Romo drawing raves, but the jury is still out on defense

By RANDY GALLOWAY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
After the initial postgame media crush of an NFL Sunday, quotes flow freely and they end up in print or as sound bites.

But if you give it a day or two, then revisit the opposition's home city (via the geek wire), what you usually find is confirmation and/or new information based on what you thought you had witnessed.

Everybody has seen the tape by then, and heard the rant of the coaches. A different perspective will sometimes surface.

But in checking the Miami-area Web sites this week, it was more like confirmation.

Praise from the Dolphins and Miami media continued to roll in for the work of Tony Romo, which is interesting, considering some local "stats slaves" are quick to point out he was under 200 yards in passing.

Then again, watch the damn game. Or in the case of Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas, have an up-close and personal view.

"We were chasing him, we couldn't catch him, and he wore us out," Thomas said, repeating his similar postgame observation from Sunday.

And I liked the wordage of Harvey Fialkov, Dolphins' beat man for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale:

"[Romo's] got great pocket presence and is as greasy as a Tony Roma rib."

Stats, rats. If you didn't highly appreciate Romo's performance Sunday, I suggest you don't need to be watching any more football.

But a major dividing line between here (North Texas) and there (South Florida) was also evident in postgame opinions and certainly continued this week.

Here, the Cowboys defense was hailed for coming up with five turnovers, including four interceptions, and rebounding after a horrendous performance against the Giants a week earlier.

There, nothing. Not a glowing word, or basically even a word, on what the Cowboys' defense accomplished.

Instead, there's been a steady Green Ream Job in Miami. It's hard to dispute this. Trent Green played like a quarterback who didn't need to be playing any longer.

In fairness, cornerback Anthony Henry, who did come roaring back after a poor outing against the Giants, deserves plenty of butt-pats for his two interceptions off Green. Both were well-played picks, although on the deep one, Green didn't throw the ball to the outside of the receiver, while Henry was running with him on the inside.

But otherwise, the Cowboys had one meaningful sack and nothing much in the way of meaningful pressure, although our local defensive Mr. Fix-It, Wade Phillips, disputed that last part this week.

Maybe Wade is right, but I didn't see much pressure on Green.

What the Cowboys defense did do in Miami was totally stuff the run, forcing Green to seek chain movement by going upstairs. Then again, the South Florida wail says the Dolphins had no run game to begin with.

Not that I looked it up, because why should anyone waste time looking it up, but several concerned Cow Sheep have e-mailed this week to point out the Cowboys have an awful league defensive ranking in almost every vital category.

So, it took a stat sheet to tell you that? Giving up almost 600 yards passing in two games, plus 55 points, will cause such a slide.

Hey, even the troubled Rex Grossman has got to be encouraged for Sunday night in Chicago after viewing those numbers, although anyone attempting to make any statistical conclusions two games into a season is nuts.

But during the Tank-a-thon this week at Valley Ranch, some other questions filtered in concerning the current status of the Phillips 3-4.

Like the name of DeMarcus Ware came up. Remember him? (And stop e-mailing me with this "DeMarcus Where" stuff. I will not respond to you jokesters. I like DeMarcus Ware.)

Admittedly, however, it's been hard to spot Ware in these first two games, certainly in the other team's backfield.

Phillips obviously wanted to defend his man when the question was asked.

So he started off by saying the Cowboys defense "has faced 80-something passes, which has to be the highest in the league, and Ware has been rushing on every one of them."

Phillips added that Ware is being doubled-teamed almost every play.

Although it was unintentional, those comments were large indictments on the current status of the Cowboys defense.

As it should be, Ware is "coming" on every snap. But he's not getting there, despite more opportunities than any pass rusher in the league.

Double-teamed? Why wouldn't the opposition do that? Look at what is around Ware. And premier edge rushers are always double-teamed, yet they are premier because they can beat it at times.

One more thing, if Ware is consistently double-teamed, somebody else on that front seven has to be getting an advantage. Where is that somebody when it comes to pressure?

Phillips himself has told us repeatedly he will "fix" this defense, and it's way too early to say he won't. But I repeat an old message from the day Wade was hired: The players didn't change, only the aggressiveness of the scheme did.

And the early returns do tell us the same players who failed in the past aren't yet being revived by the scheme. The emphasis here is on "early returns."

Let the season continue, please, as we await more evidence.