What they're saying...

Parcells has carefully groomed Romo. He wouldn't have made the change if he didn't think Romo was best for the team, despite an inauspicious debut that exposed his inexperience.

Parcells described Romo's performance as "some good, some careless." He said he made the switch because Bledsoe was making too many mistakes, but he will wait until later in the week to determine the starter for the Carolina game.

A blink and one dreadful pass later, alas, the Cowboys' season was over.

It is over, you know. It has to be, because a future Hall of Fame coach wouldn't change to an undeveloped, untested quarterback with anything of value still on the line.

Would he?

Bledsoe's status as a backup quarterback - assistant Chris Palmer delivered the news - is the culmination of the Cowboys' failure to adequately improve the offensive line.

Bledsoe's game hasn't changed in years. Protect him and give him a running game, and he can help you win games. Pressure him, especially up the middle, and he's worthless.

The top off-season objective for the Cowboys' power brokers was to improve their offensive line. They wanted a unit that dominated at the point of attack, protected Bledsoe and put the Cowboys in position to end their nine-year streak without a playoff win and contend for the Super Bowl.

They failed miserably.

In football time, Bill Parcells pulled the plug on the Drew Bledsoe Era 90 minutes too late.

After his forgettable performance in Philadelphia, the Cowboys' Statue of Limitations should have been benched in favor of Tony Romo. That way Romo could have gotten a win over Houston under his belt and had a week of preparation for what was supposed to be a big Monday night affair against the Giants.

It was pretty ugly from a Dallas point of view, but it wasn't a surprise. Anyone should have seen this coming from training camp, when Parcells decided to hang the season from the strong but mistake-prone arm of Drew Bledsoe, and let fourth-year back-up Tony Romo handle clipboard duties on the sidelines.

The decision made little sense back then if you were taking a long view of things. I wrote about it at least a month ago, pointing out that the Cowboys weren't going anywhere with Drew Bledsoe at quarterback, just as the Dolphins weren't going to thrive with Daunte Culpepper at the controls. The reason was that these were guys who could put up big stats, but had a habit of making killing mistakes, especially when under pressure.

We're not sure what Bledsoe saw. He didn't hang around to talk, which says volumes of what's coming. Romo's not sure what Bledsoe thought. He said the two did not have any conversation the rest of the night.

But Parcells evidently had seen enough from Bledsoe. That was the second time in three games Bledsoe was intercepted on an ill-advised throw from inside the 10-yard line with basically the game on the line: This one and the pick at the end of the Philadelphia game.

He didn't even wait until he got into the locker room at halftime to make his decision. He made it during the final 1:33 of the first half, and told his quarterbacks coach Chris Palmer to inform Romo he was the guy in the second half. And there was no announcement.

"When we went out there and Romo was in the huddle I knew," Cowboys veteran guard Marco Rivera said of when he realized Romo had taken over the quarterbacking duties.

"Nobody knew," tight end Jason Witten said. "Yeah, I was surprised."