It is a statement of fact that the NFL's two most efficient quarterbacks are meeting at Texas Stadium on Sunday. That this can be said in the home starting debut of Tony Romo is what makes it so remarkable.
The Romo Road Show was an unparalleled three-week success story. Has anyone ever gone from obscure backup quarterback to "Well, It Looks Like He's Dating Jessica Simpson Next" in such a short time?
Romo vs. Peyton Manning. Who do you give the check mark to?
Tough call.
It seems the Romo Bandwagon includes everyone except the guy who set it in motion at halftime of the Giants game. Coach Bill Parcells, understandably, wanted no part of any questions Wednesday that related to Manning and Romo being the top-ranked passers in the NFL.
"It's my job to keep Tony on the ground," Parcells said. "Sometimes the way he practices it's not hard to do that."
But the way he plays gives the Cowboys the chance to be the first to beat the Colts. A 3-4 defense that's now capable of bursts of dominance has something to do with it, too. The Chargers were the first to beat the Colts a year ago and the Steelers the last and they both feature 3-4 defenses.
Still, it was the excitement over Romo's three-game road swing, which could have been a 3-0 trip, that caused the most surprising bandwagon jumpers to leap aboard late Sunday night.
The men who set the betting line in Las Vegas established the Cowboys as 2 ½ -point favorites. OK, it didn't hold up. Enough money poured in on the Colts to move the line to favor Indianapolis by a point, but the fascination with Romo and the potential he represents as the leader of the Cowboys' offense created the initial burst of enthusiasm in Vegas.
If the consistent play of an undrafted player is a surprise to some around the country, it has been nothing of the sort to Romo's favorite target (although he refuses to call him that), Terrell Owens.
"I've played with a lot of quarterbacks in 10 years," Owens said. "Not like I'm a scout but I've been around football long enough to know if a player can weather the storm. I watched him in the preseason take drives basically from end zone to end zone.
"It's not shocking at all to me."
It's funny the number of people around the country who felt Parcells was tossing in the towel on 2006 and looking ahead when he benched Drew Bledsoe after a 3-3 start. Instead, he was (belatedly by two weeks and one loss) giving the offense (and definitely Owens) a fresh start.
Throw out the rough performance coming off the bench against the Giants, and focus on what Romo has done when prepared for the starting role – 68-for-101 passing, 862 yards, five touchdowns, one interception.
Those are the kinds of numbers that give a team a playoff chance and put Romo into the same conversation with Manning.
Romo gave it his customary sheepish grin and admitted he had heard he was ranked second to Manning but said he's simply confident in the players around him.
"Basically, I feel like anytime we step on the field we have the talent to win the game," Romo said. "We have enough talent to win a lot of games. We just have to stop beating ourselves."
That's what Dallas did in Washington. The Redskins wouldn't have won without major help from the Cowboys. You can't say that about the 9-0 Colts, who are perfectly capable of winning even if the Cowboys limit their mistakes.
It's possible that, after three very sound performances, Romo hits some sort of wall Sunday. That has happened before. Teams get three or four weeks of film on a quarterback and are better prepared than teams that have to guess or study preseason tapes.
But Romo's ability to make something out of nothing – avoiding the blitzing safety to hit Patrick Crayton for a big gain in Arizona – isn't something the Colts can simply take away.
Better for them to proceed under the assumption that Romo's name right below Manning's in the passer ratings is not a fluke.
If it's still right there Sunday night, then the Cowboys probably will have ended the NFL's longest winning streak.
E-mail wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
