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NEW ORLEANS — For Cowboys fans, there was something almost comforting about another Patriots-Giants Super Bowl last February. At least those were familiar foes. New stars at the quarterback position were not being created.
From that standpoint, these playoffs can't get any worse for a team that hasn't sniffed a post-season for three years.
Baltimore's Joe Flacco has emerged from his own downcast five o'clock shadow to own the AFC playoffs, outdueling Indianapolis' Andrew Luck, Denver's Peyton Manning and New England's Tom Brady. In the NFC, there's some divided opinion here as to how much the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick and the Pistol offense represents the future. But there's no uncertainty about the leadership he displayed in knocking off Green Bay and rallying the 49ers from 17 points down in Atlanta.
As a result, when next season rolls around, the list of NFL quarterbacks with more impressive playoff resumes than Tony Romo will have grown significantly. Eight teams will have starting quarterbacks who have taken their teams to Super Bowls. And with Matt Ryan having driven the Falcons to the NFC title game, there are 12 quarterbacks poised to start in 2013 who have carried teams to conference championship games — an elevated status the Cowboys once took for granted but now haven't reached since the 1995 postseason.
While I'm firmly entrenched on the side of the debate that says Romo is closer to the least of the Cowboys' worries than he is to the team's biggest problem, the season finale in Washington cast some doubts not only on my thinking but in the minds of his most loyal supporters.
It's too soon to say the sand is running out of the hourglass for Romo. But you can see the monkeys starting to take flight.
Romo turns 33 in April. Troy Aikman retired at 34. Not every Cowboys quarterback follows the same timeline, but the list of quarterbacks making their Super Bowl debuts at Romo's age is a short one.
In the last 25 years, the only quarterbacks 33 or older making their first Super Bowl starts were Oakland's Rich Gannon (37) and Tampa Bay's Brad Johnson (34) who faced each other along with Atlanta's Chris Chandler (33) and the 49ers' Steve Young.
The guess here is that neither Flacco nor Kaepernick will belong in the one-and-done category when it comes to Super Bowl visits after this week. Flacco has won six road playoff games in a short pro career. In these playoffs, he has thrown eight touchdowns and no interceptions.
Naturally, Kaepernick is getting similar support from his teammates after his remarkable run, which is more of a concern to Cowboys' fans since surviving the NFC competition comes first — whenever the Cowboys get back up to playoff speed.
Kaepernick beat the Packers with an NFL playoff record 181 yards rushing, then he led the 49ers past Atlanta with his arm. The Pistol offense is supposed to be the next great thing in the NFL, and whether or not that proves true, Kaepernick has established that he can compete and win at football's highest level.
And if he wins, he will be one of four NFC quarterbacks with Super Bowl-winning experience who will stand in the way of wherever it is the Cowboys and Romo hope to be headed.
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