Cowboys don’t need to panic with Bledsoe

By Andy Targovnik  |   Tuesday, September 12, 2006  |  Comments( 15 )

Dallas Cowboys
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As always, after the first week of NFL action, fans across America are flooding talk radio stations and want changes - and I mean big changes. If it were up to the fans, 16 teams would be starting new quarterbacks, firing the head coach or trading half the team away. Thankfully, sanity ultimately rules the day.

When the Dallas Cowboys' schedule came out last April, who didn't think the opening game against the Jacksonville Jaguars wouldn't be extraordinarily difficult? In case anybody forgot, the Jaguars were 12-4 last year in the superior AFC. They have a good offense and a monster defense. As a matter of fact, if they were in the NFC, the Jags would arguably be the best team in the conference.

So what was surprising was not that the Cowboys blew a 10-0 lead, but that they were up 10-0 in the first place; and that only a poorly thrown Drew Bledsoe pass prevented them from taking a commanding 17-point lead. Which brings us to the subject of the day: After Bledsoe's subpar performance, should he be replaced by Tony Romo? Bill Parcells told the media in no uncertain terms yesterday that Bledsoe is still the starter - and rightly so.

Better than anybody, Parcells knows that even though it's only 16 games, it's a long season. His 1986 New York Giants Super Bowl championship team lost their opening game to the Dallas Cowboys; a game in which Phil Simms didn't play particularly well. Tuna didn't panic then and he's not panicking now.

Sure Bledsoe made some terrible throws that arguably cost the Cowboys the win. But you have to put his performance into perspective.

To start, this is the first time this offensive unit was on the field together for any length of time. And the rest of the offense was hardly mistake free. The offensive line was shaky, Jason Witten was called for offensive pass interference that took a touchdown off the board; and, according to Parcells, the running backs weren't waiting long enough for the correct blocking schemes to develop before they made their cuts.

So don't panic, Cowboy fans.

This is not to say that if Bledsoe keeps making unforced errors, we won't see Romo. We will and we should. Tuna has implied as much.

But considering the quality of the opponent, the hostile territory and the fact that the offense has barely played together, fans need to cut Bledsoe some slack. "You've got take a lot of things and put them in the right perspective." said Parcells. He couldn't be more right.

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