Romo Time

Congrats to the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November, Tony Romo -- hopefully the first of many more awards to come. I think he's gonna make the Pro Bowl this year in a down season for NFC QBs, and should garner some serious consideration for MVP, but it looks like San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson has that one all but locked up for 2006. But Romo should be in the top five if the Cowboys win the NFC East, along with QBs Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer.

The Dallas-Giants game Sunday afternoon was the highest-rated NFL game on any network in almost 10 years. Bring that little stat up the next time someone tries to argue that the Cowboys are not America's Team. It's facts like that which are hard to dispute. And it's not just that one game but a series of highly rated contests, even when the Cowboys were average, that reinforces their popularity. I believe they outdrew the Jets earlier this year head to head in the New York market. At the game's peak Sunday, more than 31 million sets of eyes were tuned in to see K Martin Grammatica split the uprights with a second left. And I will go on record that this Sunday night's clash between Dallas and the New Orleans Saints will substantially best, if not shatter, the Giants game because of the whole Saints-Reggie Bush factor. Just call me the Amazing Kreskin if I am proved correct...
Against the Giants, the Cowboys passed from an empty backfield set 13 times, with Romo completing 10 passes for 149 yards. That's a formation that was all but suicidal with a QB such as Drew Bledsoe earlier in the year (see Eagles game), but now let's Dallas spread out their numerous weapons to full effect. Romo can usually make the first guy miss, and that makes teams reluctant to bring the full blitz package. However, the Giants often dropped 7 or 8 guys into coverage especially in the first half in an attempt to throw a look at Romo he hadn't seen, and it did seem to confuse him a little in the first half. But he adjusted and led the Cowboys to scoring drives on 4 of his last 5 possessions -- a FG to make it 10-7 just before the half, then another FG to break the 10-10 tie, a TD drive late to make it 20-13, and of course the last drive for the game-winning FG, highlighted by the perfect 42-yard strike to TE Jason Witten. One thing Romo's second half played proved is that even when he is not playing at the high level he established in his first 5 starts, he can still lead the team to victory without his 'A' game. Sports Illustrated's Don Banks is therefore right on the money when he calls that "a very good development for the Dallas Cowboys." The second half, especially the fourth quarter, has now officially become Romo Time...

Cowboys have just one more road game, next week at Atlanta, so with a win versus the Saints Sunday night, they're in very good shape for the #2 overall seed in the NFC, and playing with a ton of confidence right now. And Parcells is on a similar roll, with every personnel move and strategic game decision he's made of late paying off in spades ... Everyone will remember the last minute Jason Witten catch as the play of the game, and with good reason: it goes down as one of the most memorable plays in the Cowboys' long/storied history. But two other first half plays had equal significance in terms of the game's outcome: first was Giants DE Matthias Kiwanuka's fumble after his interception, which allowed Dallas to recover and prevented the Giants from opening up a dangerous 14-0 lead; second was DeMarcus Ware's fourth-down & inches stop of RB Brandon Jacobs for a loss. The Giants had nearly converted a 3rd down & 20 on the play before, but their receiver inexplicably stopped moving forward even though no defender had touched him. That's why almost every NFL game has 3 or 4 game-changing plays that could go either way.

Is there a nickel corner playing better in all of football than Dallas' Aaron Glenn? He could start for a lot of teams outright ... The Daily News' Hank Gola must have been watching a different game than the rest of humanity because he claims Giants' Osi Umenyiora was beating Cowboys' All-Pro OT Flozell Adams all night. Funny that the Cowboys allowed only one sack and Romo was hit only once, neither time by Umenyiora. Then Shaun Powell of Newsday says the Giants should be ashamed for letting a 265-pound TE get free in coverage with the game on the line. I mean, all tight ends are around that weight, so what is the point of mentioning how much Witten weighs? Jeremy Shockey is over 250 himself. Just typical nonsense from New York football writers ... It's like when game announcers call someone a "young freshman" or a "big nose tackle" ... The Witten catch was almost a duplicate of the play against the Redskins where Romo threw a clutch 26-yarder to the TE in the final seconds to set up what should have been the winning field goal from 35 yards out. But the kick was blocked and Dallas lost the game. Who was that kicker, I already blocked his name out of my memory ... No one has benefited more from Romo taking over than Witten, followed closely by Terrell Owens...

Dallas CB Anthony Henry shut down and therefore shut up the Snoop Dogg of the NFL, Plaxico Burress, allowing just the one jump ball TD and very little else, catching 6 short passes for only 43 yards ... Burress is a big-mouth, small brain WR but that could describe most of the current wide-outs in the NFL ... If you're gonna call everyone else overrated, then you have to perform when it counts, not make bonehead plays in almost every game ... That's why the Steelers cut ties with his sorry ass, then won a Super Bowl without him ...

Negative offensive stat line of this or perhaps any recent year belongs to beleaguered Chicago Bears' QB Rex Grossman, whose 6-19 for a mere 34 yards with three picks against the Vikings gave him a microscopic 1.3 "passer" rating. That's real gross, man. You'd need a penis pump just to see that small a number with the naked eye. But Rex's putrid play of late has at least inspired a novel drinking game. Oh those crazy college kids! ... I was reading about Carolina QB Jake Delhomme's injury in a story this week, not knowing who their backup was. Then I skimmed down and saw that it was Chris Weinke. Someone needs to explain why this guy is still in the league. Now, Delhomme himself has been underachieving and often downright mediocre ever since he had his big moment a few Super Bowls back. But Weinke at 34 is not only almost three years older than Delhomme, but is just an awful football player. Why don't the Panthers have a capable veteran backup or at least a promising young QB they can develop? I take back all the good things I said about Panthers' coach John Fox if they lose to the Giants this weekend because of Weinke ... I must also go on record that I am no fan of players who do not wear thigh pads in their pants. It looks bush-league and makes the best uniforms in all of sports look more like costumes than the battle gear they're meant to resemble. First, the trend started with receivers and kickers -- positions which usually see the least of the game's often brutal contact -- but now it's spread to defensive linemen and even the Giants' MLB Antonio Pierce, a great player and one of its fiercest competitors. Fashion aside, that is a deep skin bruise just waiting to happen ... I probably shouldn't talk, because for some games in high school I got away with not wearing a cup, and I played fullback, perhaps the position with the most violent collisions in all of football. It hurts just thinking about it...

There's no bigger fan around of RB Julius Jones, but his production has tailed off drastically in recent weeks. Where are the big plays we saw from him as a rookie? He seems to be too concerned with not fumbling and is not getting the burst or making moves to get bigger gains. I know the two-back system with Jones and Marion Barber is working out great, but I'd like to see what Barber could do as a starter with 20-25 carries in a game ... In Bill Parcells' first Super Bowl year of 1986, he also changed kickers midseason and we all know how that one worked out ... Another impressive thing about Romo's high completion percentage (67.8%) is that he is not running a West Coast offense where he's running a lot of screens and dumping the ball off to the backs or throwing little slants and hitches to WRs who then run for tons of yards after the catch. Starting RB Julius Jones has only 7 catches on the season! No, he's flinging the ball down the field with alacrity and purpose.

If you look at Giants QB Eli "Opie" Manning's line against Dallas -- 24-36 for 270 with 2 TDs -- you can make a case he played his best game. But how many of those yards came on short screens to Jacobs, Tiki Barber and Sinorice Moss. Considering Barber caught 5-53 and Jacobs 2-52, I would say almost half his total yardage came on safe dump-offs. I'm still not impressed with him and think he's in for a tough game on the road against Carolina this week ... After the game Antonio Pierce graciously praised the Cowboys and especially young Tony Romo, but from the next locker over the classless dumbass Jeremy Shockey said out loud, for all to hear, "Very average player" -- referring to Romo. Then when the reporter asked him to clarify, he didn't even have the guts to back it up and said he was talking about himself. Ah, that fine Miami University education, how can you put a price on that ... Which leads rather seamlessly to the following anecdote. My friend Jimi was at a Giants-sponsored event and was having dinner with some friends and business associates at a table right next to Shockey. Making sure the TE was finished with his dinner before bothering him, a friend approached Shockey and asked if he wouldn't mind signing a football card for his son Alex. Shockey's response? He wouldn't mind giving him the autograph but as he couldn't spell Alex he would just sign his own name to the card. This is disturbing on so many levels, but it does ring true, does it not, when you consider all the stupidity the young Shockey has manifested in his short time in the league, from mindlessly calling Parcells a "homo" his first year to saying he's love to have a threesome with a hot mom and her two twin daughters to all but guaranteeing wins ... I'm guessing Shockey's major at "The U" was not math or English, but that's just a hunch on my part. He is a helluva player, no denying that, but just too much baggage and other distracting crap that goes along with it. I'll take Jason Witten any day of the week, but especially on a football Sunday, thank you all very much.