Todd Archer

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SAN ANTONIO – Orlando Scandrick's break on the football could not have been better.

As the wide receiver made his way across the field, Scandrick's left hand swatted the pass down for a breakup.

"Catch the ball!" defensive backs coach Dave Campo yelled in a voice left raspy from a few days of training camp.

Nothing the Cowboys have done defensively through the first two weeks of camp has been emphasized more than intercepting passes.

Every day, the defensive backs go through drill after drill designed for them to catch passes.

Some drills are normally reserved for wide receivers, such as a simple turn-and-catch.

Some are designed to simulate game action, such as when the defensive back catches passes while running behind a line of players waving their arms.

The idea is, the more the defensive backs catch the ball in practice, the more they will do it in a game.

"We're definitely going enough that, if we get the opportunity, we catch it," said safety Ken Hamlin, who had one interception last season after a career-high five in 2007. "We definitely want to get more turnovers than last year."

Maybe you've heard 100 times that the Cowboys led the NFL with 59 sacks in 2008. Did you know the Cowboys finished with eight interceptions in 2008, which ranked 30th in the 32-team league?

Campo does.

"Very disappointing," Campo said. "I don't think if you look over my career as a secondary coach, coordinator or even a head coach, you'd ever see a season like that."

It happened twice – in 1989 and 1997 – and the Cowboys won seven of 32 games in those seasons. Four times in franchise history, a defensive back had more interceptions in a season than the Cowboys had last season.

In 11 of Campo's 14 seasons in two stints with the Cowboys, his secondary reached double-digit interceptions in a season.

Campo said the Cowboys could have had "20, at least," last season.

"We dropped at least 10, but you're always going to drop some," Campo said.

In addition to the drops, the 59 sacks took away from the chances, too. Of the top-eight sack teams in 2008, though, six had at least 14 interceptions. Pittsburgh finished second to the Cowboys in sacks with 51 and was sixth in interceptions with six.

"They come in bunches," cornerback Terence Newman said. "You get one, you get another, and they just keep coming."

The Cowboys never got them in bunches in 2008 – they had one multi-interception game – so they decided to alter their approach.

Interceptions have become as important to the team as speed. In the draft, they took three players – DeAngelo Smith, Mike Hamlin and Mike Mickens – who ranked in the top three in their schools' history in interceptions.

In free agency, they added safety Gerald Sensabaugh, who had four interceptions in a career-high 13 starts for Jacksonville last season.

"I think you can get better at it," Campo said. "That's why guys use the Jugs machine and catch balls. But some guys just have knack for catching the ball. And sometimes guys have a knack for being where the ball is."

The Cowboys led the NFL with 59 sacks in 2008 but had just eight interceptions (league rank in parentheses):