JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Few things whet the appetites of columnists with space to fill or talk-show hosts with hours to kill like a good quarterback controversy. We don't have one in Dallas.
Yet.
But it's lurking right around the corner. It's one more Drew Bledsoe three-interception game from kicking into full swing and needing a quick resolution.
Bledsoe was not the sole reason the Cowboys blew a 10-point lead Sunday afternoon and lost to a team they should have buried early. Jacksonville's 24-17 win at Alltel Stadium pointed out other Dallas flaws and elevated other Cowboys to goat status in the process.
The Cowboys believe they have a great set of receivers. No one refers to the Jaguars' set of receivers as great.
But Matt Jones, Ernest Wilford and Reggie Williams caught more passes (14-10) for more yards (176-161) than the Cowboys' wideouts. And Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn gained more than half their yards in the final three minutes, after the Jaguars had built a 14-point lead.
You can put some of that on Bledsoe's inaccuracy, but the Cowboys' soft coverage accounted for the Jaguars' success.
Then there's interim kicker (we think) Shaun Suisham, who missed a 36-yard field goal attempt. He didn't do much to secure his hopes of keeping Mike Vanderjagt on the inactive list despite kicking two more touchbacks than Vanderjagt is likely to register this season.
Then there is coach Bill Parcells, who wasted a late timeout when he threw a challenge flag, saying later he thought the officials hadn't stopped the clock after a Jacksonville reception.
He threw the flag late (a la Dolphins coach Nick Saban) and the play wasn't reviewed, and basically all he did was cost his team a timeout when it was desperate to keep them tucked away for later.
OK, now it's time to get back to Bledsoe. He picked up where he left off last season, which is to say he looked like the Bledsoe who threw more interceptions than touchdown passes the last 10 games as the team went 5-5 than the guy who was hot in the first six games.
He did get a touchdown pass to Owens in the final two minutes, but he was picked off three times. He threw balls away. He missed Owens on a post for a potential touchdown. He played as if under duress even when he wasn't.
In a word, he was badly outplayed by the Jaguars' up-and-down quarterback, Byron Leftwich.
Parcells didn't want to analyze Bledsoe's performance, saying he needed to see the film.
But here's what you need to know about Parcells. He was asked two questions about Tony Romo – one about whether he thought about playing him Sunday and another about maybe playing him against Washington.
Parcells didn't bristle, didn't snap the way he did when asked about the Cowboys' history of penalty trouble.
He said he didn't think about changing quarterbacks Sunday. He said he didn't think he would change quarterbacks next week. Soft-spoken, matter-of-fact answers.
They were not the answers of a man who is dead set on giving Bledsoe 16 games to show what he can do. They were the answers of a coach struggling to figure out which quarterback gives this team a better chance to win in January, should the Cowboys reach the postseason.
I wouldn't anticipate a change this week, but here's what you have to recognize when considering this idea. Once he makes the change, there's no reversing course. Going back to Bledsoe after a brief affair with Romo would not benefit this team.
But if Parcells makes the change to Romo, he's not dumb. He knows Romo won't look as sharp and as sure of himself as he did in the preseason.
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| BRAD LOPER / DMN Quarterback Drew Bledsoe and the Cowboys head into Week 2 in an 0-1 hole because the offense stalled and the defense gave in at the wrong time against the Jaguars. |
He knows Romo's inexperience will cost the Cowboys a couple of games.
Does Parcells wait until the Cowboys are struggling along at, say, 3-3 and then make a change? Might that be too late to salvage the season?
Parcells will laugh at that sort of thing, the panic talk about seasons hanging in the balance after one game. He told his players after the game not to get down, that it's a long season.
It's really not. The NFL is a very, very short season.
The Cowboys are a club that either wins the NFC East by one game or by a tiebreaker over division rivals or misses the wild card by a game or two, or something in between.
That's the range.
They aren't going 4-12 and they aren't headed for 14-2, either.
If the Cowboys are going to be forced to live with quarterback mistakes on a regular basis, better to do it with the player who is growing than the 14th-year veteran who's looking for one final shot at glory.
E-mail wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com
| WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES |
| Drew Bledsoe earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors last year after the season opener with his three-touchdown effort against San Diego. Bledsoe threw three interceptions in the season-opening loss Sunday to Jacksonville. His statistics: |
| Year | Opponent | Com. | Att. | Yds. | TDs | Int. | Sacks | Rating | Result |
| 2005 | at San Diego | 18 | 24 | 226 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 143.4 | W 28-24 |
| 2006 | at Jacksonville | 16 | 33 | 246 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 45.8 | L 24-17 |
