Cowboys' Romo going through Delhomme's poor-play nightmare

By Darin Gantt - dgantt@carolina.rr.com

CHARLOTTE -- Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme doesn't date singers, or skip off to Mexico before playoff games gone awry.

But he does know about bouncing back, and in that respect he and Dallas quarterback Tony Romo have plenty in common.

In addition to their backgrounds (undrafted from small schools, stints as clipboard-holders), the two share many on-field traits as well.

Romo is coming off a rough outing in last week's loss to the New York Giants, with three interceptions and a 29.6 passer rating that stood as his version of Delhomme's four-pick opener against Philadelphia.

“Hopefully he'll handle it just like Jake did,” Dallas coach Wade Phillips said of Romo. “I think Jake came back pretty strong and I think Tony will, too. They are competitors that are really good quarterbacks. They'll have a bad game every now and then. Or not live up to expectations or whatever, but they'll bounce back. Jake did last week, and I expect him to the rest of the season. And same thing with Tony.”

Romo, who came in this year without the Terrell Owens cloud hanging over his head, has found himself at the center of yet another controversy. Cowboys legend Tony Dorsett recently blamed the media for over-hyping Romo too quickly, saying the Cowboys quarterback still needs work. “He hasn't gone through that growing curve, but he was anointed this great player all of a sudden,” Dorsett said on Fox Sports Radio. “Now he's having to live up to that. And obviously Tony has some deficiencies.”

Romo said dealing with struggles is part of what he has to learn as a quarterback, especially after a game such as last week's.

“It's just a part of playing quarterback in the National Football League. Everybody goes through it,” Romo said. “If you haven't, then you're probably not a very good quarterback. So, I just think that is a part of the process of improving and getting to where you want to go. I think we hold ourselves to a high standard here. We don't expect to lose and go out there and not play up. We want to set a standard that we try to obtain each week and we didn't reach that goal last week.

“If you play the game long enough, you realize you're lying to yourself if you think you can play 16 weeks of great football. That is unrealistic. I don't care who you are. I'm still waiting to see one guy do it for a full year.”

Delhomme said he hasn't talked to Romo about these things, but the fraternity of quarterbacks know that expectations come with the position.

“When the good comes it's too good,” Delhomme said. “When the bad comes, hey, it's bad. It's part of it. It's tough. I didn't get a chance to watch him play much the other night. But especially Dallas, it's America's Team and certainly things get talked about a great deal over there.

“There's nothing I can tell him that I don't think he already knows. I promise you he's working his tail off to do better. That's kind of what it is. He didn't want to go out and not play his best game. But sometimes that happens.”

INJURY UPDATE — The hot, muggy conditions of the last two days took their toll, as defensive end Charles Johnson and Captain Munnerlyn were taken off the practice fields because of heat and dehydration issues.

Between that and Chris Harris' setback, it wasn't a good day. Harris was held out of practice Friday, a day after practicing fully. His sore knee has kept him out of the past two games, and the Panthers could use their secondary signal-caller back.

Defensive end Everette Brown (ankle) was held out after practicing Thursday, but said the plan was still for him to play Monday at Dallas. Fullback Brad Hoover got a second straight day off with a bad back, as did linebacker Na'il Diggs (rib).

Running backs Jonathan Stewart and Mike Goodson returned after taking Thursday off.