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Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012 8:15 PM UTC

Cowboys have penalty problem, with winning twist

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Topics: From the Wires,

Cowboys have penalty problem, with winning twistPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, left, is hit by Dallas Cowboys' Jason Hatcher as he throws in the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)(Credit: AP)

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Somewhere in the middle of six defensive penalties that gave Philadelphia first downs, Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett turned to backup quarterback Kyle Orton to talk a little game simulation.

“I want to hear 800 hard counts in practice this week,” Garrett recalled himself saying while watching jumpy Dallas defenders pile up the offsides calls Sunday.

The game was the fourth in which Dallas has committed 13 penalties this season, but here’s the funny part. The Cowboys are 3-1 in those games after beating the Eagles 38-23, and they’re 0-2 with their season low in yellow flags — two.

“Oh, I think there’s a few different ways you can spin that,” Garrett said. “You know, for years the Oakland Raiders were the most penalized team and they won a lot of football games. And they used to spin it like it was an aggressive nature that they had and that’s the kind of team that they wanted to be. I don’t buy that completely, though. You don’t want to hurt yourself as a football team.”

The penalties ultimately didn’t hurt Dallas (4-5) against the Eagles because that same defense scored two touchdowns on an interception return by Brandon Carr and a fumble recovery by Jason Hatcher.

Hatcher had the first two offsides penalties, both resulting in first downs on third-down plays on the Eagles’ first drive. Philadelphia was the only team in the league without points on its opening drive before getting a touchdown Sunday.

The Hatcher penalties were at least explainable because he’s a defensive lineman, prone to jump when a quarterback puts some emphasis on a signal without taking the snap — the so-called hard count. It doesn’t make sense when a cornerback does it away from the ball, and rookie Morris Claiborne jumped twice.

“As a defensive football team you are always teaching aggressiveness, getting off the ball, attacking and all of that,” Garrett said. “But at the same time you have to be disciplined.”

Maybe Claiborne was just having a bad day, perhaps his worst as a pro. He got beat for the game-opening touchdown by Riley Cooper, who had just two catches for the season before the leaping one-handed grab in the end zone. Claiborne also was called for defensive holding twice and interference once.

“It was a struggle, sort of like that third baseman when they bunt it to him early on, in the first inning, he picks it up and throws it 15 rows over the first baseman’s head,” Garrett said. “The bunts keep coming, right? So they kept going after him, and that’s an experience a lot of rookie corners have to experience in this league.”

The Cowboys, tied for second in the league with 74 penalties going into Sunday’s home game against Cleveland (2-7), had 13 in three of the first five games, and most of the talk then was about an offensive line committing too many false starts and holding penalties.

Against Philadelphia, the focus of the problem shifted to the defensive line, but this was the same group that pressured Michael Vick early and sidelined him with a concussion. The Cowboys sacked rookie backup Nick Foles twice, including one that resulted in Hatcher’s touchdown.

“You don’t want to take the aggressiveness away from those guys,” Garrett said. “The best defensive lines are the ones that get off the football, and we do a pretty good job of getting off the football. For the most part we’ve been pretty good in this area. We just have to correct it.”

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lschuylerd

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