When a shoulder injury ended safety Gerald Sensabaugh’s night in San Diego on Saturday--and, as it turns out, the rest of his preseason--undrafted rookie free agent Barry Church got his opportunity to prove himself to the Cowboys--and, suffice it to say, he didn’t disappoint after taking over in the first quarter.
Church tied DeMarcus Ware for second on the team with five tackles, and returned a fumble 80 yards to set up the Cowboys’ first offensive touchdown of the preseason. Some might call the fumble recovery luck, but then, as announcer Brad Sham pointed out on Saturday (I’m paraphrasing of course), when you are constantly around the ball, good things tend to happen.
And Church, to his credit, seemed to be constantly around the ball in his first reps with the first team defense, an attribute that certainly won’t hurt his chances of making the 53-man roster.
"I felt pretty confident out there,'' Church said afterward, per the Dallas Morning News. "The plays came pretty smoothly to me. I got the calls in smoothly. Overall, I think I played pretty good.
"I feel I helped the (Cowboys’) decision. I've still got two more games to prove myself, to prove I belong on this team. Hopefully I'll be able to make a couple of more big plays against Houston and Miami.''
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