Dilemma in Big D

When you marry a Texas girl from Dallas, the Cowboys become of utmost importance, and even if you've never been a fan of this proud NFL franchise, you better be prepared to watch all of their games and know a lot about their team. Otherwise, Thanksgiving will be very quiet. So, last night was no different - it's the Dallas Cowboys in a NFC showdown against the New York Giants on Monday night football. You know that you'll be watching from start to finish - just as I did last night.

Unfortunately, for all Cowboys fans, last night was a complete and total clusterfuck. I believe that Bill Parcells summed it up best when he said in his postgame press conference, "I'm ashamed to put a team out there that played like that. I apologize to the people who came out to watch that." After last night's debacle at Texas Stadium, the Cowboys find themselves at 3-3 and worse than that, at 1-2 in the NFC East. With upcoming games at Carolina, vs. Indianapolis, at the Giants, vs. New Orleans, at Atlanta, and vs. Philadelphia, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Cowboys could drop at least 5 more games this season.

So, the question remains - What is wrong with the Cowboys? Ask any Cowboy fan, and you're likely to get a different answer. Is Terrell Owens is a locker room cancer and just too much a distraction for this football team? Is Greg Ellis playing out of position at linebacker? Should Tony Romo be the starting quarterback over Drew Bledsoe? Or has Bill Parcells just mentally checked out? NFL guru Len Pasquarelli says that Parcells looks like he is done.

As for my opinion - I don't buy into the idea that Parcells is done. The problem with the Cowboys is the quarterback position, and the bad news is that neither Romo or the much maligned Drew Bledsoe are the answer. For all of his ability as a head coach, Parcells has royally screwed up the talent evaluation process at the quarterback position since he arrived in Dallas. He wasted too much time waiting for former Michigan quarterback (and New York Yankees prospect) Drew Henson to return to football form. Then, he brought in a washed up Drew Bledsoe to try and hold down the position until the aforementioned Henson or Romo were ready to take over. While he showed some flashes of brilliance last night, I just do not believe that Tony Romo is the long term answer at quarterback for the Cowboys this season or next season. Where Parcells (and of course, GM Jerry Jones) screwed up this past season was drafting LB Bobby Carpenter in the first round of the 2006 NFL draft and then TE Anthony Fasano in the second round when a quarterback of the future could have been drafted. Kellen Clemens, Tarvaris Jackson, and even Brodie Croyle have more potential to be the quarterback of the future than Tony Romo. Or even going back to the 2005 NFL draft, perhaps the Cowboys could have drafted Aaron Rodgers or Charlie Frye rather than using their first three picks on defensive players. Bottomline - Parcells and Jones have put the Cowboys in this situation with their poor evaluation of the quarterback position, and it will have to be a free agent acquistion or trading up in the draft to grab Notre Dame Brady Quinn before the Cowboys have their quaterback situation solved.