Cowboys roll with Owens as a face among many

By Anthony Bialy  |   Tuesday, September 11, 2007  |  Comments( 6 )

Dallas Cowboys
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T.O. got his TDs, eventually, but only after his comparatively anonymous teammates made their mark. It's odd to say that a receiver who delivered 87 yards and two scores was not the best player on the field, but that was the quirky case with Terrell Owens against the Giants during Week 1. The fact he didn't catch a pass until the second half of Dallas' first game was even more notable when you consider that his fellow receivers had long run up their stats by then.

In the past, nobody thought of Owens as a cog in a machine, including, I'll make a wild assumption, Owens himself. On Sunday, however, the effective play of the quieter members of his corps set up his own later gains. He was a good player but not the best player, a less-and-less rare occurrence with him made even more notable by the day's insanely high passing totals.

The most impressive Cowboy receiver by both the numbers and how he played was tight end Jason Witten, who went for 116 yards and a score. Most notably, Witten easily located that soft spot in the middle of the Giants' coverage for many of his six grabs, timing his routes and speeding downfield as effectively as a receiver would.

Patrick Crayton matched Owens' catch total with three, also exploiting the middle of the Giants' coverage scheme in an area that will be targeted by everyone facing the senior New York team until its secondary drops the timid play and reads routes better. As with Witten, Crayton punished the defense at its weakest point, catching his passes in the same place Owens would later take advantage of on his second touchdown. Crayton didn't score, but both he and Witten showed their teammate where the coverage was tentatively passive.

And, when the Cowboys needed to put the contest out of reach, they went to . . . Sam Hurd. If you haven't heard of Hurd, that's understandable: It's his second season, and his first, aside from five catches, was spent mainly on special teams. Although he shouldn't be celebrating before reaching the end zone as he did, Hurd was the player the Cowboys counted on when they wanted to slice the jugular, as his 51-yard touchdown reception with just over three minutes left put Dallas up by 10 and made a Giants victory officially unattainable.

All were beneficiaries of Tony Romo's spectacular opening night. At 15 of 24, good for 345 yards, with four touchdown passes against one pick, his numbers are about as close to faultless as one could hope.

He reached those stats in part because of the way he was well-protected against a Giants pass rush that, depleted by injuries, was forced to employ the rusty Michael Strahan for long periods. But he was also calm in the pocket when he did encounter pressure. Romo operates well with only a fraction of a second to release the ball before getting creamed, and he also has that essential sense of when he needs to step forward to elude defensive ends.

Most importantly, especially for a current-era Cowboy quarterback, was that Romo didn't fret about targeting the most prominent player on the roster. Owens was virtually invisible for an extended chunk of the game, and Romo seemed unconcerned with ensuring his notable teammate's legendary fickle happiness by throwing to him. It might lead to consequences in the form of media catfights later, but for now it just led to a shootout victory against the Giants.

It's a testament to Owens' presence that his lack of involvement is as much a story as if he had more of an initial impact on the game. Whether this role will continue, and also regardless of if Owens will now engage in his own unique brand of pouting, is debatable. Either way, the Cowboys proved that they can win an 80-point game with Owens as one aerial recipient in a crowd.
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