ESPN NFL

There's little sense in taking the bait when San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh tells a radio program Michael Crabtree "has the best hands I've ever seen on a wide receiver."

Anyone with a strong grasp of NFL history would place Cris Carter, Raymond Berry and Steve Largent on a short list for receivers with the surest hands.

Hall of Famer Ken Houston, speaking for a 2008 piece on all-time great wideouts, stood up for AFL stars Otis Taylor and Lionel Taylor.

"Lionel Taylor, I mean, he would catch a BB," Houston said.

Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson, speaking for the same piece, said Randy Moss, then with New England, had the best hands in the NFL at that time (2008).

"A lot of guys can catch," Thompson said then. "He can catch on any platform, as we say in scouting. He can adjust and catch it over the top of somebody's head, catch it falling down, and it doesn't matter if he is covered."

With Moss now on the 49ers, it is possible Crabtree does not posses the best hands among wide receivers on his own team.

Oops. I wasn't going to take the bait on this one, but now it's too late. Time to regroup.

Bottom line, I suspect Crabtree has impressed Harbaugh this offseason, and Harbaugh would like that to continue for as long as possible. By offering such strong public praise for Crabtree, Harbaugh is setting a standard for Crabtree to meet this season. He realizes Crabtree has the ability to meet that standard, or else he wouldn't make the statement.

We should all recall Harbaugh's calling quarterback Alex Smith "elite" and promoting him for the Pro Bowl last season. Then as now, Harbaugh was standing up for his guy. Smith enjoyed the finest season of his career and even outplayed the truly elite Drew Brees at times during the 49ers' playoff victory over New Orleans. The way Harbaugh backed Smith played a role in that performance, in my view.

Back to Crabtree. He has the ability to rank among the most sure-handed receivers in the game. He has not yet earned that status, but now he has little choice, right?

As the chart shows, Crabtree finished the 2011 season with 12.2 receptions per drop, which ranked 28th in the NFL among players targeted at least 100 times. Larry Fitzgerald led the NFL with 80 receptions and only one drop. Those numbers are according to ESPN Stats & Information, which defines drops as "incomplete passes where the receiver should have caught the pass with ordinary effort."

Crabtree suffered six drops last season by that standard, a few too many for the player with the best hands his head coach has ever seen on a wide receiver.

On Thursday, we offered "One big question" for each of our division's teams and took a stab at answering it. If you missed them, you can check them out here. But I get tons of questions, and not all of them are big. So as we head into the weekend, I thought I'd take a shot at answering a couple of smaller, more specific questions I seem to be getting asked a lot these days. Let's do one per team.

Dallas Cowboys: Will they go after Jacoby Jones?

It'd make a lot of sense, for the right price. He's a veteran receiver who can help as a return man. Basically what they need after Laurent Robinson and the 11 touchdowns he caught last season left for Jacksonville. But remember that last year, when No. 3 wide receiver was a question mark, the Cowboys didn't panic. They believed that Jason Witten's pass-catching ability at tight end lessened their need to prioritize that position, and they scooped up Robinson as a late-offseason bargain and got more than they ever expected. If there's competition for Jones, I wouldn't expect the Cowboys to push overly hard. There are still other options, including fifth-round pick Danny Coale and some of the other young guys on their roster.

New York Giants: Will they trade Osi Umenyiora?

This one surfaced with renewed energy Thursday after the news broke that Baltimore's Terrell Suggs was out for the season. The Ravens liked Umenyiora last year and now really could use him, and it's possible they'll call. But I don't see the Giants as motivated sellers. They have Umenyiora under contract for a reasonable price, and they have no fear that his contract situation will be a distraction to the team as it gets ready for the season, because everybody on the team is used to Umenyiora and his contract situation by now. The Giants would have to be blown away by an offer, and I don't expect that to happen. He'll either play for them in 2012 or sit out of his own accord.

Philadelphia Eagles: Do they need a red-zone receiver?

The name of Plaxico Burress has been floated, and he remains a free agent who'd fit the description of the kind of big end-zone target Eagles fans say the team needs. But as with the Cowboys above, I don't see the Eagles going too crazy to bring Burress in. If the price is right, and there's little risk involved from the team's end, sure. But with a running back in LeSean McCoy who rushed for 17 touchdowns last season, I don't think the Eagles feel the need to do anything dramatic to improve their performance in the red zone. When they get close to the goal line, they feel pretty good about their chances to run it in.

Washington Redskins: Who will start at running back?

My money's still on Tim Hightower, but there is that nettlesome little issue of his not currently being on the team. The Redskins have worked at re-signing him, and even if they do he's still going to be recovering from a torn ACL. Second-year backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster showed promise as rookies, but the Redskins' coaching staff isn't yet convinced of either as a full-time starter for 2012. Even if they bring back Hightower, I'd expect them to add another running back or two to the camp mix. And if Hightower goes somewhere else, I expect them to give themselves as many options as possible there, kind of like they're doing at safety.

Every team in the NFC West had a 1,000-yard rusher last season.

Coaches in Seattle, San Francisco and St. Louis have promoted run-first philosophies. Arizona has invested first- and second-round picks in running backs Beanie Wells and Ryan Williams, respectively.

Run, run, run.

And yet the division focused on the passing game quite a bit during the 2012 NFL draft -- on both sides of the ball. NFC West teams drafted a league-high three wide receivers in the first two rounds. Teams from the division drafted three cornerbacks in the first three rounds, tied with the NFC North for most in the league.

The charts show how many receivers and corners each division added through the first three rounds. The combined total for the NFC West (six) was the most for any division, one more than the NFC North.

St. Louis drafted cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins (second round) and Trumaine Johnson (third round). Arizona used a third-round choice for cornerback Jamell Fleming. Arizona (Michael Floyd) and San Francisco (A.J. Jenkins) used first-round picks for receivers. St. Louis added receiver Brian Quick in the second round (and another receiver, Chris Givens, in the fourth).

NFC West pass defenses could face additional pressure given the scheduling rotation in 2012.

Every NFC West team faces New England with Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and Wes Welker.

The division also faces Green Bay (Aaron Rodgers, Jermichael Finley, Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson), Detroit (Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, Brandon Pettigrew) and Chicago (Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall).

San Francisco draws New Orleans (Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston) and the New York Giants (Eli Manning, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz). Arizona faces Philadelphia (Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin) and Atlanta (Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Julio Jones). Seattle faces Dallas (Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Dez Bryant) and Carolina (Cam Newton, Steve Smith).

The top five teams in 2011 passing yardage -- New Orleans, New England, Green Bay, Detroit and the Giants -- show up on NFC West schedules. Green Bay, New England, the Giants and Saints comprised the top four in yards per passing attempt. The top seven teams in passing touchdowns -- Green Bay, New Orleans, Detroit, New England, Dallas, Atlanta and the Giants -- play a combined 16 games against the NFC West.

And, of course, NFC West teams must face each other, which means games against Larry Fitzgerald, Vernon Davis, Randy Moss, Sidney Rice and others.

If you've been following along on Twitter (@ESPN_NFCEast), then you know I'm not in love with the Dallas Cowboys' draft to this point. I do not think they have done a good job of maximizing the value of their picks. Obviously, we can't predict how, when or how much any of these guys is going to play, so it remains to be seen whether the guys they're taking are impact guys in the NFL or not. But I don't think their draft, through the first five rounds, shows a strong understanding of the value of the picks. They've also been taking nothing but project guys (other than Morris Claiborne), and for a team that needed a lot of immediate help, I'm not agreeing with that strategy.

But I kind of like their sixth-round pick, Oklahoma tight end James Hanna. I don't know if he can replace Martellus Bennett as their second tight end behind Jason Witten, but he looks the part (6-4, 252) and he has the physical tools, speed and athleticism to succeed in the NFL if he puts in the work and learns what he needs to learn to make the transition. He wasn't a big-time producer at Oklahoma in spite of those skills, however, which makes you wonder, but at this point in the draft the Cowboys could do a lot worse than to find a guy with those kinds of tools at a position of need. Plus, he's a local kid from Flower Mound, Texas, so if he hits it big that's a cool story.

The Cowboys have one more pick -- the 15th one in the seventh round.

It's not that the Dallas Cowboys were terribly sorry to see Martellus Bennett go -- even to the division-rival Giants. The Cowboys had seen enough of Bennett, suffered enough dropped passes and waited long enough for him to make good on what they believed was his vast potential. But Bennet did serve a role, especially in the Cowboys' two-tight end sets, and he has not been replaced. The only two tight ends on the Cowboys' roster are Jason Witten and John Phillips, and it's an area the team still would like to address before the season begins.

They could look for a tight end in the draft, and the middle rounds do offer some options. But they're looking in a number of places. Todd Archer reports that the Cowboys are looking at former Packers and Dolphins tight end Joey Haynos, who appears to be some sort of mountain and could help as a blocker if not a pass-catcher. The Cowboys have plenty of pass-catchers, including Witten, and need a tight end who can help them set the perimeter.

Expect the Cowboys to continue to look at tight end options between now and the draft and possibly even beyond, if they don't get the situation resolved on draft weekend.

You guys know I'm active on Twitter (@ESPN_NFCEast and, to a lesser extent, @DanGrazianoESPN). I'm there to answer whatever questions I can, and at times like these the activity is more intense than it is at other times of the year. So I'm on there in between blog posts to help out. You can ask questions, vent, call me names, whatever. I'm there for you.

Some of the questions I get on there become so frequent that they take on lives of their own and become worthy of their own posts. Such is the case, I feel, with the question of Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Laurent Robinson, who is making free-agent visits to places like Jacksonville and appears unlikely to return to Dallas.

To hear Cowboys fans on this topic, you'd think we were talking about the second coming of Jerry Rice. I mean, Robinson played very well for the Cowboys last year, and only three players in the league caught more touchdown passes, but I refuse to buy into the idea that replacing his production would become a major offseason priority for the Cowboys if and when he signs elsewhere.

Possible options for replacing Robinson include:

1. Throwing the ball to Jason Witten, Miles Austin and Dez Bryant more.

2. Finding a third wide receiver in the bargain bin, which is where they found Robinson last summer when no one else wanted him.

This isn't rocket science. Robinson became Tony Romo's favorite red zone target and ended up with 11 touchdown catches, but that doesn't mean Romo would be crippled in the red zone without him. Witten used to be his favorite red zone target, and there's no reason to think he can't be again. If they can keep Austin healthy and Bryant (still just 23 years old) continues his development, they won't need a No. 3 wide receiver to produce the way Robinson did. Robinson's production was a pleasant surprise, but it's not as though Romo and the Cowboys would have been lost without him.

The Cowboys need help on defense and on the offensive line. They're pretty well stocked at receiver. Falling in love with Robinson and overpaying him off of his first good season would be a free-agent gamble, and given their strengths and their needs, it's one the Cowboys would do well to let some other team make.

The New York Giants need a tight end, having lost two of them to major knee injuries in the Super Bowl, and they appear to have their eye on former Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett. Todd Archer and Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com are reporting that Bennett will visit the Giants, and these first-day visits very often lead to quick deals.

Bennett just turned 25 three days ago and is an impressive physical specimen at 6-foot-6, 270 pounds. The Cowboys had worked hard over the past past several years to find a productive role for him as the No. 2 tight end in their offense behind Jason Witten. But a series of dropped balls and bonehead plays in the passing game limited Bennett's development, and the Cowboys soured on him to the point where they allowed him to hit the market.

Now, that doesn't mean he can't be a good player for the Giants. Again, very young and very physically gifted. The Giants would use him differently than the Cowboys did. They rely more on their wide receivers as pass-catchers and might be able to make Bennett's life and development less complicated. Plus, there's the old change-of-scenery theory that might suggest all the young man needs is some new surroundings to allow his talent to flourish.

Friday was the five-year anniversary of the last game Bill Parcells coached in the NFL -- a playoff loss to the Seahawks that most people remember as the game in which Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo fumbled the snap on a fourth-quarter field goal that would have won the game. Todd Archer spoke with Parcells, who's now an ESPN analyst, about his time in Dallas and the way he looks back on it when he watches the Cowboys play now. Specifically, Parcells spoke of the players he brought in who remain. Those include Romo, DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, Miles Austin, Jason Witten and others:

A few years ago, one of Parcells' picks was telling a non-Parcells pick how the coach would make them run a sprint to the fence at training camp as punishment if things weren't going well. The non-Parcells pick said he never would have let a coach do that to him.

[+] Enlarge
Tim Heitman/US PresswireMany of the players Bill Parcells brought to Dallas when he was head coach are entering the downside of their careers.

That tough-talking player is no longer a Cowboy, but it spoke to the difference in mentality that seeped into the locker room not long after Parcells left.

"Most of them are pretty talented," Parcells said of the players who remain. "You don't play for that length of time in the league without being talented. But I'd like to think that maybe I helped them get started and put a little foundation in a few of them that maybe helped them go forward. That's the only thing you can hope for. I'm not saying I did, but I'm just hopeful."

The Cowboys went 13-3 in the year following Parcells' departure, but they lost to the New York Giants in the playoffs and have had ups and downs since. They were division champs two years ago and lost in the divisional round to Minnesota, bottomed out last season when they started 1-7 and head coach Wade Phillips got fired, and were looking good this season in first place at 7-4 before a 1-4 finish and two losses to the Giants kept them out of the playoffs once again.

Parcells says in the story that the 2007 playoff loss doesn't seem that long ago, but in a lot of ways it kind of does. Romo will be 32 when next season begins. Ware and Witten will be 30, and Ratliff will be 31. Not old, by any stretch, but no longer young enough to make you feel like unlimited potential lies in front of this core group. When Parcells left five years ago, he believed he was leaving behind a group of players on which championship teams could be built. It hasn't happened yet, and considering the number of obvious needs with which the Cowboys enter this offseason, their fans could be forgiven for starting to wonder if it'll happen before the "Parcells guys" get too old.

We have come to the end. I thought the idea of a weekly running All-NFC East Team would be a fun exercise for this blog, and I believe I was correct. I have had fun with it, at least. And I'd like to offer my personal thanks to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning for helping make it even more fun. Nothing gets the blood boiling around here like a good Romo-Eli debate, and the fact that they both had fantastic seasons and spent the year switching in and out of the All-Division quarterback spot added some juice to this weekly feature.

But this is the final edition of the All-NFC East Team for this year, and there's only one spot for quarterback. The weekly disclaimer that no one ever reads is that this is a team based on overall performance for the whole year, not just the most recent week. So both Romo and Manning remain strong candidates. Romo has the better completion percentage, passer rating and Total QBR, all by pretty wide margins. He threw 31 touchdown passes to Manning's 29, 10 interceptions to Manning's 16. And while he was directly responsible for a couple of early losses that put the Cowboys in a hole, Romo played through broken ribs for a stretch and was brilliant through the second half of the season and in no way responsible for the 1-4 finish that did them in.

Manning had more yards -- 4,933 to Romo's 4,184 -- and took fewer sacks but can't claim this spot based on numbers. Manning's case rests on his five fourth-quarter comebacks, his 2-0 record in games against Romo's team and the fact of the Giants' division title by virtue of winning nine games while Romo won eight. Wins are an important stat for a quarterback. Some argue that they're the most important stat. Some argue that they're the only important stat. And the thing Manning did better than Romo in 2011 was win games.

And so, in an extremely close vote intended in no way to reflect even a little bit poorly on the loser, I have decided to give the 2011 All-Division quarterback spot to the guy who's still playing this week.

Quarterback: Eli Manning, Giants. I think if you asked both men, they'd agree Eli's year was better than Romo's.

Running back: LeSean McCoy. A wire-to-wire winner who never was challenged. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Wide receiver: Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. The only two receivers in the division to crack 1,000 yards. Cruz finished third in the league with 1,536.

Tight end: Jason Witten, Cowboys. Seemed to get forgotten at times, but still caught 79 passes for 942 yards and five touchdowns.

Fullback: Darrel Young, Redskins. Dallas' Tony Fiammetta got the press, but Young was a consistent mauler all season.

Left tackle: Jason Peters, Eagles. Best left tackle in the league this year. Brilliant season lost in the Eagles' team flop.

Left guard: Evan Mathis, Eagles. Unheralded free-agent signing was key to the Philadelphia run game.

Center: Will Montgomery, Redskins. Kept playing well as the rest of the line crumbled around him.

Right guard: Kyle Kosier, Cowboys. Injuries hampered him, but he deserves some credit for this next line.

Right tackle: Tyron Smith, Cowboys. One of the best rookie performances in the NFL. Expect him to be left tackle next year.

Defensive end: Trent Cole, Eagles; Jason Pierre-Paul, Giants. I know how many sacks Jason Babin had, and no, I have nothing against him. Cole just played better. And Pierre-Paul carried the New York defense in stretches.

Defensive tackle: Cullen Jenkins, Eagles; Jay Ratliff, Cowboys. Jenkins was one of the few real leaders in that locker room. Ratliff is Mr. Consistent.

Outside linebacker: DeMarcus Ware, Cowboys; Brian Orakpo, Redskins. Ware among the sack leaders again. Orakpo and rookie Ryan Kerrigan should be a force in Washington for years to come.

Inside linebacker: London Fletcher, Redskins; Sean Lee, Cowboys. An old war horse who's still the best at what he does, and a youngster who's burst onto the scene.

Cornerback: Asante Samuel, Eagles; Corey Webster, Giants. For all of the grief he takes, Samuel had a very good year in coverage. Webster handled some of the league's toughest wide receivers one-on-one.

Safety: Kenny Phillips, Giants; O.J. Atogwe, Redskins. Injuries limited Atogwe, but he played well enough when in there to earn the spot over the Cowboys' disappointing guys. Phillips has emerged as one of the best in the game.

Kicker: Dan Bailey, Cowboys. He had a tough finish, as did the team, but he was one of the best in the league for most of the year.

Punter: Sav Rocca, Redskins. Real tough call here between him and the Giants' Steve Weatherford. Rocca had just one touchback all year. That's precision.

Kick returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a kick back for a touchdown all year.

Punt returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins. Not one guy in this division ran a punt back for a touchdown all year.

So that's it. Thanks for following the All-Division Team this year. One final time: What did I get wrong?

He has surely had more spectacular games in his career, but if you're a fan of the Dallas Cowboys the game Tony Romo played Saturday night was an absolute thing of beauty. Romo was 23-for-30 for 249 yards, three passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in a nearly uncontested 31-15 victory over a dead Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. He was efficient. He was in control. He was ruthless and reliable and made sure that the Cowboys put one of their easiest wins of the season in their pocket when they needed a win in the worst way.

The Cowboys move to 8-6, temporarily a half-game in front of New York pending the Giants' game Sunday afternoon. If the Giants win, Dallas will have done little Saturday night but hold serve. The victory doesn't dramatically help their playoff chances, but a loss would have damaged them severely. Romo deserves credit for making sure it was never a reasonable possibility.

He wasn't perfect, of course. No one is. The fumble on the first possession of the second half was careless. And I didn't think he made the wisest choice on his first touchdown throw to Miles Austin in traffic at the goal line. But Austin caught the ball for a touchdown, which made the throw look great. And Romo responded to the fumble by engineering a 12-play, seven-minute field-goal drive that denied the Bucs any shot at momentum.

Sure, Felix Jones had 108 rushing yards. But the Cowboys played ball-control all game, even when they were throwing it. Romo took no irresponsible shots downfield. He played completely under control. He took sacks when he should have, and he did a great job of extending plays with his feet until receivers got open. He completed passes to seven different targets, with no one making more than five catches and no receiver gaining more than Jason Witten's 77 yards. It was a clinic in levelheaded quarterback play, and while a Tampa Bay team that has now lost eight in a row might not have been much of a challenge, Romo's been playing like this against everyone lately. He has thrown 18 touchdown passes and two interceptions in his past seven games, and the Cowboys are 5-2 in those games.

Talk that coach Jason Garrett and the Cowboys don't trust Romo is ridiculous. Watching Romo on Saturday night, you saw a guy who was in complete control of his offense. A guy who was picking among fantastic targets and had the confidence and competence to find the right one. Heck, all three of his touchdown passes came from inside the 10-yard line. You don't keep throwing the ball from the 8 and 9 if you don't trust your quarterback.

Romo's reputation is a tough one to shake, but he's done nothing wrong in the second half of this season. He is not the reason Dallas lost to Arizona and New York in the two games before this one. And as the Cowboys look ahead to their final two games of the season, knowing they win the division if they can win them both, they do so with a great deal of well-deserved confidence in their starting quarterback.

Some more observations from the Cowboys' Saturday night victory:

• Jones looks great running the ball, and maybe more importantly Sammy Morris looks like a guy who can reasonably spell Jones and keep the Cowboys from having to overwork him during the next couple of weeks. We'll see how they perform against a defense that doesn't allow 5 yards per carry, but the signs from the run game were encouraging for the Cowboys.
• I thought the defense was encouraging too, at least while DeMarcus Ware and Jay Ratliff were in there. The unit pressured Josh Freeman and were able to run a lot of those moving, confusing fronts to rattle the Bucs' offense into mistakes. And I had no problem with Garrett holding Ware and Ratliff out in the second half to rest them and decrease the risk of further injury. That game was over at halftime, no matter how scared Cowboys' fans were about their team's second-half issues. And if it had become legitimately close, they could always have put Ware and Ratliff back in, right? I think the Cowboys managed that situation intelligently.
• The difference between this game and the Detroit game (other than the vast differences between Detroit's offense and Tampa Bay's) was that, when Romo made the costly turnover right after halftime to give the other team points, he didn't make another. Sounds simple, but it's important. The way you recover from your mistakes says much more about you than whether or not you make one.
• The sight of right tackle Tyron Smith on the ground at the end of the game had to be upsetting for Cowboys fans. He walked off on his own power and seemed fine, but Smith would be a devastating loss for an already-shaky line on which he's been far and away the best player. Smith has played tackle at an elite level this year, and would be irreplaceable.
• Next up for Dallas is a crucial home game next Saturday against the Eagles, who beat them 34-7 in Philadelphia in Week 8.

» NFC Stock Watch: East | West | North | South » AFC: East | West | North | South

FALLING

1. DeSean Jackson, Eagles receiver. It's hard to believe Jackson can just keep falling every week. Two weeks ago, the Philadelphia Eagles benched their star wideout for missing a team meeting. Last week, he got a taunting penalty that cost them 50 yards of field position in a game against the Giants. And on Sunday, after dropping two touchdown passes in a loss to the Patriots, Jackson was benched by Eagles coach Andy Reid in the fourth quarter. Jackson is clearly consumed by his contract situation, and he seems to be playing ultra-cautiously in an effort to avoid injury. That's not going to help his standing with the Eagles' front office, and at this point there's no way to know how much of a factor we can expect Jackson to be for the rest of the season. The likelihood that he plays elsewhere next year has never been higher.

2. Giants' defense. Tom Coughlin came right out and said it after Monday night's loss to the Saints: "When we don't get to the passer, we have trouble." Opposing offenses have been changing up their protections to keep the Giants' defensive linemen off of their quarterbacks, and the result is that the Giants' deficiencies in coverage are being exposed. They can't afford to blitz because that makes them even more vulnerable in coverage, so the down linemen are left to find a way through the extra blockers to give the defense a chance.

3. Nate Allen, Eagles safety. The Eagles' loss was thorough enough that it's almost hard to pick on any one particular defensive player. But the second-year safety had one of his worst games as a pro Sunday, and was front and center for several of the big plays with which the Patriots dismantled the Eagles' defense. Those included Wes Welker's 41-yard touchdown catch, Deion Branch's 63-yard catch and his 23-yard catch and a missed tackle on tight end Aaron Hernandez. Allen shows talent and promise, and every young guy's going to have rough games. This was an especially rough one for Allen.

RISING

1. Roy Helu, Redskins running back. The Redskins' running game returned in a big way Sunday, and the rookie Helu was the star of the show. Helu had 108 yards on 23 carries, caught seven passes for 54 more yards and turned in that electrifying 28-yard touchdown run during the Redskins' second-half comeback. Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said Monday that Helu would remain the starting running back. Shanahan had been hesitant to give Helu a starter's workload earlier in the season, and it's possible he could back him off some down the stretch in order to preserve him for next year. But as long as the Redskins are trying to win games, it seems Helu is going to have to be a big part of that.

2. Laurent Robinson, Cowboys receiver. Just as everyone predicted before the season, the Cowboys' offense right now is keyed around Robinson and rookie running back DeMarco Murray. Robinson has been Tony Romo's favorite target in recent weeks, especially in the end zone, and the productivity of players like Dez Bryant and Jason Witten has even suffered a bit as a result. Robinson has become much more than just an adequate replacement for injured wide receiver Miles Austin, and there's no reason to think the Cowboys won't continue to make him a big part of their offense even when and if Austin is healthy enough to return.

3. Cowboys' playoff hopes. The Giants' third straight loss gave the Cowboys a one-game lead in the division, and with the remaining schedule in their favor they might only need to win one of their two head-t0-head matchups against New York to be division champs. If Dallas wins in Arizona on Sunday and the Giants lose at home to the Packers, the Cowboys might be able clinch the NFC East with a victory over the Giants on Dec. 11 in Dallas.

A couple of Thanksgiving night thoughts now that I've had a chance to digest the Dallas Cowboys' 20-19 victory over the Miami Dolphins, among other things:

This is the Romo you read about: How many times have you been told that you have to deal with the bad Tony Romo because of how good the good one is? Well, I'm sure lots of Cowboys fans were rolling their eyes about the two first-quarter interceptions. But there was Romo at the end, dancing away from pressure and finding Jason Witten on that big 23-yard gain, finding DeMarco Murray for a big completion while getting drilled and expertly moving his team into field goal range without poor decisions or unnecessary risks. Romo made the plays he needed to make to win the game, and that's what we're supposed to use to judge quarterbacks, right? Wins?

Running tough: Murray has found the going tough the past two games, playing without fullback Tony Fiammetta and against defenses that are strong up front. But for the second week in a row, Murray was in there grinding out the tough, between-the-tackles yards the team needs him to be able to get if the offense is to work as well as it can. He had 87 yards on 22 carries, which is good, hard running back work, and it's got to encourage the Cowboys and their fans that their rookie running back is tough and willing enough to handle it.

Defense a mixed bag: The Cowboys were tough up front, cutting off the Dolphins' run game between the tackles. But Terence Newman needed to basically commit pass interference on every play in his effort to stop Brandon Marshall. Marshall's touchdown catch was completely amazing for the fact that Newman was strangling him with two arms while yanking him to the ground. With Mike Jenkins out, the Dallas secondary suffers, and opponents know they can take shots down the field. The good news is that there are few receivers in the league with Marshall's size and physicality. The bad news is that the Cowboys' next game is against Larry Fitzgerald and the Cardinals. They need to sort out some coverage issues.

Automatic Dan: Could any Cowboys fan have imagined how good you feel about Dan Bailey with the game on the line? That was the rookie place-kicker's fourth game-winning field goal this year in the final two minutes or overtime. And while it was only a 28-yarder, as soon as they were in field goal range all you were thinking as a Cowboys fan was, "Just don't turn it over." You knew Bailey would make the kick. And what a feeling that's got to be for the Cowboys. They're relying on rookies at kicker and running back, and the rookies are among the most reliable players on their roster.

Loving Laurent: For most of the game, I was wondering if Romo had forgotten there were other people to whom he could throw the ball besides Laurent Robinson. But when the Cowboys get near the end zone, Romo doesn't feel the need to go anywhere else. ESPN Stats & Information reports that Robinson has been targeted in the end zone five times this year and has caught all five of them. I imagine Dez Bryant will still get his in the coming weeks, and Romo did remember his old friend Witten on that final drive when he needed him. But Robinson has earned Romo's trust in key spots very quickly.

In Summary: You may have wanted them to crush the Dolphins, and you may well be able to argue that they should. But this is a different Miami team than the one that began the season 0-7. Its defensive line is fearsome, and Romo will wake Friday morning with the aches and bruises to prove it. Matt Moore is playing very well at quarterback. Miami came in as one of the hottest teams in the league, and while a victory over a team that's now 3-8 doesn't stand out as one of the sparkling achievements of their season, the Cowboys can feel good, for the second week in a row, about a win that didn't come easily but came nonetheless.

There is no performance Tony Romo can deliver right now, no pre-February game he can win that will change the way some people think of him.

With Romo there is no middle ground. From one of the extremes there is, and always seemingly will be, a heaping helping of doubt. Part of that is of his own making -- the ill-timed interceptions, the botched field-goal snap, etc. Part of it just comes with being the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback. But the doubt is always there -- always a part of the boldface Romo narrative.

Right now, though, in mid-November of 2011, Romo has a big chance to make some changes to his reputation. The 5-4 Cowboys' upcoming schedule, the recent improvements they've made on offense and his continued maturation as an NFL quarterback all offer Romo the opportunity to take control of his own narrative and erase a lot of that doubt.

"Tony's a great player, and he's played at a very high level for a long time," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said in a phone interview Thursday. "And I think it's kind of unfortunate that he can play as well as he's playing and there are still going to be people who say, 'OK, but just wait. Wait and see what's going to happen.'"

Those voices are singing again as Thanksgiving comes barreling our way. Romo is 17-2 in November games in his career as a starting quarterback, which is an astounding record in a very important month. But that stat plays right into the effect Witten is describing, as everyone who hears it says, "OK, but wait. What's his record in December?"

Romo is 8-10 in regular-season games played after Nov. 30, which is in line with popular perception. But that perception may be outdated. Romo won his final three regular-season games two seasons ago, including a victory in New Orleans against the then-unbeaten Saints and the victory that clinched the division title in the season finale against the Eagles. He even won a playoff game against those same Eagles a week later before bowing out in the second round against the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings. He missed last December with an injury, depriving him of a chance to continue to hack away at that old idea that he can't win in December. But his teammates remember 2009 and have faith.

"I just think he's really come into his own," Witten said. "Physically, he's gifted, of course. But at the same time, he's very thorough in his preparation and making sure he puts our team in a position to win. I don't think people understand that about him -- the work he does on the little things."

They do not. Witten is right. The perception of Romo is that he's a careless gunslinger -- that he plays all-out all the time and too often puts his team in a position to have to overcome a bad mistake, the way he did earlier this year against the Jets and the Lions. Even when he brings the team back in the fourth quarter, as he did in handing the 49ers their only loss of this season, it feeds into the perception. The thing that makes him great, everyone says, is the very thing that makes him reckless. He only knows one way to play, and sometimes it works out and other times it doesn't.

"That's not the guy we know," Witten said. "Tony does a great job of commanding our offense and our tempo and the level of urgency we're supposed to have at any given time. It's not just that he's out there winging it around. There's a lot of time and effort that goes into his game."

The evidence to support Witten has quietly begun to mount. Romo has played two straight games without throwing an interception or taking a sack. It's the first time in his career he's ever done that, and no NFL quarterback has had three such games in a row since 2007. He has weathered a difficult early part of the season, when he was playing with broken ribs and hearing it from all sides after his interceptions cost the team games it should have won. But even those trials may have been part of the improvements we're seeing now. Through all of that, his teammates gained even more respect for Romo than they already had.

"It's easy to lead when things are rolling and everything's going great," Witten said. "It's a lot tougher when adversity's hitting you in the face. But he stood up. He played every game. He led us. And I think we'll be a lot better because of that."

It's all there in front of Romo right now. He's healthy. He's got a reliable running game, a good defense and an offensive line that seems to be getting better by the week. He is 31 years old, which means he's had time to learn from and overcome a younger quarterback's mistakes. But that also means it's time to get to work -- to have the kind of December and January that re-writes the narrative about his career.

"As a quarterback, everybody knows it makes your legacy a lot easier when you've got a Super Bowl championship behind you," Witten said.

That is the Cowboys' goal, of course, and Romo's as well. And if he pulls it off -- this year, next year or ever at all -- Romo will have totally re-written the book of his career. Starting now, he's got a chance to do some heavy editing.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Sunday's first half was a dream half for the Dallas Cowboys, who strafed the Buffalo Bills for 317 yards, held the ball for 18 of 30 minutes and did every single thing they wanted to do on both sides of the ball. But the modern sports fan greets good fortune with suspicion, and so the one thing everybody here kept muttering as the game went to halftime was, "This feels like the Detroit game."

It wasn't, of course. This would turn out to be the Buffalo game, and a dominating 44-7 victory for the Cowboys, who are back over .500 for the first time since that ugly Week 4 collapse and loss to the Lions. And the main reason the Buffalo game was not a repeat is a rookie running back who got four carries in the Detroit game. On Sunday, DeMarco Murray ran for 135 yards on 20 carries and put the game on ice in thunderous fashion.

"He's destroying, man," Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant said of Murray, who has 601 rushing yards in the past four games since Felix Jones went down with an ankle injury. "He's just unstoppable right now. And it's not surprising to me. I've seen it in practice. I've seen it in college. There's no rival."

"He is, and should be, inspirational," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "We have to feel good about what he is doing for the offensive line. I used to say that, as much as we thought of our offensive line when Emmitt [Smith] was here, it was also Emmitt making our offensive line."

Murray's emergence has come at a beneficial time for the Cowboys, who are positioned to make a strong run at the first-place New York Giants in the NFC East. Dallas is now 5-4 in spite of all of the injuries and all of the missed opportunities of the first half of the season. Their next three games are against the Redskins, Dolphins and Cardinals, who have a combined record of 8-19. If they could beat all three of those weak opponents, they would go into their Dec. 11 game against the Giants with an 8-4 record and a real chance to control their playoff hopes.

"I think the great teams get going right about now," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said. "We need to start stacking up those wins. It's that time of year."

To that end, it's nice that Murray has come along to unlock a fresh and thrilling new dimension to their offense. He runs with power and determination. He absorbs hits and breaks tackles. He is the essence of tough, which is an element the run game lacked earlier this season with Jones running behind a work-in-progress offensive line.

"When you can run the ball into eight-man fronts and have success like he's having, it puts a dent in the defense," Witten said. "And it puts a smile on your face, because you know the defense is going to have a tough time."

Murray is dishing out punishment, and the big question everybody's asking around here is whether there's any chance he loses the "starting" running back job to Jones once Jones is ready to return from his injury. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett won't commit to an answer, mainly because (a) it doesn't really matter who "starts" if Murray's going to get the larger share of the carries and (b) the point is that Jones' return would only increase the number of offensive weapons available to the Cowboys on a given play. Which is a good thing.

"I think, when you break the huddle and you can do different things well with different people, that's a good thing for your offense," Garrett said. "I think today was a pretty good example of that. They wanted to defend the run early, we were able to throw the football, then we were able to run when it came to the run."

The way it's supposed to work. And for the Cowboys, the way it's working now that Murray is in the mix. Sunday's Cowboys offense was an offense that clicked in every conceivable way, and as good and sharp as Tony Romo was even with wide receiver Miles Austin out with a hamstring injury, the key may have been Murray. He's the thing about the offense that's different from earlier in the year, and if things are changing for the better at just the right time, he's a huge reason why.

"When you get on a roll as an offense, when you can pick up big yards on first down like we did today, there's just a lot of possibilities," Murray said. "This team has just been getting better all year, and I think we can keep it going."

Especially against the schedule they play over the next three weeks, they have to believe they have that chance. Sunday established the formula, and it's based on keeping the ball as much as possible and gaining big chunks of yardage in a variety of ways.

"We've talked about that -- how we wanted to get back to the time of possession and staying in control of the game as an offense," Witten said. "And the fact that we can be as explosive as we were today, even with a guy like Miles down, that's good for all of us."

The explosiveness is good. So is the timing. And for both of those, the Cowboys can thank DeMarco Murray, who appears to have shown up just in time.

As you get ready for this afternoon's home game against the Buffalo Bills, here's one reason for Dallas Cowboys fans to feel good and one reason for concern:

Feeling good: Tony Romo should have time to work. The Bills have not been very good at pressuring quarterbacks this year. They have just 15 sacks, 10 of which came in one game against the Redskins. Romo is very dangerous when he has time to throw, and even with Miles Austin out with a hamstring injury he still has Dez Bryant and plenty of other passing-game weapons at his disposal. Expect him to throw Jason Witten's way a lot, as the Bills also have shown a tendency to be victimized by tight ends. And don't underestimate Laurent Robinson as a competent Austin replacement. He's looked very comfortable in the Dallas offense, and Romo looks comfortable with him.

Cause for concern: There's a whole bunch of film from the past couple of weeks on how to gain big yards against the Cowboys in the run game. Buffalo running back Fred Jackson is one of the best backs in the league -- third in rush yards and second in total yards from scrimmage this season. And if Cowboys inside linebacker Sean Lee is out again or unable to be as effective as he was earlier in the season due to his dislocated wrist, Dallas is going to have to find some new way of containing Jackson.