Romo's on everyone's mind: turnovers, pressure and getting RW2 involved

A lot of stories on Romo lately. He is always a magnet for criticism.

Here comes JJT to jump on the bandwagon. Like Grizz, I enjoy JJT's style of writing for the most part. But sometimes he veers off the reservation.

This story is one of the stories where he takes an inference and stretches it to limit. He said T.O. didn't know his plays based on scant evidence. He said T.O. was washed up based on declining numbers this year (then he looked like a fool the following week). Now he's saying Romo doesn't understand the advantage of taking care of the ball because of a comment he made after Saturday's loss.

I'd argue that Romo turns the ball over too much and any inference that comes with that. But he doesn't understand that throwing picks is a bad thing? Really?

Sigh. Again, this is an argument over a subjective thing. How do you know that? Have you crawled into his mind? Again, stick to the objective tangible things. He turns the ball over too much. That's fair. He doesn't understand turnovers are bad. Unfair.

Ok. I got one. JJT doesn't know the difference between football and flatulence. Numerous unnamed sources confirm this. Plus, we've never seen him explain the difference between the two. So it must be true.

In this video Emmitt Smith says goodbye to the stadium he broke records in. And in this video Steve Sabol gives us a proper send-off.

It wasn't the largest stadium or the loudest. But Sabol makes a good point: it was a symbol. A powerful symbol just like the star in the middle of the field. A symbol that defined a successful franchise and a proud state.

I'm gonna miss it.

If you ever need concrete evidence that some analysts do indeed hate the Dallas Cowboys, and this is not just a made-up conspiracy theory created by a legion of homers, feast your eyes on Cris "All-I-Do-Is-Catch-Touchdowns-and-Make-a-Fool-Out-of-Myself" Carter and his handiwork here.

"I'm gonna tell you something: If Dallas goes on a run like that, it's a discredit to team sports, it's a discredit to team unity," Carter said on ESPN Radio this morning. "I mean, it's a discredit to all the things that we sacrifice when we put together a football team.

One of my favorite movies is "Sling Blade" and this is one of the funniest scenes from the movie. I don't think it's intentionally meant to be funny. But it just is. Doyle, the movie's villian, is yelling and screaming. He assaults one of his friends and then he eventually gets beat up by a child.

Anyways, after an embarrassing, drunk diatribe, Doyle (played by country music star and Bakersfield adopted-son Dwight Yoakam) tries to explain himself. The signature line in this scene to me is Doyle saying "I'm hurtin', Linda." As if that's an excuse for acting like a jackass.

Well, gentlemen, we're hurtin'. We've got a lot of injuries. But that's no excuse to play as bad as we did in such a historic game Saturday. But it is the truth. 

IRVING, Texas - Six days from the biggest game of their season, the Dallas Cowboys are as beat-up as ever. Facing an early playoff game, the Cowboys will need to get the most out of their injured players this week.

For some, that may mean continued rest during practice. Coach Wade Phillips said he wouldn't rethink holding certain banged-up players, like Ken Hamlin (foot) or Marion Barber (toe), out of practice simply because of the increased stakes. Barber didn't participate in any practices last week, and Hamlin was only listed as limited on Friday. The Cowboys entered Saturday's game against Baltimore with 13 players on the injury report, and none experienced any miraculous recovery over the weekend.

"I hold them out if they can't practice," Phillips said. "Certain guys get rest if they need rest to get their legs back, but we've had guys who can't practice."

While the Cowboys came out of the game with no new players hurt, some of the existing injuries may have gotten worse. Jason Witten hurt his ankle again on his touchdown catch near the end of the game, and the beating quarterback Tony Romo took throughout the contest couldn't have been good for his back. Barber came in for a series during the first half, but never returned.

Is there too much pressure on Tony Romo? Well, yeah. But it comes with the job. You knew this before you took it. Everyone knows this.

ROSS ROSE, MEMPHIS, TN: I hear people complaining about Tony Romo's poor play all the time. I think Romo has the potential to be the best quarterback this franchise has ever had. I just think too much is expected of him this early in his career. Your thoughts?

Nick: I would agree with that. Expectations are very high for him, but that goes along with being the quarterback of America's team and getting $67 million contracts. You're expected to play at a Pro Bowl level. I think for the most part, he does that. He's the reason the Cowboys have had so much success here lately. And even in the losses, he seems to get his team in a position to win the game. That's about all you can really ask for.

Mickey: Not sure how many more times we have to answer this. Peyton Manning, the No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft, did not win his first playoff game until his sixth season, having started 96 regular-season games. Romo will now start his 39th Sunday against the Eagles.

One of things I've noticed about our offense is that Romo really isn't in sync with the receivers. Either the ball is overthrown or underthrown. Or the receiver quits on the play (cough T.O. cough). Or there's a miscommunication on the route. Romo really doesn't seem to be on the same page with anybody not named Jason Witten. Injuries certainly have something to do with this as well as his bad pinkie. But it's still something that has hindered us and will continue to unless we do something about it.

I can see why this would frustrate the receivers. But it's no reason to not finish the route or drop the ball when it is thrown your way.

Roy Williams (RW2) seems to be trying. And although he's hurt, we know he can make plays. We paid a lot of money to get him. He seemed way too excited when we actually threw him the ball Saturday. He even seemed to motion toward Jason Garrett after one catch. This shows me he's frustrated that he's not more involved in the offense but he doesn't need to talk to Stephen A. Smith to express it. I like that.

So Romo could you do me this one solid? Get RW2 the ball. Please.

There is the built-in excuse that Tony Romo hasn't had much practice time with Williams.

"That's usually the case," Phillips said when asked whether the comfort level between QB and WR would significantly improve after a training camp together. "But we're going to try to utilize him. We certainly saw the best of him in the Tampa game when we threw it to him before the half for a touchdown. That was a big, big play for us in our season. He can make plays for us. We've just got to utilize him."

Amen.