Prideful Cowboys quiet naysayers with big December win

NEW ORLEANS -- The white "D" on the front of the blue hat Tony Romo wore late Saturday night stands for Dallas again.

Tony Romo and the Cowboys take a giant step toward removing the December swoon label off their backs. (Getty Images)

Not December Doom.

As quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, Romo, along with coach Wade Phillips, has taken a verbal beating in recent years for not winning games in December. He has been called the quarterback who couldn't close the deal, which is like a salesman who can't close a sale -- pretty useless.

The Cowboys entered Saturday night's game with the undefeated New Orleans Saints at 3-7 in December under Phillips with Romo playing quarterback. They left 4-7, pulling off one of the biggest surprises of the season with a 24-17 victory at a rowdy Superdome.

The victory snapped a two-game losing streak for the Cowboys, ended the Saints chances of having a perfect season and temporarily end the talk of December failures for the Cowboys.

I asked Romo after the game if this victory, which puts the Cowboys at 9-5, would put to rest the December Doom talk for a while.

"No," he said laughing. "It will continue."

If they don't win one or both of the remaining two games, and earn a trip to the playoffs, it will return louder than ever.

"I want to stay away from that word December," Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said. "Don't even talk about it."

The way the Cowboys played against the Saints, the month to pay attention to could very well be January.

The Cowboys looked playoff good Saturday night.

Romo especially did. He completed 22 of 34 passes for 312 yards and a touchdown, outplaying MVP candidate Drew Brees of the Saints. Romo was calm. He was cool. He scrambled twice for first downs and he seemed in total control during the entire game.

It was as if he was flipping off that club of Romo doubters.

Take that, December.

"We don't set out to prove things to other people," Romo said.

Maybe not, but they did here. They proved that they could come into the Superdome and win in the playoffs if that is put in front of them. That's how dominant they were -- on both sides of the ball.

At one point, the Saints had 174 yards of offense early in the fourth quarter. That from a team that came in on pace to score 574 points and push the league record of 589 set by the 2007 New England Patriots.

The Cowboys stopped the Saints by doing what few teams have done, which is to get Brees off his spot. He is at his best when he gets into a groove, but the Cowboys pressured him all night long.

Brees was sacked four times, but his feet enabled him to escape plenty of pressure and he was hit a bunch more. He never seemed comfortable, even as he tried to rally his team. His second-quarter interception, which came with the Saints threatening to cut a 14-3 lead to 14-10, was a perfect illustration of how the Dallas rush influenced Brees' performance.

On that play he was trying to hit a streaking Devery Henderson, but he badly under-threw the pass because he had Cowboys at his feet, leading to an interception by Mike Jenkins.

"We didn't handle the pass rush very well," Brees said.

DeMarcus Ware had something to do with that, as amazing as that might seem to anyone who saw him taken off on a stretcher during last week's Cowboys loss to the Chargers. Ware had two sacks, the last coming on the Saints' final play when he knocked the ball free from Brees, and Jay Ratliff recovered it at the Dallas 48 with six seconds left, ending the undefeated dream.

Ware was used mostly on passing downs to protect his injured neck. He wasn't given clearance to play until Saturday after going through a battery of tests on the neck.

It was truly an impressive performance. Of course he was helped by playing against Saints left tackle Jermon Bushrod, who should be nicknamed Captain Whiff for the way he played against Ware.

"I really feel blessed," Ware said.

The Cowboys took the field motivated by some biting words from former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy. He said last week on NBC that the Cowboys had no chance to beat the Saints.

Those words stung, but they hurt even more when Phillips played the tape for the team Friday night.

No chance. No chance. No chance.

"I was shocked to hear that a coach would say that," Spears said. "He's a coach. He knows better. He knows you have a chance."

Ware said the words really hit home. He said when he came into the locker room Saturday, he could sense the seriousness. He said there was no music playing, no idle chatter, no rah-rah speeches being given.

"When somebody says that you can't do something and counts you out before you even play, that puts gas on the fire," Ware said. "That's what really happened. Once we watched that tape and went to bed that night, it marinated in our heads. Once we got here, all the guys were quiet. We didn't have as many mistakes as we usually have. Guys were really focused, especially in this type of loud atmosphere."

I'm not a big believer in that type of motivation but if the players believe it helped, so bet it. If it did, Dungy did his old team a big favor. Not only does the Saints loss leave the Colts as the only unbeaten team at 14-0, but it pretty much gives Peyton Manning the MVP with Brees losing and not playing to his usual high level.

None of that mattered to the Cowboys. What mattered to them was casting aside the December Disaster talk.

With this impressive victory they can. And they served notice that their burial was a bit premature and they might just be a team to watch out for in January.