One of the common public takeaways from Jason Garrett's decision to try a shovel pass on third and goal, or run the ball three consecutive times to try and ice the game with over three minutes left is that the head coach doesn't have any confidence in his starting quarterback.
During Thursday's press conference, the red-headed genius says nothing could be further from the truth.
"There is absolutely no issue with my trust level in Tony Romo,'' Garrett said. "Anybody who has followed our football team understand the kind of trust and belief I have in him and our football team has in him.
"Playing quarterback in the NFL, there is a tremendous amount of responsibility that comes with that. Tony knows that. He prepares for that. We give him a lot of responsibility on Sunday and that's the way we like it. He's certainly responded well to that, really, really well over the last four-and-a-half years and there's no reason for us to think otherwise.
"I think if you look at his season so far, he's really shown he can play really, really well as a quarterback in this league. We believe very strongly in him, I believe very strongly in him. We're just going to keep going forward.'' - DMN
Well, armchair psychologists can read into this 'vote of confidence'. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to watch this week's Showtime's inside the NFL, but there were reports that Romo was heard on the sideline saying that he didn't throw to a single-covered Dez Bryant in the end zone because he didn't want to throw a pick. If true, I can't say that inspires confidence that Romo is, well, confident.
In injury news, All-World outside linebacker returned to practice, after missing a session on Wednesday due to back spasms. He appears set to go against the winless St. Louis Rams on Sunday. Also participating in practice were FB Tony Fiammetta and K David Buehler.
On the Rams sidelines, both quarterback Sam Bradford and wideout Mark Clayton are expected to suit up, to join with newly acquired Brandon Lloyd. Lloyd's services were acquired from Denver before the trade deadline from Denver for a 6th, conditional 5th round draft pick.
One can only hope that the Cowboys don't duplicate their performance from the last time these two teams met; as the game turned so ugly that Fox decided not to broadcast the majority of the fourth quarter. After taking an early 7-0 lead in St. Louis, Dallas watched the Rams reel of 34 consecutive points. It was the Rams second, and final victory of the season, 34-14, as they lost their next ten and finished the 2008 campaign 2-14.