Cowboys Guarding Against 'Going Home' Emotion As Camp Winds Down

The long, arduous grind of training camp has well and truly hit home for the Dallas Cowboys, like it has for most NFL teams at this point of the offseason, but for the Cowboys, the franchise is set to leave Oxnard in the next handful of days.

So respite is on the way.

But that can mean that players take their eye off the ball, having been in Oxnard since July 20, which is a long time away from family and friends, so sometimes a player's mind can drift to that homecoming, and not focus on the task at hand in practice.

But make no mistake about it, head coach Brian Schottenheimer knows that is a legitimate concern.

“It really wasn't nearly as long as last year, last year felt like an eternity, but I started the meeting off of that,” Schottenheimer said. “We need to be present. We need to stay in the moment. We're going to have two physical practices in pads. Are there distractions about going home? Yeah, probably. But leave that at the door. Leave that, in your room. When you're here, you're doing football, and we got a lot of work to do."

The two padded practices will keep the mind engaged, well, that is the hope, and with the Baltimore Ravens at AT&T Stadium, Dallas has to put on a better showing on both sides of the ball than it did against the Los Angeles Rams.

Yes, the homecoming will no doubt be on the mind of players, but this isn't the time to indulge in those thoughts, even though it is only natural to do so.

But there is so much to gain from these last couple of days, and with the "finishing line" so close, the Cowboys won't want to let their standards slip.

And it appears Schotty is determined to make sure that doesn't happen.