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IRVING — Jason Witten has played well enough for long enough that young tight ends are starting to compare themselves to him. Philadelphia Eagles tight end Brent Celek said this week that he studies Witten’s game for pointers.
Two weeks ago, Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez called Witten the NFL’s best tight end."I’ve heard a little bit of it," Witten said. "Obviously, it started a couple of weeks ago with what Gonzalez said. He’s done it for so long. He’s got the high standard. But I think Brent is an awesome player. I don’t know how many catches he has, but he’s played big this year. "As a tight end, you always study those other guys. I think he’s kind of shown that he’s kind of a prominent guy coming up. He’s made comments to me before. He’s really good, and he understands that system as well."Celek and Witten have the same number of catches with 37, first among NFC tight ends, but Celek has 99 more yards than Witten’s 348 and two more touchdowns than Witten’s one.Witten has led the Dallas Cowboys in catches the past two seasons. He was second in yards to Terrell Owens. This season, Witten leads the team in receptions, with 11 more than Miles Austin, and has 215 yards less than Austin."I think this is the first time I’ve had so many guys on the team that are so talented and different guys are getting balls," Witten said. "Obviously, you want to be the best you can be. There’s no hiding that. That’s a good thing to be competitive that way. I’m not worried about [leading the team]. Hopefully, Miles can play like that the rest of the year, and it’ll help everybody else."Witten has played 11 games against the Eagles, with three 100-yard games. He has 63 catches for 792 yards and three touchdowns. The Eagles have replaced rookie Macho Harris as the starting free safety with veteran Sean Jones, who is bigger and more physical than Harris, and thus better equipped to defend against tight ends. The Eagles have allowed five touchdown passes to tight ends in the past four games.New goal for BuehlerRookie kicker David Buehler took over the league lead for touchbacks this week with 17 in seven games. Since 1999, when the league instituted the K-ball, Carolina kicker Rhys Lloyd has the most touchbacks with 30 last season.Buehler’s closest competition is New England’s Stephen Gostkowski with 13 touchbacks. Three kickers have 12 and only seven kickers, including Buehler and Gostkowski, boast double-figure touchbacks."I can change up my goal," Buehler said. "Instead of leading the league in touchbacks, I can try and push past everybody and be in a league of my own."Barber betterRunning back Marion Barber missed only one game after straining his quadriceps in Week 2. But in the four games since he returned in Week 4, Barber has gained only 194 yards on 54 carries, a 3.6 yards-per-carry average.It could take up to 10 weeks for Barber to be 100 percent, according to the Cowboys. But Wade Phillips said Barber is getting better every week and starting to show some of that old explosiveness."He’s got a little more juice," Phillips said. "It’s an injury that you lose strength. It’s not something where you’re going to get injured again. He lost some power in one leg. He could play, and I thought he had his best game last week. He looked good today. I think more and more we’ll see the Marion Barber that we know and love."How good are Cowboys?The media and the fans aren’t alone in looking at Sunday’s showdown against the Eagles as a measuring stick game. Cowboys linebacker Bradie James feels the same way."Of course, a couple of weeks ago, before we played Kansas City, some people were asking what’s your identity? What do you think this team is about?" James said. "Now, it’s halfway through the season. I’m curious; a lot of guys are curious to really know where we are. You can’t just beat the teams that don’t have good records. You’ve got to beat the good teams. That’s the only way you can get to where you want to go."This is a big challenge for us. It’s a big game, not only because it’s the next game. It’s the Eagles."Staff writer Jeff Caplan contributed to this report.
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