During a Cowboys offseason where so much of the focus has been on the offense, its superstars, and how much of the proverbial pie there is for them to share, it was the defense that stepped up and shone brightest during the team’s third preseason game.

.Blanking the interstate rival Texans 34-0 in a dominant performance, the members of coordinator Rod Marinelli’s group proved that there was plenty of defensive playmaking to go around.

As with any feeding frenzy, it started with just a nibble. After a Cowboys three-and-out, Taco Charlton brought down Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson behind the line of scrimmage on first down. A penalty wiped out the sack, but the Dallas defense sensed blood in the water. Charlton got to Watson again two plays later, stripping and recovering the ball. The change of possession led to a touchdown by a Cowboys offense that seemed suddenly rejuvenated by the turn of events.

“Within a unit, then across units,” coach Jason Garrett explained in his postgame remarks, “when the defense takes the ball away and then the offense cashes in on it, then you get a blocked punt, and then we’re getting after their quarterback, then we get another takeaway. Those are all things that you want to have on your team, and you want to make them contagious, you want to respond and feed off of those things and gather momentum as you go.”

“One of the things we talk about a lot with momentum is you have to earn momentum. You earn momentum through execution and making plays; it just doesn’t happen. But when you get the energy going and you start playing downhill against them and you execute, good things are going to happen.”

Plenty of good things happened for the Dallas defense on Saturday.

They allowed Houston just eight first downs and 135 total net yards on the night. In the process, they recorded eight sacks, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries on three forces, and Joe Thomas’s electrifying blocked punt that he gathered up for a touchdown early in a game where seemingly everybody on the roster got in on the act.

“It was a big play,” Thomas recalled to reporters. “I mean, you block the punt and then recover it? Man, that’s huge play. It’s a momentum booster as well. I feel like our team really fed off it.”

The linebacker broke down the technique that he used to break through the block:

“I was watching film on a guy that I was going against on punts, and I saw that he released early. So I figured I’d pretend like I was blocking him slow and go straight to the punter. And I was able to get there. I was there a little early, because I don’t think I blocked it with my hands. Probably my side. And tried to scoop it, missed it, kicked it a little bit, got it in the end zone and recovered it.”

Thomas is often the forgotten man in the Cowboys’ linebacker rotation. Being the fourth guy to a trio of Leighton Vander Esch, Sean Lee, and Jaylon Smith makes it tough to stand out. But Thomas’s head coach has certainly noticed.

“Joe’s just a good player. He is,” Garrett told reporters. “He’s a veteran player. He’s got a very good feel for playing the game. He can play all three linebacker spots for us, he’s a very good special teams player. He’s a real pro. He really works hard at understanding what he’s supposed to do, how he’s supposed to do it. He’s a technician, both as a linebacker and as someone on special teams. Often times, you see guys get in a position to block a punt, but they don’t use the right technique; their hands are too high. We’re going to put that one on the clinic reel: he wins and then he keeps his hands low, blocks it, and then recovers it for the touchdown. He goes about it the right way, plays the right way, approaches it the right way every day. It was good to see him make the plays that he did tonight.”

Thomas had a huge smile talking to the media about his scoop-and-score. He was a running back in high school, so the end zone isn’t completely unfamiliar territory to him, but he admitted that it had been a while.

“Last time I scored a touchdown?” Thomas was asked. “College. My senior year in college. Pick-six. Could have been two tonight, but I missed one.”

Indeed, Thomas almost had a twofer. Late in the first quarter, just a few minutes after his clinic-reel block, Thomas had his hands on a Joe Webb pass to Texans tight end Jordan Thomas. There was nothing in front of him but 35 yards and the end zone, but he couldn’t find the handle, and the ball fell to the AT&T Stadium turf.

Rookie safety Donovan Wilson was able to hang on to his chance at an interception. The sixth-round draft pick snagged a Webb pass and made a sensational toe-tap effort to complete the pick that he hopes helps solidify his chances of making the final roster.

“Just concentration,” Wilson said of how he was able to haul in the pick. “Focus on it. I really needed that interception.”

It’s the kind of play that comes from emulating the high bar set by defensive backs coach Kris Richard.

“Everyday, he comes with it, the same energy,” the rookie safety admired. “High energy. And I just try to match his every day at practice. He focuses on the little things, details, and puts us in great position to make plays.”

“Each game, each practice, it’s a constant improvement,” according to Charlton. “The big thing we focus on is: every day is constant improvement, the whole time. Whether it’s practice, game, whatever it may be, we’re just constantly trying to improve and get better each day.”

“We’re a tribe,” Thomas said of the defense’s mindset. “When Coach Richard came here, he talked about a tribe, us being a tribe. One heartbeat. And I think everybody really bought into that. And you see it: the Hot Boyz, the Purge… it’s all just a family. Once you have a tribe like that, it’s easy to communicate, guys know where the next guy’s going to be, and you just trust. It’s all about trust. And we trust each other.”

Kerry Hyder echoed that sentiment. “About the group,” said the undrafted end who has previously been in the Jets and Lions organizations, “I just want to say it’s really impressive. Being in a couple different places and being able to come in to this group, the D-line, the closeness of the group is really cool…. it’s really a brotherhood. These guys, they work hard on the field together, and it shows.”

Despite Saturday’s overwhelming performance, the Cowboys defense is under no illusions that they’ve fully arrived. Linebacker Jaylon Smith, hot on the heels of a contract extension earlier in the week that cements a star on his helmet for seven more years, sounded far from satisfied.

“There’s so much that we can fix,” Smith told reporters after the game. “But we’re showing. We’re showing who we are, who we’re going to be for the 2019 season. We’re moving in the right direction.”

“You have to get better every day, every week,” Garrett preached from the podium. “We’ll learn from the experiences. Tonight was a good night for us, but there’s so much in that game that wasn’t up to standard. And we know that. We’re going to go back and watch the tape and try to do everything we can to get it up to standard.”

Even Thomas, the man whose punt block ignited the defensive wildfire that torched the Texans to a crisp, put it all in proper perspective before even wrapping up at his locker after the shutout win. “I mean, it was a goose egg,” he allowed. “But there’s still work to be done.”