Perhaps the Cowboys should concentrate on becoming Texas’ team.
“America’s Team” has won four straight games and is tied for the best record in the NFL, but the team’s home-field advantage — or lack thereof — is becoming a big enough problem that quarterback Tony Romo criticized the Dallas fans who so often deride him, following Sunday’s overtime win over the Houston Texans, in which the visiting fans took over AT&T Stadium and forced the home team to use a silent count on offense.
“I was a little bit surprised by the number of Houston fans,” Romo told the Dallas Morning News.
“[Sunday] we played on the road. We had to go to a silent count, and that was the first time I had to do that throughout the game at home. We need to do a better job as a team, as a fan base, to make sure how big of a difference playing at home is. I think going forward I’m going to press the issue. We just need to tighten up on selling our tickets.”
The Cowboys faced similar issues in previous home games against the 49ers and Saints this season, but the less than four hour drive from Houston to Arlington only put a bigger spotlight on the problem at the stadium, which routinely has trouble filling its 90,000-plus capacity with Cowboys fans.
Head coach Jason Garrett recognized the issue, but took a more diplomatic approach.
“Yeah, we’ve had interesting home games this year,” Garrett said Monday. “Each of those teams have brought a lot of people to the game. That’s something we encounter a lot on the road ourselves. We have a really good national following. One of the things we have to do as a team is we have to give our fans reason to cheer. There are a lot of Cowboys fans there [Sunday]. When we do things the right way and give our fans reason to cheer and be loud, typically things work out well for us. We felt that the other night when we played New Orleans and we certainly felt that a lot in [Sunday’s] game.”
Apparently, 4-1 isn’t enough reason to cheer.