The Dallas Cowboys don’t often have walkthroughs before playing away games at other team’s stadiums.
However, head coach Jason Garrett is planning for a walkthrough of Levi’s Stadium on Saturday prior to when the two teams play each other on Sunday.
We should note that the Cowboys did not do a walkthrough last week when they faced off against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium.
There could be a couple of motives behind the Cowboys’ walkthrough at Levi’s Stadium, however. First of all, Super Bowl 50 will be played there on February 7, 2016. The pregame visit could be looked at as one of the many ways Garrett uses to motivate his team.
Garrett has been known to post motivational posters around the team’s complex and to bring in special guest speakers to amp the team up.
Garrett shared this about having goals:
“Probably won’t share our message to the team with you guys right now but when we start if you’re a player, a coach or staff member in this league and you don’t have a goal of winning the Super Bowl you’re doing the wrong thing,” Garrett said (via ESPN). “So we all have that very tangible goal but we have a lot of different goals.”
The Week 2 preseason game at Levi’s Stadium would give the Cowboys their only opportunity to check out where they want to be playing come February 7.
With that said, Garrett’s comments could also be a big smokescreen for the fact that he wants to check out the sketchy sod situation that reportedly has been corrected.
The 49ers cancelled several summer practices at their year-old stadium because of poor field conditions. They have since installed new sod on the field which will be used for the first time on Sunday. With a bunch of the Cowboys players dinged up, including some of their starters, sub-par sod conditions would certainly create more opportunities for injuries.
Garrett did admit this:
“We’ll take a peek at it, but it sounds like it has been an issue and they’re trying to address it as best they can,” Garrett said. “We’re going to play a game on Sunday afternoon, so we’ve got to figure it out. Hopefully they’ve taken care of their end of it.”
Just a peek, huh? Surely Garrett hopes that the sod is in tip-top condition for the next time the Cowboys travel to play at Levi’s Stadium—in Super Bowl 50.