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| In Romo's half of play against the Texans, the Cowboys totaled 266 yards. |
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IRVING, Texas - The Cowboys offense was moving down the field lickety-split, boom, boom, boom, gaining yards in chunks of 10, 12, 13 yards time and time again here Friday night.
The quarterback, Tony Romo, was nearly perfect with one yard left to go on the third drive, save the overthrow of Terrell Owens on a 35-yard pass into the end zone. He missed him by a yard on his first incompletion of the game, causing the Cowboys to settle for a field goal and a 10-3 lead to conclude the second drive.
The Cowboys were about to make a mockery of this third preseason game at Texas Stadium, one yard short of jumping up 17-3 on the Houston Texans with 14:15 still to play in just the second quarter. And then it happened.
Tight end Jason Witten planted a seed, a well-intentioned seed at that since this was just a preseason game, but nevertheless giving his quarterbacking buddy something to think about.
Here the Cowboys were, second-and-goal at the Houston one, having driven 54 yards in six plays, Romo deftly mixing passes to Witten and Owens with runs by Marion Barber, needing only five plays to record three first downs, the third at the Houston two.
So there they are in the huddle, and Romo calls the play, one he's supposed to fake a handoff up the middle, reverse pivot out of center and bootleg to his right with three tight ends in the lineup, a tailback and fullback, too. Power formation. The play was designed for Romo to basically have two options: Roll right and throw a pass to tight end Tony Curtis in the end zone, or just keep rolling down hill himself into the end zone.
As they were breaking the huddle, Witten turns to Romo, knowing his quarterback had the option to throw or run and his penchant to do things on his own, and says, "Don't get hurt."
Good advice since, again, this was only preseason. Problem was, Romo evidently listened.
As he rolled to his right, pushed up field a tad more than he wanted to be by an onrushing Texan, a clear path to the end zone opened, although there most likely would have been a collision at the goal line. Romo made a business decision. He tried to fit in a throw on the run he had no business trying to fit in to Curtis who had nearly run out of room running right in the end zone along with his quarterback.
Houston's Zac Diles stepped right in front for an interception, ending the drive and putting a halt to what was promising to be a runaway.
"Hell, if I knew he was going to throw a pick," Witten said laughing, "I'd have taken that back."
So instead, the game tightened, Houston driving 80 yards the other way to tie the game, a 14-point swing going a long ways toward the Cowboys only winning this game 23-22 when the Texans decided there was no sense tying a preseason game and potentially going into overtime when they scored with 2:05 remaining and went for the lead with an ill-fated two-point attempt.
If not for that interception, all those hysterical worries over the Cowboys in preseason would have totally dissipated in the first half, causing the worry-warts to forget the 0-2 start and generally a lackluster performance last Saturday in Denver.
Because had the Cowboys scored from the one there, they would have finished the first half going touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown, half-ending field goal on each possession. That would have been a headache soothing 27-point first half, but instead the majority of the first-team offense checked out of the game with a 20-10 halftime lead.
So everyone feel better? The Super Bowl train back on track after the 31-17 loss to San Diego and the 23-13 loss to Denver caused the Cowboys to start
preseason 0-2?
Please.
Leave it to veteran Greg Ellis to put the victory Friday night in perspective after the opening two preseason losses had moved a whole lot of folks close to the windowsill. As he was walking off the field, already having dispatched his shoulder pads, he looked at me to declare in mock glee, "We won a preseason |
Mickey Spagnola - 
