monday night after the Rangers' loss to Oakland and after playing the second of a short two-game rehab stint at Double-A Frisco.

He's set to start the Rangers' game against Oakland on Tuesday night, weather permitting, and is set to catch Yu Darvish a day after the Rangers dropped the series opener behind spot, call-up starter Josh Lindblom.

Pierzynski caught one game of his short stint in Frisco and was the designated hitter in the other, going 1-for-3 with an infield single on Monday.

"I thought today would be more of a test," Pierzynski told ESPN Dallas on Monday. "It was good. I was able to do everything."

To make room for Pierzynski on the roster, the Rangers sent both Lindblom and backup catcher Robinson Chirinos, who was effective in Pierzynski's absence, back down to Triple-A Round Rock.

Pierzynski got off to a hot start for the Rangers this season before slumping prior to going on the DL. He's hitting .263 with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo will miss three weeks of OTA practices after having surgery to remove a cyst from his back.

The Cowboys official website said Romo had the surgery in April, but the procedure will keep him from practicing with the team during the next three weeks and may have him sitting out during a three-day minicamp in June.

The team expects Romo to be ready for practice by the time training camp rolls around in July.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is as meddlesome as ever, and according to one former Cowboy, this could be a bad thing for head coach Jason Garrett.

“What Garrett has to do is when he’s running his practices, make sure he’s running his practices,” former offensive lineman Nate Newton told 103.3-FM ESPN Radio, per the Dallas Morning News. “When Jerry [Jones] walks out there, don’t even acknowledge him. I love Mr. Jones. If he comes out on this field, I’m going to want to shake his hand.

“But I’m not the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I’m not trying to keep control of 53 grown men that’s running rampant. So if I’m Jason--no disrespect to Mr. Jones--but you hired me to do a job and then you stripped away everything that meant something to me during this off-season. Now I’ve got to get some of this back in front of the troops.”

Garrett is one of the few holdovers on the staff left from the 2012 season. Jones cleaned house after the season-ending loss to the Redskins, getting rid of two coordinators and a handful of other coaches, and hiring Monte Kiffin to take over the defense. He opted to stick with his head coach, but we have the feeling this could change if Dallas once again misses the playoffs.

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With a talented but aging defensive line in place, 2012 third round pick Tyrone Crawford won’t likely win a starting job this season, but that’s not going to stop him from trying.

"For me and every single guy on the defensive line, they will tell me and even the vets like Hatch and Rat, go into every year trying to be a starter," Crawford said, per ESPN Dallas. "That's what I do every year, even if I don't get the starting spot. I'm playing like a starter when I'm on second string. We all have big roles. If we can fill those roles this year like we're starters (playing) on the second string, we might have one of the best defensive line in the NFL."

The projected starting defensive front is DeMarcus Ware, Jason Hatcher, Jay Ratliff and Anthony Spencer. But the way Kiffin runs his defense, Crawford will likely get plenty of time on the field.

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Taking a cue from Cowboys greats Randy White and Larry Allen, left tackle Tyron Smith has reportedly begun practicing karate this offseason.

“They did karate to get their hands quicker and smoother,” Smith said, per the Dallas Morning News. “It’s more about hand-eye coordination. Right now, I’m trying to get our offensive line into it.”

Smith also wants to bulk up this offseason. He is currently around 305, but he wants to add around 10 pounds of muscle. He was arguably the team’s best offensive lineman in each of his first two seasons, but he sees room for improvement and believes getting bigger will help him take that step forward.

“I just want to be a better run blocker and be stronger and more physical,” Smith explained. “There were times last year where I felt like I was too fast and I was a little off-balanced. I just basically want to add a little weight and stay there, be fast and strong at the same time.”

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The Dallas Cowboys swapped one cornerback for another on Friday afternoon, cutting Dustin Harris and signing Malik James.

James played college ball at Cincinnati and Nevada but, after being dismissed from Nevada for a DUI arrest, finished his career at Langston. He only played four games last year due to an injury, but he did bring down a pair of interceptions.

A Texas A&M product, Harris joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent earlier this month.

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Ever since the Dallas Cowboys brought in Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator, Bruce Carter has been drawing comparisons to one of Kiffin’s brightest pupils in Tampa Bay, Derrick Brooks. And Carter finds the comparison flattering.

“Everybody’s just been hitting me with it--Derrick Brooks, Derrick Brooks,” Carter said, per ESPN Dallas. "That's a good thing."

Since he’ll be playing Brooks’ old position in Kiffin’s Tampa 2 scheme, Carter has spent a good deal of the offseason studying film of the nine-time All-Pro.

“He was always around the ball,” Carter said of Brooks. “He was always flying around. He was a playmaker. He was always in the right position at the right time. That’s something I want to do.”

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On Deck will be here all season to provide you with everything you need to know (and a few things you don't) about every Rangers series during the 2013 season. 

The Opponent: The Oakland A's spoiled the Texas Rangers' season last year, winning the AL West on the regular season's final day, but the Rangers are once again out to a scorching start with the best record in the bigs. The A's were slumping but have since won three straight against a solid Kansas City Royals club and come to Arlington just a week after dropping a series to the Rangers in Oakland.

Past 2013 Meetings: Last week, the Rangers took two of three in Oakland after dropping Game 1 of the series.

Pitching Matchups: Monday — Josh Lindblom (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Bartolo Colon (3-2, 4.56); Tuesday — Yu Darvish (7-1, 2.97) vs. Dan Straily (1-2, 7.27); Wednesday — Nick Tepesch (3-4, 3.98) vs. Jarrod Parker (2-5, 6.04)

What's Hot: After a bad start for the season's first month, there aren't many players in baseball hotter than Adrian Beltre right now, who had a four-hit night on Sunday with two doubles. He's now hitting .448 over his last seven games with a .500 on-base percentage. David Murphy is also turning things around after a rough start, as is Elvis Andrus, who seems to be thriving in the leadoff spot since Ian Kinsler went on the DL on Sunday.

For Oakland, Josh Donaldson has been the team's top hitter all year and that's continued lately as he's hitting .429 over his last six games, but no Oakland hitter is hotter than Eric Sogard, who's hitting .455 over his last five outings.

What's Not: Nelson Cruz is hitting .200 over his last seven games with two home runs but is still third on the team over that stretch behind the red-hot Mitch Moreland and Lance Berkman, while Ian Kinsler was really cooling off just before hitting the disabled list.

A reason for the A's recent cold streak has been the cold hitting of Yoenis Cespedes and Coco Crisp, who came off the DL last week. Since then, he's hitting .077 while Cespedes is hitting just .217 in his last six games.

Familiar Faces: Rangers manager Ron Washington was a base coach for the Oakland A's for 11 seasons before landing the Rangers manager job prior to the 2007 season.

There were all kinds of things about the four-game series with the Detroit Tigers — the best offense in baseball — that should stand out for the Texas Rangers after the Rangers took three of the four games in Arlington.

The three best pitchers the Rangers faced for the Tigers — Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and Doug Fister — all failed to get out of the fourth inning, with Verlander and Sanchez being chased in the third. The Rangers played just one game (Thursday's beating of Verlander) with their leading hitter this season as Ian Kinsler was put on the disabled list on Sunday after being scratched Saturday and Sunday.

The Rangers also took the series while pitching two rookie starters, Justin Grimm and Nick Tepesch, as Grimm picked up a win and Tepesch took a tough-luck loss while giving up just two runs while the Rangers were shut down by Rick Porcello, of all people.

The Rangers did this without their No. 1 catcher playing a single game, as both Geovany Soto and Robinson Chirinos both got starts in the series and Soto was one of the hotter bats in the lineup.

The Rangers are tied for the big-league lead and tops in the AL with 58 home runs on the season, all without Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli, who accounted for more than half of the team's home runs last year.

And now, the Rangers, at 29-15, have the best record in all of baseball, surpassing those pesky St. Louis Cardinals.

Who would've thunk it?

When a guy has a 9.00 ERA in low-leverage relief situations over 13 innings (a decent sample size for a long-relief guy), he's usually skating on thin ice.

When that guy is a 39-year-old, near 40, and is in his 17th season, that guy's days are usually numbered.

Derek Lowe has done a lot in his career — led the league in wins and saves in separate seasons, won World Series and tons of other stuff — but his brief time with the Rangers should be coming to an end sometime pretty soon, after another poor outing on Sunday.

For whatever reason, Rangers manager Ron Washington led Lowe in the game after the Rangers had taken the lead in the previous half-inning, and Lowe, of course, quickly surrendered it by giving up two runs on two hits. That racked his total up to 13 earned runs on 16 hits in 13 innings.

With Cory Burns' call-up after Alexi Ogando's DL placement late last week, it was assumed Burns would be sent back down on Monday when Josh Lindblom would be called up to start in place of Ogando. That still could happen, but who knows? Regardless, Lowe's days with the Rangers seem to be numbered as the only thing probably keeping him around being his veteran presence and bulldog attitude that he's long been known for.

But clearly, that bulldog has lost some of his bite and there might not be room on a first-place team for Lowe anymore.

When the Texas Rangers made Leonys Martin the first Cuban defector they've ever signed back in the middle of the 2011 season, it raised a few eyebrows when he was given $20.5 million over five years — a nice chunk of change for a guy that had never done a thing in the big leagues.

Martin quickly went on to dominate at every level in the minors, tearing up Double-A Frisco and doing the same at Triple-A Round Rock after a short learning curve.

In very limited big-league action in 2011 and 2012, Martin had mixed results but was given the opportunity to earn much more playing time in 2013 with the departure of Josh Hamilton via free agency and the sudden opening in center field.

Martin and Craig Gentry had an open competition in spring training, and both guys played well but it seemed evident from the get-go that the Rangers were high on Martin, who has a much higher ceiling than Gentry. Martin has gotten the majority of the playing time in 2013, and he's starting to show the Rangers they were right in their assumption about him.

In his last nine games, seven of which were starts, Martin is hitting .346 with a double, two triples and a home run. He has his season average up to .281 with three triples, two homers, five stolen bases and five RBIs.

He's also showing the cannon arm we heard all about with some of the best outfield throws from center in recent memory in Arlington. He already has three outfield assists and a couple of other throws that were tremendous and had no business being close to getting guys out at home, but have done just that.

Gentry is great as a role player with tremendous speed and the ability to hit for average. He's also an above-average defender. But Martin is showing he's a special player with the potential to hit 10-15 home runs and steal bases almost as well as Gentry. While Gentry is an above-average defender, Martin is a what they call a plus-plus defender with an awesome arm.

Josh Lindblom is no rookie. In fact, the Texas Rangers pitcher has thrown over 100 innings of relief in Major League Baseball, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, who the Rangers traded for him for veteran Michael Young.

The 25-year-old has a career ERA of 3.31 in 102 appearances, falling just short of 101 innings but will be making his first big-league start on Monday as he'll take the injured Alexi Ogando's place in the rotation to face the Oakland A's in the opener of a three-game series.

After thinking he'd never be a starting pitcher again, Lindblom was assigned to Triple-A Round Rock after a rough spring training and has gone 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA.

"I really honestly never thought I'd have a chance to be a starter in the big leagues," Lindblom told ESPN Dallas. "But I came to an organization that really wants to get the most out of every player they have."

Lindblom will have his chance on Monday, against the closest compeition the Rangers have in the AL West with a chance to push the Rangers' lead over seven games in the division. Who knows what the future holds for him, but a strong showing in his likely two starts could earn him a bullpen role with the team once reinforcements arrive, most notably Colby Lewis, who is resuming his rehab assignment on Monday in Frisco after a minor setback.

While it’s debatable that the Cowboys need to run the ball more often, no one would disagree with the fact that the team must find a way to do it more efficiently. If the ‘Boys average 3.6 YPC on the ground in 2013, they’ll probably be watching the playoffs from home yet again.

Last week, I mentioned that the offense has traditionally run best from three-receiver packages and spread formations. They rarely do it, but running from spread opens up the field and decreases the number of blocks needed for a play to be successful. Of course, one potential problem is that the Cowboys often use a shotgun alignment when they use receiver-heavy personnel. If they don’t want to be predictable, they need to run the ball from shotgun. That’s something that Jason Garrett hasn’t liked to do.

In 2012, the Cowboys used shotgun on over 50 percent of their offensive snaps (548). Many of those were on third down or late in games when defenses knew they’d pass, but many were also in normal game situations. I tracked the run/pass balance from each formation.

Gun 3 Wide Pro: 18 passes, 0 runs
Gun 5 Wide: 39 passes, 0 runs
Gun Spread: 96 passes, 3 runs
Gun Tight End Spread: 140 passes, 13 runs
Gun Tight End Trips: 85 passes, 22 runs
Gun Trips: 129 passes, 2 runs

So the Cowboys had 548 plays from a shotgun formation, but ran the ball from gun just 40 times (7.3 percent). That wouldn’t be a problem if the team used shotgun solely in pass-only situations, but Garrett called for shotgun quite often in the first half, in close games, on first and second down, and so on. That’s an advantage to the defense, even if they don’t know where the ball will be thrown, because the defensive line can pin their ears back and come right after Tony Romo. The Cowboys could theoretically hit them with a screen pass to stop the rush, but they don’t; they ran all of eight screen passes to running backs in 2012.

On top of that, when the Cowboys do run from shotgun, it’s almost always from “Gun Tight End Spread” or “Gun Tight End Trips”—the formations where Jason Witten lines up in-line. From the other four Shotgun formations the Cowboys utilized in 2012, they ran the ball five times combined, despite using the looks plenty in situations when they could have run the ball.

I don’t mean to give the Cowboys away (or do I?), but it’s pretty simple for opposing defensive coordinators; if the Cowboys are in shotgun and Witten is split out wide as a receiver, the offense is going to pass the ball, regardless of the situation.

Jonathan Bales is the founder of The DC Times. He writes for DallasCowboys.com and the New York Times. He's also the author of Fantasy Football for Smart People: How to Dominate Your Draft.

History will have to wait at least one more year.

Orb, the Kentucky Derby champion who many hoped would become the first Triple Crown winner in 35 years, finished fourth in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, as 15-1 longshot Oxbow pulled off a surprise wire-to-wire win at Pimlico.

"It's so special," said Oxbow jockey Gary Stevens, who came out of retirement this year at age 50. "We were kind of flying under the radar after the Derby. Didn't get a lot of respect."

Oxbow trainer D. Wayne Lukas seemed to take pleasure from dashing Orb's Triple Crown hopes.

"I get paid to spoil dreams," Lukas said.

Orb's fate may have been sealed days before the race, when he drew the No. 1 post position along the rail -- only two horses have won the Preakness from that position over the last 63 years. Sure enough, Orb got boxed in against the rail by a pack of horses early in the race, and could never find room to break free.

Meanwhile, Oxbow pulled ahead of the pack and never relinquished the lead.

"When I hit the half-mile pole, I just said, 'Are you kidding me, is this happening?'" said Stevens, who worked for NBC as a racing analyst during his seven-year retirement.

Oxbow finished the 1 3/16th-mile race in 1:57.54. Itsmyluckyday finished second, Mylute finished third and Orb, the 3-5 favorite, finished fourth.

But nobody ever gave Oxbow a serious threat.

It's a landmark win for Lukas: Oxbow's Preakness victory marks the trainer's 14th Triple Crown win, the most ever. He's won the Preakness six times, and the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont four times each. He passed James Fitzsimmons, who has won 13 Triple Crown races.

Jockey Gary Stevens has now notched three wins apiece at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont over his career.

Oxbow's win means the Triple Crown drought continues.

In the lead-up to the Preakness, Orb seemed like a prime candidate to end that drought, and bettors made him a heavy favorite. His breathtaking late push in the Kentucky Derby had people believing: He emerged from the back of the pack down the stretch, blew past a large group of horses and pulled away from the pack for a dominant win. Combined with a pedigree to make race fans drool -- his blood lines includes two Triple Crown winners, Seattle Slew (1977) and Secretariat (1973) -- many thought the three-year-old colt would take a place among the horse-racing elite.

Instead, he'll become another in a long line of almosts and what-ifs. Only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown, and none since Affirmed in 1978.

Orb wasn't the only one trying to make history on Saturday who came up short in Baltimore.

Rosie Napravnik, the jockey riding Mylute, hoped to become the first female jockey to win the race. Instead Mylute finished in third place.

Kevin Krigger, the jockey riding Goldencents, hoped to become the first African-American jockey to win the race since 1898. He too came up short as Goldencents finished in fifth place.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade granted a South Florida teen's wish and showed up at her senior prom on Friday.

Nicole Muxo said that she was called up to the dance floor, where she was told that Wade was on the phone.

“So I talked to him on the phone, and as I was talking to him the doors opened and he walked out and I was completely shocked, I had no idea that he was going to even call," said Muxo, who attends Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School in West Kendall. "So I was super-excited, everyone else was super-excited in there.”

Photos show Wade taking pics with the teen and others before the prom at the La Jolla Ballroom in Coral Gables. He also was snapped at the dance.

Muxo said Wade brought her flowers and then they danced.

Wade tweeted about the prom and shared photos on Twitter.

"I had a blast at Prom w @nicole_muxo... Never be 2 scared to ask.. They might just say… " Wade Tweeted.

Muxo thanked the NBA player for coming by.

"It meant a lot to me. It made my dreams come true," she said.

Initially Wade had said he wasn't aware of the YouTube video, in which Muxo makes her pitch to the NBA superstar while wearing a No 3. Wade jersey. Kanye West's "The Glory" plays in the background.

WATCH the YouTube video here.

"My senior prom is coming up, and I have everything set for a perfect night except for one thing: a perfect date," she says.

In the video she called Wade her favorite basketball player and used signs and "Prom?" written on basketballs to ask Wade to the big event.

Muxo had told NBC 6 South Florida she asked out Wade because he's her favorite player and because he's a positive role model for a lot of people.

It wasn't the first time she asked him out.

"Back when I met him last year, I asked him to Homecoming, but the season was about to start, and he had practice, so he couldn’t make it, so I thought, why not take another shot and ask him to prom?” she said.

All eyes will be on Orb Saturday afternoon when the Kentucky Derby champion takes his post at the Preakness Stakes, aiming to win the second leg of the elusive Triple Crown.

The colt's resounding victory at the Derby, marked by a surge of power in the final stretch, has fueled hopes for the first Triple Crown triumph since 1978, when Affirmed won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

Orb, the even-money favorite at Pimlico, will either dash those hopes or move one step closer to the coveted crown.

For fans hoping to see the first Triple Crown in decades, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. In the Derby, on May 4, Orb handily beat five of the eight horses he will take on in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness Stakes. Since then, his performance in training has earned stellar reviews.

Hall of Fame trainer Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey called Orb's workout at Belmont earlier this week "breathtaking," "spectacular" and even better than his performance leading up to the Derby, according to the Associated Press. The colt ran four furlongs in 47.18 seconds and five furlongs in 59.54.

But the widespread optimism was dampened just days later when Orb drew the rail, or No. 1 post—a position that has launched only two Preakness victors since 1950. Running from that position, other horses could crowd Orb against the rail, making it difficult for Orb to find room to maneuver to the head of the pack.

"Obviously, if I was going to pick it out, I wouldn't have picked the 1," McGaughey told the AP when the positions were drawn. "But with only nine horse in there to run a mile and three-sixteenths, with a rider like Joel (Rosario), he's going to figure out what to do. He'll have him in the right spot."

The shorter race could also favor some of the horses that faded at the end of the mile-and-a-quarter Derby. Goldencents—partially owned by Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino— was one of the favorites heading into the Kentucky Derby, but finished 17th in a field of 19 horses. That performance hasn't deterred bettors from putting their money on the colt in the Preakness. Heading into the race he's among the four favorites, with 8-1 morning line odds.

Mylute, who has 5-1 odds after placing fifth in the Kentucky Derby, is another Preakness favorite. The horse will be ridden by rising star Rosie Napravnik, who will be the third female jockey ever to compete in the Preakness Stakes. She heads into the weekend with more wins than any other jockey posting for the race, besides Joel Rosario, who will be riding Orb.

Departing, who skipped the Derby, could also pose a threat to the even-money favorite. The horse arrives at Pimlico with four wins this year, including a big victory two weeks ago at the Illinois Derby, where he managed to pull ahead of the pack and finish by 3 1/4 lengths.

Govenor Charlie, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, and Titletown Five, co-owned by Packers Hall of Famers Paul Hornung and Willie Davis, will also make their Triple Crown debuts in the second leg of the contest.

Govenor Charlie, who descends from the 1998 Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet, has 12-1 odds, while Titletown Five is a much longer shot. Despite his 30-1 odds, Titletown Five's trainer D. Wayne Lukas still has a decent chance to taste victory. The Hall of Fame trainer has two other horses in the race— Oxbow and Will Take Charge.

The $1 million race begins at 6:20 p.m. and will be streamed live on NBC Live Extra beginning at 4:30 p.m.

If Orb wins, he'll race for the Triple Crown at Belmont on June 8. Twenty-two horses have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, but only 11 have won all three.