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OXNARD, Calif. — The lasting image from Tuesday’s joint practice between the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys might have been center Erik McCoy doing his best Kyle Turley impression, chucking a Cowboys helmet a solid 15 yards downfield during a melee. Or it might have been undrafted rookie receiver Brock Rechsteiner needing to have his fingers pried from a Dallas defensive back’s face mask during a separate skirmish, only to see him turn around, find a different defensive back and body slam him to the ground. It was exceedingly easy to make a parallel between him and his father, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner, in that moment. And who knows what happened under piles or behind the screens of big bodied men throwing fists and shouting at each other throughout much of the nearly two hours the two teams spent practicing against each other. The word often associated with these types of practices is “chippy,” but that word would fail to capture exactly what happened Thursday. "There's some edginess to football, and we can learn from how this one navigated," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. When they weren’t fighting, the Saints offense and Cowboys defense were playing some entertaining football against each other — especially when it meant Tyler Shough was throwing to Chris Olave. And maybe because they were fighting, the stakes felt elevated toward the end of practice. Here’s what happened. Attendance Running back Alvin Kamara (knee) and defensive back Quincy Riley (groin) left practice early with injuries. Receiver Ronnie Bell also left early because he was overheating. Receiver Jordyn Tyson (hamstring), running back Audric Estime (ankle), defensive back Rejzohn Wright (hip/ankle), linebacker Chris Rumph (ankle), and defensive linemen Cam Jordan (hamstring), Davon Godchaux (ankle) and Christen Miller (shoulder) were not present. Receiver Devaughn Vele was present, but he didn’t participate in what Moore called a rest day. Running backs Kendre Miller (back) and Devin Neal (hamstring) returned to practice. On point On one of his final dropbacks of practice, Shough didn’t wait long to pull the trigger. He saw Olave lined up in the slot against rookie Caleb Downs and pulled the trigger on his throw just as Olave was beating the No. 10 pick to the middle of the field for a goal-line touchdown. It was two good players making a difficult game look easy, and that was the case for the entirety of Tuesday’s practice. Shough threw Olave’s way eight times, and depending on the perspective, he had either seven or eight completions. The only one that left some room for interpretation came when Olave leaped to pluck a ball off Downs’ helmet downfield. It was ruled a catch on the field, though Olave wound up cradling the ball between his legs at the end of the play. Right, left, short, deep — it didn’t really matter. Their first connection came on a deep comeback route toward the right sideline, and they made a similar hookup off play action seven plays later. Olave caught passes over the middle of the field and as an outlet in the flat. "Just continuing to grow the trust there," Shough said. "We're going to keep building. We're on the same page on a lot of stuff. We may have some hiccups here and there, but it's a lot of fun when we're out there and knowing what each other is thinking." While Olave was the star of the show, Shough was on the money no matter who he threw the ball to. Shough completed 18 (or 19, on the debatable Olave catch) of his 23 passes. He threw one interception in the middle of the field when he appeared to get fooled by the Dallas zone, but outside of that he was nearly perfect. "He's going to get to learn from a few throws, but I thought his operation, his command, I thought he did a good job of manning (the offense) the whole day," Moore said. His second-to-last throw of the practice was a perfectly layered drop in the bucket to tight end Noah Fant in the back of the end zone for a touchdown during a red-zone period. Shough and the Saints offense got off to a slow start, but lately he is looking every bit of the quarterback that made a push for rookie of the year while making only nine starts last season. Odds and ends The Cowboys defensive front got home a couple of times Tuesday, but the pass protection was much improved this week compared to last week’s joint practice against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The offensive line also cleared some nice holes for the run game against a tough Cowboys front. One thing that is noticeably different this year compared to last is the number of cutback lanes the running backs are taking advantage of. Travis Etienne, Neal and Miller all had what likely would have been explosive runs exploiting cutback lanes. Speaking of Miller, he had a couple of impressive runs in his return from a back injury, some of which came with the first team. He may need a strong finish to camp considering his lengthy injury history, but Tuesday was a good step in that direction. Rookie wideout Bryce Lance put together another strong practice, catching three of his four targets from Shough — one of which was an explosive play when Lance beat his man on a double move to catch a hole shot down the right sideline. Kickers Charlie Smyth and Tanner Brown both made four of their five attempts on a windy day. Brown missed wide right from 39 yards, and Smyth missed wide right from 45.