Back when the Cowboys released TO (which I believe was the right move) I said that they had to replace him with a legitimate downfield threat for this offense to work.  Yesterday, we saw the beginning of how teams will defense the Cowboys for the rest of the year.

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The big theme going into the season is how everything in the organization was public adjusted to make the team more Romo Friendly.  The thought was that it would provide Romo with what he needed to be successful, but it might prove to do the exact opposite...

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I've heard/read many people saying that the Cowboys should have a great running game next year because they have three good running backs.

And the Cowboys have as much - if not more - talent at running back as any team in the league.

But there are a few things people overlook when saying our running game will easily carry us next year.  Running the ball is the most difficult thing in the NFL to do for a few reasons.

First, balance.  If the Cowboys cannot exhibit a productive deep threat, they will be facing 8 man fronts.  "What's the big deal?" you ask?  Well, let's take a deeper look.  On the average running play, you have five offensive linemen, a full back, and a tight end.  That's seven men blocking.  Playing against an 8 man front means there will be an unblocked man - probably a linebacker or a safety - on every running play.  That means that you are relying on your back run over or around a free man every play without slowing down enough for pursuit to get there.  Remember, the free man doesn't have to tackle the back.  He only needs to slow him or bounce him over to the pursuit.

Second, mistakes.  Being a running team means you MUST MUST MUST be a disciplined team that does not make mistakes or penalties.  Being a running team means you have to stay out of third and long situations.  You can't have blown line assignments, holding penalties or false starts.  Those are drive killers since your offense is not built to consistently get the ball downfield to over come them.

Third, field position.  Being a running team means you have to control field position.  that means you must have a strong special teams unit AND a defense that not only doesn't give up touchdowns but also doesn't give up many FIRST downs.  As a running offense, you rely on a short field to get points.  You cannot allow teams to reverse field position and put you on a long field.

Looking at the Cowboys, I just don't see the OL being consistent enough to not make mistakes.penalties for this to work as well as we need it to.  Our backs can make men miss or run over them, but first and fifteens/twenties will kill us from mistakes.

Also, even though our defense got a lot of sacks and played well mostly.  We still allowed teams to sustain drives on us until we got the big sack to get off the field.

I think it's imperative that JG find a way for this team to be balanced.  He also has to find a way to get downfield to keep defenses honest.  This season is going to be a real test for him because he is going to have to be innovative to get the offense going.

From the Star Telegram

Jerry brings Romo and Witten with him to an event but reporters were not allowed to speak to either of them.

That speaks volumes.

If you are going to be the leader of this team, that means doing the uncomfortable stuff.  It's not just about hooking up with ditsy starlets, getting promotion deals, and doing celebrity events. What does a true leader do?  Peyton Manning was on vacation when Marvin Harrison was released.  What did he do?

Peyton on Harrison

That says, I am the leader of this football team, and if something should be said, I'm going to say it.  You show up at an event and hide behind Jerry Jones?  How does that make guys in the locker room want to follow you?  If he had just said "Terrell had some good years here, we wish him well.  We're excited about our football team and the upcoming year." - then refused to answer any more questions for the rest of night, it would have gone a long way towards establishing that you indeed are a leader.

Being a leader comes at a price.  It means you can't be seen around town in a bunch of clubs with a drunken starlet girlfriend.  You are the face of a franchise.  Tom Brady is a bigger star than Romo and his wife is a bigger global star than Jessica Simpson.  How often do you see photos of Tom Brady at some bar with Giselle wasted?  How often do you see pictures of them out period?  If you do, it's a picture of them getting in a cab and that's about it.

Being a leader is about respect.  You gain respect by doing the things you don't want to do but need to get done.

Here's a little story.  When I was a young man, I worked at Target.  The national management was coming to audit our store and there was a lot of cleaning/grunt work to be done.  The only time to do it was early on a Sunday morning before the store opened.  All the assistant managers scheduled us peons to come clean up on Sunday morning, but they were not going to be there.

When I arrived, I saw the actual store manager was there already and had already been cleaning up before we got there.  Not supervising, but doing the grunt work.  After a few hours he told us we could go and we could take the day off for pitching in.  He was going to stay and continue cleaning up the back room.  The fact that he was there doing the crap work - before we go there and willing to keep doing it after we left - made an impression on all of us.  Almost all of us turned down the day off and kept working with him.  We would have followed him anywhere.

Romo could take some lessons from my former manager

Jerry is going out of his way to make Romo the team leader.  If Jerry has to inform the team that Romo is the leader, then he isn't going to be the leader.  A true leader has men follow him naturally, not because Jerry said so.

It depends on what their goals are next season, imo.  If the goal is to make a run at a title, I believe the answer is yes.

If you look at the receiving corps as a whole, there's not a rock solid, sure thing there.  We have lots of questions.  Can RW be a dynamic number 1?  I think he can, but the operative word is think.

Can Miles Austin a} Stay healthy and b) Be a legit consistent number two and deep threat?  No one knows really.  Crayton is solid in the slot.  Hurd cannot be counted on but might be able to give something.

My main problem with going into the season with the receiving corps as constituted is that you are one RW injury away from your starting wideouts being Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton.  Think about that for a second.

I do agree we should try to run the ball more.  However, that is easier said than done.  And I just don't see Jason Garrett becoming a run first kind of guy.

The other part of that equation is how teams defense the Cowboys.  Around the league, the book on the Cowboys is to blitz the crap out of Romo because if you get to him he will give you back the ball.

As the season wore on, the Cowboys were blitzed more and more.  Blitzing serves two purposes, it gets people in the backfield to disrupt the running game and it gets pressure in Romo's face.

The offensive line had a horrible year last year and they are coming back unchanged.  The protection has to be much better if the Cowboys have a shot to be good.  How do you make teams stop blitzing as much?

Remember the first Eagle game?  No one in the league likes to blitz as much as the Eagles.  A couple of long passes including a bomb for a touchdown made them gun shy and reduced the amount of blitzing they did.  When the Cowboys vertical passing game went away, the blitzes came back.

Austin is a fast guy but just speed alone is not going to make defenses back off.  He will have to prove it over time that he can and will consistently beat their corners before they respect him enough.

I think you have to draft a speedy reciever in the draft.  There is good value at the reciever position this year.  Ideally Percy harvin is around when the Cowboys pick.  Having a young deep threat and some depth at the WR spot will do wonders for the running game.  It is much easier to run against 7 in the box as opposed to 8 or even 9.

I supposed I'm not as sold on Miles Austin as some.  And if he has a good year, I think it's better to have two speedy recievers and one possession type of receiver as opposed to having Crayton and RW on the field at the same time.

And don't forget Witten is the third down chain mover so I think that makes Crayton expendable or insurance in case Austin gets hurt.  I also think the Cowboys can pick up a good safety in the third round.  They have enough picks this year to move around as needed.

So TO's gone and the Cowboys are now Superbowl bound!  All the locker room problems are solved!

Well, before you buy into the ESPN spin, maybe you should look deeper into the fractured locker room.

So, who are the cliques on the team?

Romo, Witten and Bobby Carpenter.   Then you have everyone else.  There's this nonsense going around that no offensive players supported TO.  Well the receivers did and so did Marion Barber.  Tashard choice said good things about him last year as well.

If you want to know the truth about the fractures in the Cowboys locker room, it's right there in front of your face in Black and White.

Now, let me first say that I don't believe that Romo, Witten, or Carpenter are racist.  This isn't about racism.  This is more about relationships.

Name a black player that Romo or Witten have been seen hanging around....  Not going to find one.

So has anyone wondered why no one besides Romo came out to support Witten last year?  Could it be that they don't feel close to him?  Everyone's saying how Romo has to be a leader, well you don't become the leader because you have QB besides your name.  You have to earn it.

You go a long way towards earning it by hanging out with guys.  Showing you're interested in them - even outside football.  Look no further than Romo's idol Favre, Brett.  He is obviously comfortable around everyone.  Guys want to go to war with him.

Why was TO so popular in the Cowboys locker room?  All reports say that he took the time to learn about your family.  When something went down, he would be the first to send you a text message about it.

WHY WASN'T ROMO?  WHY WASN'T WITTEN?

That right there is the reason the locker room is divided.

Romo has to be interested in more in life than Jessica.  It doesn't take much to shake the hands of every one of your teammates before every game, ask them how they are, build a relationship with them.

Guys WILL look at Romo and Witten differently this year.  I'm sure there will be a perception that they got TO shipped out.  One of them took the time to garner a relation ship with you and the other two didn't.

If Romo and Witten want to be leaders next year, they need to quit just hanging around with each other and realize that there are 51 other players on the team.

Think back to last year when the accusations came out that Romo through to Witten came out?  Who came to their defense?  Name someone beside the coaches.  In fact the only thing the players said is that Romo does it in practice as well.

Romo and Witten got their wish.  TO is gone.  JJT reports that Witten has been telling people around teh NFL that TO would be gone by March.

So now it's time for them to lead.  And if they don't talk to more players than each other, it's going to be a chilly locker room for them.

Not one more excuse.

It's you.

Win or get out.

There's no Tank or Pacman or TO to blame.

IT'S ALL ON YOU.  No more excuse about being young or having to appease TO.  it's all on you.  So when you throw picks now or drop the ball while holding it to long, it's al on you.

All on you.

And Witten.  Defenses coordinators everywhere just called their safties and introduced them to you.  Welcome your double teams.

Defense, if they don't get another good reciever, no more 30 points a game to bail you out.  You're going to have carry your end of the stick.

Offensive line, running game.  Youre up.  Be prepared to have to run againt 8 and 9 men in the box.

No more excuses.  No one else to blame.  It all falls on you now.

Finally, after all these months of obsessively focusing on one person, maybe, just maybe, people can focus on the things wrong with the team.

There will be no Pacman, Tank, or TO to blame everything on.  All the excuses will be gone my friends.

Of course if you believe the media, the Cowboys should at least make the conference finals because of getting rid of Tank and Pacman since the mere presence of these guys on your roster pretty much costs you any chance of winning a playoff game.

So next year when Flozell false starts on a big third down and there's no TO to blame, who will we blame?  When the defense - Demarcus Ware included, jumps offsides on a big third down play, who will we blame?  When Guroude snaps the ball early in three straight huge games, who will we blame?

When Romo throws picks at costly moments, who will we blame since there's no TO he's forcing the ball into?  Even though most of Romo's picks at the end of the year came when he was throwing to people other than TO.  He was throwing to Witten when he threw the pick in Pittsburgh remember.  (Of course let's not let facts get in our way.)

The media has told us that the only problem the Cowboys had last year was a divided locker room.

Silly people like me point to leading the league in penalties (TO was one of the least penalized players on the team, but somehow this was his fault as well).  And being one of the leaders in turning the ball over while forcing one of the fewest number of turnovers (once again TO's fault) really doesn't matter.

It didn't matter that Romo held onto the ball too long and fumbled it too much when he got hit.  It didn't matter that Marion Barber averaged less than 4 yards a carry.  It didn't matter that Romo was often running for his life.  It didn't matter that Jason Garret couldn't figure out how to get Felix Jones more than a couple touches a game.  It didn't matter that the Cowboys special teams were terrible.  It didn't matter that the Cowboys had a rash of injuries.

It didn't matter that the Cowboys had no real backup QB.  It didn't matter that the Cowboys were down to a hobbled Keith Davis as the only strong safety at the end.  It didn't matter that the Cowboys didn't practice hard.  It didn't matter that the defense gave up back to back 77+ run plays to the Ravens or a long 3rd down completion to the Steelers in those 4th quarters.  It didn't matter that Proctor was so bad he barely laid a hand on his guy.

The only real problem this team had all last year is that TO wanted the ball.  Just ask ESPN.

So, you hear it all over the media.  Pundits saying the Cowboys have to dump T.O. to have a chance to win.

Should the Cowboys listen?

Just a month ago, the Cardinals were the worst playoff team in the history of sports and an embarrasment.  They had a star reciever not happy with his deal and a star running back publicly stating he wanted out.  According to the media, there was no way they could make a run in the playoffs.  The even played the "God how much we love them, they play as a team and do everything right Eagles" - and won...

Or take a look at the "wow we love this team" world champion New York football Giants.  Plaxico is a cancer.  You don't need him.  Get rid of him.

But a funny thing happened on the way to repeating.  Without Plaxico, the Giants lost 4 of their last 5 games.

So, you want to get rid of T.O.?  Great.  Who do you replace him with?  As much as you may not like the guy or point out he is in decline, there was always a safety over the top of him to help out.  So, let's take T.O. out of the mix.  Where does that safety go?  Closer to the line of scrimmage to help out against the run.

And remember all the times Jason Witten was running across the middle with a linebacker chasing him?  Well, now our hero is getting bumped at the lline by the linebacker and that safety comes over to pick him up.  No more running free for you Mr. Witten for now YOU are our primary concern.  Now defenses will take YOU out of the game at all cost.  With Roy WIlliams and Patrick Crayton, we're not too worried about you beating us over the top.

Or maybe we take that saftey and blitz a little more.

So, if you do get rid of T.O. you MUST have a way to replace him with another reciever that is going to demand safety help over the top.  You can't go sign one because by eating T.O.'s contract, you already have millions tied up in a reciever slot. Maybe you can trade for another one.

But if you get rid of him and DON'T replace him, you'd better be ready for the offense to take a big step back.  As much as we all love stand up guys with good intentions, they aren't really double teamed much.

I'm not saying that chemisty isn't important.  I'm saying that winning creates a lot of chemistry.  Last year, the Jaguars were about the best group of guys and most cohesive team you could find.  This year, they start losing and Fred Taylor says it's the worst locker room he has ever been around.  Same team.  Same guys.  Win and you love each other, lose and you hate each other.

Just win baby.  just win.