Next pass Cowboys intercept will be 1st of season

IRVING, Texas (AP) -One by one, the Dallas Cowboys defensive backs went through the drill - backpedaling, sliding right toward the sideline, then breaking in on the ball and catching it.

Only one thing was missing. The ball.

How appropriate.

Dallas and Detroit are the only defenses without an interception this season. And the Lions have the excuse of playing one less game.

Wait, it gets worse for the Cowboys. Add in the interception-free performance in last season's finale and they're in a five-game slump, matching the worst drought in franchise history, according to Stats, LLC. The only other time it happened was Weeks 2-6 of the 1990 season, Jimmy Johnson's second season.

This rough patch is not exactly what Jerry Jones was expecting when he gave lucrative new contracts to Pro Bowlers Terence Newman and Ken Hamlin, spent a first-round pick on Mike Jenkins and brought in Adam "Pacman" Jones.

"It's just one of those years for some reason," secondary coach Dave Campo said Thursday.

Campo's answer is borne from frustration. See, Dallas seems to have all the pieces in place, everything but the results.

The Cowboys are getting good pressure up front, which means quarterbacks know they don't have much time to pick a target and lock in on it. And the quarterbacks they've faced have thrown a total of 12 interceptions this season, so it's not like they're always accurate.

Plus, Dallas is playing more zone coverage than man-to-man, the scheme that's more conducive to pickoffs.

Yet with all their proven playmakers - returning the guys who made 18 of last season's 19 interceptions - you'd think at least one of the 131 passes thrown against the Cowboys this season would have wound up in their hands.

But, to Campo's lament, he can't even find many would-be interceptions that were dropped or tipped balls that could've been picked off.

"All I can tell you is, it's a matter of time," Campo said. "We just got to keep grinding and keep playing as good as we can play."