'Feel The Noize': Cowboys prepare for Saints by 'Turning it up to 11'

'Feel The Noize': Cowboys prepare for Saints by 'Turning it up to 11'

FRISCO - Jason Garrett's oftentimes dry press conference got goosed on Friday when he made a pop-culture reference to the movie "This Is Spinal Tap.''

"I always like it at '11','' said Garrett, paraphrasing fictional guitarist Nigel Tufnel from the mock-umentary "This is Spinal Tap.''

Unfortunately, only a few of the assembled media members chuckled. I'd like to say that we chuckled because we have astute taste in film. But it's also possible that the collected chucklers are simply ... old. ("This Is Spinal Tap'' is from 1984.)

In any event, the point is made: Dallas has a habit of working to simulate the level of noise it will face in an upcoming game. So inside the Ford Center, the music is cranked up. Every week. Even when the upcoming game is scheduled to be at home.

Said Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence: "To use one of Smooth's (Jaylon Smith) quotes, just keep a 'Clear Eye View.' It's going to be loud. ... It's all about the same mindset, keep digging, going to work. In the end, it really doesn't matter.''

But the Cowboys will especially "face the music'' when it comes to playing on Sunday night in New Orleans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The home crowd will have all day to get "lubricated,'' as Michael Irvin used to call it. And they will be passionate, as always. And the enclosed building amplifies the noise to create an unusual home-field edge.

"JG maxed that sucker out the last couple of days,'' offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said of the Ford Center sound system. "It's been impressive.''

QB Dak Prescott said the Cowboys frequently work with artificial crowd noise and practice being able to hear the play being called in the huddle and just-in-case hand signals on top of that.

"You've got to deal with silent counts and crowd noise and non-verbal communication,'' Moore agreed. "We've done a good job I think all week of preparing that way. ... It's one of the more challenging environments in the NFL Everyone recognizes that. That's part of the challenge and the fun of it.''