IRVING, Texas - They can slice you or dice you, able to run through you or past you.
They are thunder and lightning, able to pound you or strike fast enough to leave your head spinning.
They are salt and pepper, one sure to raise your blood pressure and the other swiftly causing heartburn.
They are the newest most dangerous combo in the National Football League:
Marion Barber-Felix Jones.
They are what the Cowboys once hoped they had back in 1986 with Tony Dorsett and Herschel Walker, a running back combo needing only two years to fizzle out, their egos unable to fit in the same locker room.
They are what the Cowboys wanted to have the past three seasons with Julius Jones and Barber. Trying to create this time-share position, Julius failed to uphold his end of the bargain last year.
They are the necessary combo the Cowboys absolutely needed to complete this offense, one averaging 32 points a game over the first three of this season - up nearly four from last season's total - and the main reason the Cowboys are undefeated heading into yet another biggie-sized contest this Sunday afternoon when they hope to meet the Washington Redskins (2-1) for the final time at a retiring Texas Stadium.
See, all these teams know about Terrell Owens, the ageless wonder who seems to be getting faster and more dynamic the older he gets. They know about Jason Witten, inarguably the best tight end going in the NFL. And they darn well know about Tony Romo, the one-time afterthought from Eastern Illinois who quickly has grown into one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
All good.
But toward the end of last season defenses began adopting a similar attitude, selling out to take Owens and Witten out of the attack, pressuring Romo into frustration, taking their chances with Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd and then willing to absorb whatever punishment Barber and Julius could dish out. After all, it was better to give up 127 yards to Barber on 20 carries since none were likely to be for more than 20 yards than it was to give up 127 yards to Owens on three receptions.
In a league of copycats, the Green Bay Packers made the same business decision this past Sunday night: Double, sometimes triple Owens; double Witten when possible; take their chances with the Patrick Craytons and Miles Austins of the world; and gamble the Cowboys could not run them into submission.
The Packers overlooked one factor, Felix Jones, the ingredient the Cowboys knew deep down on draft day they simply could not overlook if they were to cover all their offensive bases. That is why they did what they did with the first of two first-round picks instead of dabbling with a wide receiver incapable of someday taking over for Terrell Owens. Or spending too much to find one in the second round or spend that high a pick on a wide receiver of questionable character, which there were a few.
"Well, uh, I think we felt like that's what we needed," Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said of selecting a running back with Felix Jones' ability to threaten a defense with his speed. "I don't know at what point last year, but we weren't running the ball as well later in the year. We dropped down statistically, and that was part of the reason we put Barber in there in the playoff game, which he made (129) yards.
"I think we needed that, and that's the direction we needed to go."
Fast-forward to Sept. 21, 2008, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., probably around 8:20 p.m. (CDT) or so that Sunday night. The score: Packers 6, Cowboys 3. The NFL's second-ranked offense had thrown for all of 37 yards at the 6:15 mark of the second quarter. Thirty-seven! That's normally two completions. They had run for 81 yards, but the team averaging 34.5 points a game had just three points.
Enter Felix, first-and-10 at the Dallas 40.
Tony Curtis leads into the hole. Jason Witten seals the left side of the line. Terrell Owens bumps off the safety. And 11 seconds later, Felix Jones is romping around the end zone, speeding the Cowboys into a 10-6 lead just like that. One play, 60 yards, touchdown.
Just what the doctored ordered.
"You can do all that," Cowboys veteran outside linebacker Greg Ellis said of overloading your defense to stop one or two guys, "but you expose yourself to a Miles Austin and our two running backs, who have shown what they can do.
"Kind of like pick your poison. The job is not just to stop T.O., the job is to win the football game."
And the Packers didn't, obviously, the Cowboys taking home a 27-16 victory. And when it was over, Romo still passed for 260 yards and the Cowboys rushed for 217, the most since matching that same total against Tennessee in 2006 and never more since going for 222 against the Redskins in 2003 behind the 189 yards of Troy Hambrick, of all people.
Ellis said he can never remember in his previous 10 years here the Cowboys ever selling out on defense to take out just one guy, as teams seem to think they can to stop Owens.
Cowboys secondary coach Dave Campo, the former head coach and defensive coordinator, says, oh yeah, they set up their defense similarly with the Jaguars to neutralize Cincinnati's Chad Johnson. But as he pointed out, the Bengals didn't have T.J. Houshmandzadeh active that day.
"But you better be able to handle the run with a seven-man front," Campo said. And when asked if a defense can double two guys, like T.O. and Witten, then single the other receiver, he said, "yeah, and then you only have five in the box."
That ain't working against Barber, and it sure as heck is not enough guys around Felix Jones at the line of scrimmage, which once he negotiates is a threat to take it to the house every time.
And after Sunday night's game, and who knows, other teams might have more machismo than others, but do you now want to get in the business of singling up Austin all the time? You never know when he'll waylay you on a deep one.
So a pretty dangerous offense last year might just be growing even more so this season if three games, especially the last one, are any indication. Come on, who would have ever thought the Cowboys could score 27 points on Wisconsin-Green Bay if Owens only catches two passes in the game and Crayton none?
Austin's emergence helps. But bottom line is Felix Jones completes the package, giving the Cowboys exactly what they had counted on from their departed Jones, Julius, who is doing in Seattle now what the Cowboys were counting on him doing last year.
"I think their different styles are something that presents a problem to the defense because you have Marion that's more of a pounder, pounder but also has speed that sometimes people misjudge his speed. And then Felix comes in, and they are used to taking an angle to tackle Marion and all of a sudden the guy now is a little faster and the angles are off," Cowboys running backs coach Skip Peete said.
"They know he's in there, but all of a sudden you are reacting like you've been reacting for five or six plays to tackle Marion and now suddenly there is a different guy in there and the speed is different."
No longer will teams be willing to say, "Fine, we'll take T.O. out, devote a lot of attention to Witten and just accept Barber's pounding because, if nothing else, he's rarely ripping off a 50-yarder." Which likely delighted the Giants in that playoff game when the Cowboys came out playing smash-mouth football, running the ball, running the ball with Barber, but at the same time shortening the game and giving their big-play offense fewer opportunities to strike.
But now, yo, they can run the ball and strike, this egoless Barber-Jones combo quickly becoming all the rage in the NFL. Because now, with the addition of this long-distance runner, who you stoppin'? T.O.? Witten? T.O. and Witten? Romo?
Fine, and you might be willing to take your chances with Crayton and Austin, depending on your personnel. But Crayton, Austin and Barber-Jones?
Your move Redskins.
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Mickey Spagnola - 
