Holiday travel has ceased so I should be back to a regular blogging schedule.
I just listened to Wade’s press conference today and here are my highlights with an attempt at reading between the lines.
T.O. and Andre Gurode are for sure out. So there’s two inactives come Sunday. Later in the press conference Wade said there are 5 or 6 already 'down' when commenting on who's playing and how long the starters will play. Jay Ratliff didn’t practice today and it sounded very much like he will also be inactive. They’ve already been practicing Marcus Spears as a backup NT for this week. Wade mentioned they might have to go with a 5-man front-line rotation, so expect Ratliff to sit this week.
At today’s practice Terence Newman and Pat Watkins were limited. I think he might, and I think he should, sit Newman this week. I would make him the #4 starter to be inactive. If Watkins is at all ailing, give him the game off, too. He is very valuable on special teams and we need that come playoff time.
Of course the subject of Tony Romo came up and how much he might play. Wade pretty much set the parameters without actually saying it. He hemmed and hawed about how much Romo would play and when they asked him about practice reps, he said they were getting the amount in proportion to how much they’ll play. Then he made a joke about not being able to tap dance around that question. Later, when asked about getting Romo at least a few reps with Terry Glenn in the game, he said that’s what they planned to do if Glenn plays. He also mentioned individual goals as a reason to play guys, but that they were subservient to the overall goal. So it sounds like Romo will get some snaps in the first half, but how long that may be is unknown. I’m guessing a quarter or a little more.
As for Terry Glenn, everything sounds like a go right now. He participated fully and Wade said if he wants to start he can start, if he feels up to it. Keep your fingers crossed that we see #83 on the field Sunday.
From Wade’s tone, I think we’ll see a lot of backups, especially later in the game. He wants to win but he made it clear that he has no problem protecting players in a game like this.
Nick Eatman has more on the Romo situation.
More on Terry Glenn here and here.
Hat tip to Terry for posting a diary on Glenn, here.