The Cowboys are playing the Redskins in the noon slot today, and while we're all eagerly waiting for the game to kick off, there isn't a lot of breaking news to fill the time leading up to the game. Tom already put together a 1,700 word Gameday News And Notes post earlier today which is a good place to start your morning.
To keep us entertained further, we turn to a trio of recent interviews to while away the remaining hours. On the appropriately titled DeMarcus Ware Show on 105.3 The Fan, Ware had fun talking about deserved and undeserved sacks.
Same station, different show: On The Jason Garrett Show, Garrett buries the "Dez Bryant Doesn't Know The Playbook" urban legend.
And finally, ESPN Dallas has posted an interview Tony Romo did with Hannah Storm, in which they touch on a wide variety of topics, including Romo's 'hiccups' against the Jets and the Lions, and how Romo is dealing with those.
Follow the links above for the full interviews, or continue after the jump to read some excerpts of each interview.
Here's Ware on the DeMarcus Ware Show.
Q: In the game on Sunday, the first play, you get a sack. And then I guess you just retired. Do you deserve a sack on that one? How can they forget DeMarcus Ware, you were unblocked!
DeMarcus Ware: It's not my fault if they forget to block me, okay? That was the first time ever in my career that that happened.
Q: When the ball was snapped and you took a couple of steps up the field, were you like, "Wait, I must be getting tricked, because the quarterback is right there."
DeMarcus Ware: I thought they were going to run the ball because they have this play where they bring the fullback in to cut me, and I thought that was the play, but nobody came, and the quarterback still had the ball. So I'm looking like "Ooookaay, I'm just gonna grab him and lay him down." And the I looked and I'm like "Okay, that was a sack!? Thank you!"
Q: Remember when Brett Favre laid down for Michael Strahan to get the sack record?
DeMarcus Ware: Hey! Nothing wrong with that!
Jason Garrett Garrett puts to rest any concerns that Dez Bryant may not know the playbook.
Q: Dez has his critics of course. He's at times frustrating and the critics, one of their critiques goes like this: "Dez doesn't know the playbook." Can you assess for us Dez's grasp of your system and what you guys are trying to do offensively?
Jason Garrett (frowning): I don't think that's an accurate characterization. At all. I think the biggest thing with Dez - and with all young players - is they just need to play more. And they need to have experience in games doing the things we're asking them to do. And that's the development of every player on our football team. Younger guys don't have as much game experience as more veteran players. It's as simple as that.
The more Dez gets a chance to get out there and play against NFL competition, he'll continue to grow. And I think what you said is the right thing. The game he played the other day [against the Bills] may be as complete a game as he's played. He's developing more and more with the opportunities he's getting.
Tony Romo on throwing interceptions.
Q: When you are the epicenter of either praise or criticism, when there's that wild pendulum swing, how do you handle that?
Tony Romo: The reality is, when you don't play as you expect, or you make a mistake, I get pissed. I get upset. Then I come back and say, "How can I learn from this? How can I get better?" I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. There's 16 games in a season, if a quarterback has two hiccups in a year - which is going to happen each season, it's just part of the process - you hope they're not really close together and you hope they're not in the wrong situation.
Q: So what are your two hiccups?
Tony Romo: I think the Jets game, and probably Detroit.
Q: Detroit was one of the worst losses of your career, the three turnovers in the second half, the biggest blown lead in Cowboys history, happening at home. To a man, your teammates stood up for you after that loss. What did that mean?
Tony Romo: Like I've said before, this team is very close.
There are 16 games in a season. If a quarterback has two hiccups in a year - which is going to happen each season, it's just part of the process - you hope they're never really close together and you hope they're not in the wrong situation. But over that amount of time, it's like golf. If you average two bogeys a round, but get them on one and two, that sucks, you're off to a bad start. But you got them out of the way. Go play.
In some ways that's the way it is in a football season. You get whatever the bad game or two out of the way and you just go play. That's kind of taken shape, that happens.
Our guys stick together. But what happens over time is if you're good enough as a team, collectively, individually, together you'll win those games. And you'll win more than you'll lose. And I think this team is just saying, "Stick together. Keep going." It's doing a lot of good things for us.
Q: You come back after the Detroit game, you throw an interception right away in the Patriots game and since then you've been virtually interception-free. You said the game is slowing down for you?
Tony Romo: You're never not going to throw an interception. That's part of playing the position. You strive for that. What you do is you put yourself in a situation to understand why you would have thrown an interception before. Why you did that.
Once you start to gain an understanding of why you did it, it makes it a lot easier not to do it again. I'm just gaining quite a bit of an understanding as to what I have done in the past and it's helped a lot here lately, and I think it's going to continue being that way going forward