OXNARD, Calif. -- Wade Phillips finds it humorous that a few of us think that sitting Tony Romo against the Chargers on Sunday might be a wise move with starting left guard Kyle Kosier and right tackle Marc Colombo out with injuries. Nevermind that Bears coach Lovie Smith had to quickly remove Jay Cutler from a recent preseason game because the Chargers blitzed on six of eight plays.

A reporter who's been in lockstep with Phillips through this ordeal (who shall remain nameless) urged Phillips on Thursday to once again shoot down the theory that Romo should take a seat. Phillips took the bait. Asked if all the talk was "silly," here's how the head coach responded:

"Yeah, of course," he said. "I mean [Marcus] Spears was out, so we shouldn’t play Bradie [James] because he might get hurt? We got plenty of good players and we did get sacked last game with [the starters] in the game, so we will come up with things that will help us protect the quarterback."

With apologies to the reporters who've been annoyed with this little debate, I don't think the Spears-James analogy really passes muster. I don't think anyone's worried that an inside linebacker might be exposed to injury because of a defensive end's absence.

Everyone keeps coming up to me saying that Romo could get hurt in the regular-season opener against the Redskins. And yes, that's a fairly obvious point. But you'd rather make sure Romo gets to that game in one piece.

There was a time not long ago when defensive coordinators didn't want to blitz much in the preseason. But teams such as the Jets and Chargers now like to work on their different packages in the preseason. Immediately following practice Thursday, Phillips and I chatted about Romo's status.

"Would you rather us get [Jon] Kitna killed in the game?" Phillips asked me.

Come to think of it, yes.