ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had a lot to say about the Broncos secondary Wednesday afternoon.
It started out complimentary enough.
"They're good," he said in a conference call. "I think this is as fast a back seven as I've seen in some time. They play very good in tight spaces. They do a great job with their hands."
Then he specified what he meant by the defensive backs using their hands.
"They grab, they hold, they almost put a lot of pressure on the refs – whether or not they're going to call the game close or not," Romo continued. "If they get called once or twice, that's a good thing. But they're all over guys as far as using the little tricks, I guess you could say, that good linebackers and good secondaries use when they're playing man coverage. They haven't been exposed with a lot of penalties. To me, that's going to be tough sledding for a lot of teams when you play against teams who are going to be that physical outside. I think we'll try to do some things to help combat that."
Thursday after practice, cornerback Champ Bailey was asked about Romo's take.
"Somebody brought it to my attention, but no biggie," Bailey said. "Everybody is entitled to their own opinion."
That was the attitude taken by Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio, as well.
"I'm not really concerned with that," he said. "We just want to work the best we can to slow them down, play a complementary game, get the ball back for our offense and help our football team win."
Regardless, the Broncos know they've got a tough test ahead of them on Sunday.
"(Romo) has had this thing where he's turned the ball over in the past in tough situations. He's not doing that this year," Bailey said. "That is probably the biggest difference in the offense from the previous offenses I've seen from them. He's playing great. He's having a great year. Everybody wants to talk about Peyton (Manning), but this guy we're playing this week, his touchdown-to-interception ratio is up there. We know we've got our hands full."
