Wade Phillips Describes Brooks Bollinger as 'Just Another Quarterback,' Nobody Disagrees

A day later, the Cowboys are left to sift through the wreckage of a 35-14 pummeling at the hands of the division rival Giants. It was, as Emmitt Smith might say, 60 minutes of debaclements, including a halftime Brad Johnson benching that everybody saw coming.

Now on their bye, Dallas can go about the business of getting healthy, which hopefully includes Tony Romo's triumphant return. Because, honestly, I don't think Wade Phillips can take too many more debilitating losses. As for the Cowboys' backup behind Romo going forward, well, after watching Brooks Bollinger, does it even matter? Here was Phillips' response to what he thought of Bollinger's "effort" against the Giants: "Just another quarterback."

Whoa, big fella. Lavishing praise like that might give Brooks a big head. Owner Jerry Jones was a little more measured in his response:

"Looking at it in hindsight," Jerry Jones sheepishly said of his choices in backup quarterbacks, "we might have done things differently."

I found it peculiar that Jones had to have a No. 2 receiver but never made any real effort to shore up the depth chart behind Romo. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Clarence Hill reported during the NFL Network Sunday pregame show that Jones was a tad perturbed to learn just how awful Johnson was after the coaching staff had reassured the owner in training camp that the 40-year-old fossil could handle the backup gig.

And now, the Cowboys are 5-4, last in the NFC East, and have virtually not shot to win the division. The wild card is slightly more realistic, but that's like saying Bollinger currently leads Johnson in MVP balloting; it doesn't mean much.