THE MOST important thing Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones wanted to see from Tony Romo this
season before giving his talented young quarterback one of those crazy Monopoly-money contracts, was respect for the
football.
"He's got those quarterback things," Jones said
in late-July. "You get a sense from his demeanor that somehow, he gives you a chance to win the game. And that's
pretty big.
"However, what we want to do is for him to have an emphasis on protecting the ball. If he'll
protect that ball, I think we have a good chance to get to see the pluses he brings to the game."
That still is a somewhat elusive goal for Romo. He's already got eight interceptions this season, and has 16 in his last 328 regular-season attempts, which is one every 20.5 throws.
He threw five Monday night against the Bills, but managed
to keep his composure, complete
11 of his final 14 passes, and rally his team to a dramatic 25-24 come-from-behind win to set
up Sunday's battle of unbeatens between the 5-0 Cowboys and the 5-0 Patriots.
"Anytime you turn the ball over that many times, you obviously didn't do something right and you want to take [better] care of the ball,'' Romo told
reporters this week. "But I really haven't had that problem lately. I'd like to think every once in a while, something creeps up in one game and - boom - it hits you. You chalk it up and you learn from it and you move on. But you don't let it affect the way you're playing.
"Obviously, I'll take [better]
care of the football this week.
We're still going to do what I do, and that's try to put our team
in the end zone. If I see a guy and feel like he's open, I'm going to
try to throw the ball.''
his first-ever NFL start Sunday against Tennessee. "We might be searching [for a running back] right now,'' coach Jon Gruden said. "But 'searching' and 'collecting' are two different issues. You can search all you want, but there aren't a lot of teams in football that are willing to part ways with good runners and good players."
