Cowboys’ Romo makes his thumb, blonde non-issues

By Anthony Bialy  |   Monday, December 24, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Dallas Cowboys
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Hopefully, this means we can stop yapping about Tony Romo's hurt thumb. At this point, I'd rather waste more time discussing the quarterback's ditzy companion and her presence's alleged affect on his play than his throwing hand's opposable digit. A touchdown strike of his own along with superb protection and a crunching runner playing well when he was called upon meant that the Cowboys once again found a way to overcome a few lackluster moments, beating the Panthers on Saturday and, thanks to a Packers loss the next day, winning their half of the league.

The biggest reason the quarterback was allowed to ease back into playing well after an injury-tainted performance versus Philadelphia was that the offensive line let him do his job. He wasn't sacked once on Saturday evening, and the fact that he completed two-thirds of his 42 pass attempts was as impressive as his 257-yard total, once again combining accuracy and distance.

That said, it was surprising not to see Marion Barber do more trampling in Charlotte. Especially with a dinged quarterback, Barber should be seeing more than 22 carries per game, even factoring in the nine tries Julius Jones had. Aside from how fun he is to watch as he bruises away at all those facing him, more frequently utilizing Barber's power, slipperiness, and ability to average 5.0 yards per carry could benefit this team.

Everyone knows he can run down the clock, but using him to take even more heat off the passer might add an interesting wrinkle. Regardless, Dallas got the win, and it's an understatement to say the Cowboys have figured out the proportion they like.

Independent of the play-calling balance, the defense had its say, too, and it wasn't about to let rookie and former Dallas free agent Matt Moore become an undrafted legend on its watch. Before Carolina put up a field goal to conclude its final drive of the game, the Panthers gained precisely zero yards on their pair of other fourth-quarter efforts, with a three-play, 2-yard set coming before a second three-play series which itself went backward 2 yards.

No team is going to do much with exactly 21 minutes of possession, as evidenced by the 216 yards picked up by the Panthers. Factor in the abysmal 12 first downs the home team gained and its horrid third-down conversion rate of 2 for 11, and it's clear that Dallas' defense was utterly miserly in a Scrooge-before-he-flipped-out-and-saw-ghosts way.

On our earthly plane, everyone in Dallas will now start fretting over Terrell Owens and his high ankle sprain, an injury that even non-physicians recognize as one that usually takes a decent bit of time to heal. But, after Green Bay's inability to complete passes with any regularity or execute a punt on Sunday, the Cowboys' upcoming game against Washington can't affect their status as the NFC's regular-season champion, meaning they will be fine without him during the season finale.

Throw in a week off in January as a reward for winning 13 of their first 15 contests, and that's a fair amount of recovery time. Besides, Dallas has managed to triumph in various manners this season, so leaning on Jason Witten, Patrick Crayton, and, especially, the running game if necessary early in the postseason shouldn't pose an unrelenting obstacle. Hopefully for the Cowboys, a victory Saturday along with talk of how they plan on adjusting for playoff opponents means the focus will be on something else than the quality of Romo's famous female acquisitions.
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