FOR DALLAS, THE WADE AND TONY SHOW BETTER START NOW
By T.J. Rosenthal for Football Reporters Online.

The Dallas Cowboys once 3-0, appeared headed for a collision course with the Giants for the rights to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl next February. What we all tend to forget is, in the NFL, each week is it's own season. Weeks are cumulative as much as they are separate. The landscape drastically changes as star players get injured. As favored teams get upset unexpectedly. Week 4 was way too early in this or any season to be describing anybody as undoubtedly Super Bowl bound. The Cowboys were no different. From pre season Super Bowl expectations to early questions about the head coach and the clubs balance on offense. From the Pacman Jones saga to the Tony Romo injury, then to the Roy Williams signing. This chain of events has left the Cowboys on a road headed not for Disneyworld, but for disaster instead. Only Wade Phillips and Tony Romo can save them before these Cowboys soon fade into the sunset.

Having come off a 13-3 season in which the Boys had seen their franchise quarterback Tony Romo blossom into a star, a season that saw the exit of Julius Jones and the entry of Felix Jones to compliment the hard nosed RB Marion Barber, there was clear reasons as to why many thought the Cowboys were the team to beat heading into 2008. Those expectations certainly soared after a string of convincing early season wins that left the club 3-0 and feeling awfully good about themselves. What ensued the following three weeks however was spotty play in losses to Washington at home and Arizona on the road. That mixed in with a close win against a winless Bengal team at home. Questions were beginning to arise as to whether there was enough balance in the offense. Was Felix Jones, a threat to score on any play, getting enough touches? The loss to Washington, the Boys first loss of the year brought the club down to earth. Made experts and even the team itself recognize that it was not invincible. This should not have been a news flash for anyone following the Cowboys closely. For a team loaded with talent, the trick has always been finding a way to make it all work together. Even more so, finding a way to get through the tough games. Games played on days where all phases of the game are not running on all cylinders.

What could be fairly noted from a distance is that where we are now as far as the Cowboys go began in January during the '07 playoffs. Wade Phillips ability to be an effective game changer on THOSE type of days first came into question as the Cowboy’s head coach when the Giants beat them at home last year in the playoffs. Home field advantage throughout the playoffs was wasted. Now I can't pinpoint exactly WHY that game was Phillip's fault from an X's and O's point of view, but it just was. In the same way that Jim Mora was the reason why the pre Tony Dungy Colts lost playoff games at home. In the way Rich Kotite was just going to lose playoff games with Buddy Ryan's Eagles. Because THOSE types of games require a quality head coach who can pull you out of a tight game late in the contest. It's an energy thing. A how you cry yourself on the sidelines thing. Some guys have it, most don't. Take nothing away from Tom Coughlin, Eli and the Giants. Their magical run will be one for the ages. At that time though, Dallas was still the team to beat, and the better team. It was Phillips job to help win THAT game as much as it was Marty Schottenheimers' job to beat New England the year previous while owning home field advantage as well for his 14-2 Chargers. That Charger loss erased their terrific regular season in the same way that Giant loss last year made everyone forget that the Cowboys were 13-3.

Phillips often times has the look and the body language of a less informed spectator. One who enjoys football but doesn't follow it enough to enjoy the idiosyncrasies of it. At times confused by the rulings on the field, other times pumping his fists like a season ticket holder, Phillips carries himself more like a safe bet than a difference maker to the naked eye. Phillips was according to many, the perfect answer to Bill Parcells and his tough love approach to the sidelines. He took over a Parcells built team that could have, and well, possibly did, run on autopilot last season. That's because the true test for Phillips will be this year. It will be now. 13-3 was Bill Parcells team that Wade was borrowing. The playoff loss was Wade's team. The always-aggressive Jerry Jones built this 2008 version to be faster and stronger. The turmoil and the escape route out of it are on Wade Phillips. Fair or not. These next few weeks will be HIS contribution to a team rebuilt by both Parcells and Jones, then taught by Parcells. For better or for worse. Wade Phillips needs to make his presence felt right now.

Now, whether it is fair to blame Phillips or Offensive coordinator Jason Garret this season for the early inability to find a balance in the offense and a routine place for Felix Jones in the backfield may be unfair. The Super Bowl winning Colts of 2006 struggled scoring early in their championship season as they made the switch from a passing dominant to a more balanced offense with rookie RB Joseph Addai. The Cowboys, although winning early in 2008, were still looking to find their balance. They'll have to wait a month now in order to find it for a stretch run that they hope still exists. Felix Jones is out for a month and Romo as of today is still sidelined. Dallas has a bye in week 10. 4-3 and on the brink of fading in the NFC East to the 5-1 Giants, a quick fix however is in order. The time is now.

Let's backtrack for a bit to before the Cardinal game two weeks ago. Pacman Jones and yes, I'm calling him Pacman not Adam (sorry Adam), didn't help team morale by finding himself in the principals office once again before the game. His suspension, given Jerry Jones sticking his neck out in risking the reputation of the franchise by acquiring the troubled star despite the rap sheet, through off the teams rhythm. Just like even the smallest family dramas always do. Let's not, however, make Pacman the scapegoat for an offensive line that allowed Tony Romo to get hit after every pass attempt that day, eventually breaking his pinky. Combine a Dallas team still looking for role definition, with the Pacman saga and add to the mix an explosive Arizona offense seething form a loss to the Jets a week earlier (where both defenses resembled a two hand touch parking lot game) and what you had was a good old Desert trap. The template for an upset. The train was slowed by the defeat and slightly running off the tracks. Yet it was about to be derailed a day later.

Now, the Cowboys play on the field: the pass blocking, the pass defense and the Pacman effect would have come into question a lot more after the Cardinal loss had the Cowboy Crisis not trickled down to Tony Romo. His broken pinky became the clubs primary source for concern the Monday after the loss (News of Felix Jones' partially torn hamstring soon followed). Without Romo, the Dallas version of Tom Brady, both for his throwing arm and emotional worth to a quality team, how would the Boys continue to be an imposing threat? With the pedestrian Brad Johnson on his way to replacing Super Hero Romo, questions began to arise instantly as to how the Cowboys could navigate through this trauma.

While the media looked to TO and other voices in the locker room that Tuesday for answers to the biggest question in Cowboy land since whether Jessica Simpson affected Tony Romo's play down the stretch in 2007, Jerry Jones went out and bought Detroit Lion star WR Roy Williams at the deadline. A team that already had problems spreading the ball around to TO, Jason Witten, Marion Barber and Felix Jones had now added a fifth star to the mix. All to be led for the time being by Johnson, a 40 year old guy whose throwing style is more Phil Simms than it's ever been Roger Staubauch. It would be hard to fault Jones for his desire to improve the talent on his roster. Hopefully he has considered how Williams will fit with a team that always appears to be hanging on a thread with regard to the notion of TEAM CHEMISTRY.

Then yesterday. A complete drubbing in St Louis to the Rams. The Rams? Don't give me that Jim Hasslet stuff all right? Ok I'm happy for Hasslet, a Saints castoff. There's a new energy there in St. Louis. There should be. Scott Linehan's teams would lose by college scores every week 52-14, then 49 -10. Who in their right minds could get excited about getting destroyed every week? That tenure was ridiculous and over thank god. With Hasslet, Stephen Jackson has had back-to-back monster games. Regardless, these were once the pitiful winless Rams going against the once Super Bowl bound Cowboys. Yet by the end of the day, the Rams elevator was going up at the same time the Boys raced their elevator down towards the ground floor at mock speed. The Cowboys' pre season and early season expectations started out way too high for a team to land at a place that has left them 4-3 and two games out of first place in a division they were convinced was theirs to begin with. The question is how many more Sundays can the Cowboys afford like the last one? They are not in the forgiving NFC South. There is little to no room for error in the NFL's toughest division.

The Cowboys are in major crisis mode. They CAN however, be rescued. Two people and two people only can rescue the Boys. Without them BOTH throwing out life preservers to the rest of the crew at the same time, the ship will sink. Guaranteed. Wade Phillips and Tony Romo have to save this team. Now. Nobody else can do it. Not TO. Not Marion Barber. Not Jerry Jones chewing the team out like he did after the disaster in St Louis. Not Roy Williams, too new to the zoo to have the clout. It's got to be the Wade and Tony show. Like it's been the Bill and Tom show in New England for years. Like it isn't the Bill and Tom show now and hey, just look at that mess up there in Foxboro for proof that it takes two. Matt Cassel? Yeesh.

Wade Phillips has to step up and show us that he can manage a crisis by keeping divisive personalities like TO in check while creating a groupthink motto his players will buy into and rally around. He has to do it before they break off into smaller self-ruling factions. Phillips needs to oversee shrewd game plans and sign off on key in game moves that steal a win or two while his team finds its swagger again. He doesn't have be either brains behind the game plan or sign off on the right one. The head coach's reputation will be connected to whatever plays out on the field, so it better be good. It better translate into wins. Dallas is not St Louis, where 2-4 has suddenly turned into the feel good hit of the fall. Winning is everything in Dallas. Winning hides dysfunction in a place where negativity always waits for the perfect losing streak in order to come in and ruin the team like a cancer.

Secondly, Tony Romo HAS TO START NEXT WEEK at QB. Broken pinky or not, the Cowboys have lost an emotional edge that playing behind their field leader provides. Romo at 75 percent will be more useful to Dallas than 40-year-old Brad Johnson will ever be at 100 percent. His efficiency as a passer will diminish, but he'll still be able to extend play in the passing game and find open receivers. He'll have his security blanket Jason Witten close by and have Marion Barber running hard to keep defenses honest. He'll bring the threat of a deep ball back to the offense, accurate or not. Romo will force the defense to play the whole field again. He has no choice.

It's getting late early. Tampa Bay, The Giants and Redskins are next up for the Boys and I can assure you, chomping at the bit. Dying for the chance to get after Dallas while they are licking their wounds. If Wade can outsmart 'em and Romo can provide the spark, everything else could once again fall into place. On the flip side, if Phillips gets exposed as nothing more than a yes man, nothing more than a nice guy figurehead over the coming weeks, the inmates will soon begin taking over the asylum. If Romo waits until after the bye to resume playing, he'll be healthy, but the Cowboys 2008 season will be over.