ARLINGTON, Texas -- A month ago, the Dallas Cowboys were a 2-2 mess; inconsistent on offense, generous on defense and seemingly already out of contention in the cutthroat NFC East following a mistake-filled thrashing by the then-undefeated Broncos in Denver.
Flash forward to Sunday's lopsided 38-17 victory over the battered Seattle Seahawks -- the Cowboys' third consecutive win in their swank $1.2 billion home -- and Dallas' turnaround from bashed to brilliant seems accomplished.
Quarterback Tony Romo completed passes to 10 different receivers, including touchdown throws to the increasingly popular Miles Austin (five catches, 61 yards), as well as to the forgotten Sam Hurd and the once-missing Roy Williams. Romo's performance, where he hit on 21-of-36 passes for 256 yards, capped off the first three-game span without an interception in his seven-year career.
Need a last-minute fill-in for this week? 4th and 26 is here to throw you a couple deep sleepers, guys available in at least 90% of Fleaflicker leagues that could give your fantasy football team a big boost.
With the emergence of Jerome Harrison on our report card from last week, we're again searching for possible gems available in deep leagues. The success rate of these types of players (backup RBs, No. 3 WRs) is bound to be slim, so temper your expectations. Yet, sometimes all you're looking for is a wild card, a quick pickup that might pay dividends as a substitute for an injured player.
Many of you might have been surprised to see the Giants' Steve Smith and the Jaguars' Mike Sims-Walker (or MSW, for short) among the top dozen options for Week 4. No-names as No. 1 WRs? Well, those surprised people obviously haven't been keeping up with the action.
After another huge performance by Smith (11 catches, 134 yards, 2 TDs), he now sits atop the pack as the best WR through four weeks. MSW is seventh on the list, and that's not accounting for his zero in Week 1. Take the three-game average, and MSW (along with Smith and Reggie Wayne) is one of the three best WRs in football. How will the pair of overachievers rank this week?
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.
There aren't too many must-win football games in Week 4, but Tony Romo could have used a victory Sunday in Denver instead of coming up just a little short -- fueling the fire for Romo-haters everywhere.
Romo was 25-for-42 on Sunday for 255 yards and had zero touchdown passes in Dallas' 17-10 loss in Denver. Romo was sacked five times and turned the ball over twice and Charean Williams of the Star-Telegram spoke of Romo's plummeting statistics.
Since the season opener against Tampa Bay, when he threw for 353 yards, three touchdowns and had a 140.6 passer rating, Romo has not been nearly as efficient. The past three games, he has completed 57.7 percent of his passes for 437 yards with one touchdown, three interceptions and a lost fumble.
Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.
Tony Romo was 16 years old the last time the Dallas Cowboys won a playoff game -- Dec. 28, 1996 over Minnesota. Since then, a span of 13 seasons, America's Team has gone 0-6 in the postseason and failed to qualify for the playoffs seven times. It's a shocking drought for a franchise with the history, and more obviously, the pride that Dallas does that there has been more recent on-field success. This is a big season in Big D, for Romo, for coach Wade Phillips, for the future of the franchise. But breaking that postseason jinx won't be easy.
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.
Meet The ... The team that decided to become more "Romo-friendly".Tony Romo got rid of two divas this offseason. He broke it off with longtime gal Jessica Simpson and the team released wide receiver Terrell Owens. While neither departure is guaranteed to help the Cowboys, getting rid of Owens with no true number one receiver in house will most likely shift the offense back towards a run-first philosophy, which will be quite a change from the 58% pass offense that Dallas utilized in 2008.
Matt Jones has been out of work for three days now, but rangy wide receivers who can run -- even the mediocre, seemingly apathetic ones -- are forever at a premium. And that probably means he won't be jobless for long.
The New York Daily News' Bob Glauber writes that the Jets and Cowboys -- two teams in need of big-play threats -- could be interested in Jones' services. It sounds like nothing more than speculation at this point, but the Jets gave Laveranues Coles his release earlier this month, and they don't have a legit No. 1 wideout currently on the roster. They also don't have a legit No. 1 quarterback, so maybe it doesn't matter.
Just because the Terrell Owens era is over in Dallas doesn't mean we're finished talking about it. In fact, depending on how the 2009 season unfolds for the Cowboys, we could be hearing about T.O. for a while. Good times.
Owner and self-appointed team spokesman Jerry Jones commented last week that releasing Owens made the offense "Romo-friendly." Not only that, Jones is apparently under the impression that the wide receivers currently on the roster are more than adequate. Via the Dallas Morning News' Tim Cowlishaw:
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
You could use just about every adjective for "crazy" to describe the '08 Dallas Cowboys. At the beginning of the year, they were expected to produce, but never did. Quarterback Tony Romo struggled with injury issues and the ability to step up in big games. They still had a chance to advance to the playoffs but couldn't take down Donovan McNabb and company in the last week of the season. Oh, and Adam "Pacman" Jones and Terrell Owens were as psycho as ever. A lot needs to change in Dallas during the offseason to make the Cowboys a contender in their new stadium.
ARLINGTON, Texas -- A month ago, the Dallas Cowboys were a 2-2 mess; inconsistent on offense, generous on defense and seemingly already out of contention in the cutthroat NFC East following a mistake-filled thrashing by the then-undefeated Broncos in Denver.
Need a last-minute fill-in for this week? 
Many of you might have been surprised to see the 
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the 
Training camps have wrapped up, the 
Cowboys wide receiver 
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all. 
Matt Jones
Just because the 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
