NFL Week 6: Dallas Cowboys at New England Patriots

Frank Doyle wonders if Dallas can shock the world at New England on Sunday afternoon.

When it comes to Simpsons, Tony Romo is more associated with Jessica than Homer in the popular imagination. That said, surely at least one “d’oh!” must have escaped the Cowboy quarterback’s lips as he watched those pick sixes being run back to the house in the Cowboys’ loss to Detroit two weeks ago.

Bruce Arthur, the great sportswriter of the National Post, tweeted during that Lions v Cowboys game that if Dallas managed to lose that game, it would be Tony Romo’s Sistine Chapel – his masterpiece. And so it was.

The problem with Romo is people are always waiting for his next mistake. Romo has passed for nearly 18,000 yards in his career, with a career completion percentage of 64.1% – among active quarterbacks, only Brees, Rodgers and Schaub are higher. But Romo is always remembered for his mistakes.

The knock on Romo always was that he didn’t seem to care, but playing though that rib injury against San Francisco and Washington seemed to have put a lid on all that. And then three picks against the Lions, two of them run back for touchdowns. D’oh! Here we go again.

Dallas is a +7.5 point underdog on the NFL betting line, chiefly because of how differently Tom Brady and Tony Romo are perceived. Brady’s Simpson alter-ego is Lisa – the over-achiever. Tom Brady does what he wants on a football field, and the Patriots are storming through teams just like they have done all through the Belichick era.

Sunday’s total is set at 55, which reflects how the public sees this game. Neither team can play defense, it’ll be a straight shootout between Brady and Romo and Brady will win, because he won’t make the mistakes that Romo will.

But is that doing a disservice to the Cowboys? It wasn’t the Dallas D that surrendered those fourteen points. As for giving up touchdowns to Megatron, a whole lot of defenses will be doing that this year. The League might as well get used to it.

New England is the favorite and deserves to be but the Cowboys aren’t necessarily the team of chuckleheads that they sometimes appear. The New England D is ranked dead last in the league against the pass, and Romo will have Dez Bryant, Miles Austin and Jason Whitten, his go-to guy, downfield to do some damage. This mightn’t be the stroll in the fall sun that New England bettors expect. The Cowboys might have some fight in them yet.