Jones made his Cowboys debut in the dime package on the second defensive series.

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SAN DIEGO - Adam Jones waited a long time (587 days, to be exact) to play his first NFL game since the end of the 2006 season. The partially-reinstated cornerback showed some natural rust in Saturday night's preseason-opening loss to the Chargers, but is looking forward to making adjustments next week.

Jones made his Cowboys debut in the dime package on the second defensive series, then replaced Anthony Henry at right corner with the second unit. Early in the second quarter, he gave up a 21-yard pass to wide receiver Chris Chambers and missed a tackle on Darren Sproles' ensuing 21-yard screen catch. Both plays led to a touchdown.

"I need to work on my angles," Jones said. "With that Sproles play, that's kind of a hard play because there's so much in the open with that screen I was trying to make him cut back in."

But Jones was thankful for simply getting on the field after serving a one-year suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.

Jones has been cleared to participate in training camp and preseason, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will decide whether to fully reinstate him by Sept. 1. Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones is optimistic the club will find out by the league's final cuts date (Aug. 30). If he's fully reinstated for the regular season, the Cowboys have another top cover corner to team with Terence Newman, Anthony Henry and first-round pick Mike Jenkins.

In the meantime, Jones will continue to polish his skills in practice against arguably the league's best receiver, Terrell Owens.

Jones has challenged Owens one-on-one throughout the first two weeks of camp, and while the veteran Pro Bowler has gotten the best of him at times, the coaching staff says Jones' competitiveness has spread to the rest of the defense.

"I think he was excited to get out there," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said. "There wasn't a whole lot going on in his area and he played on some third downs where he covered his guy pretty well. He just wasn't involved a whole lot, but we kind of expected that."

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