"The Cowboys have two on the roster, but neither of them know how to play the position," Baldinger said. "You cannot play the position with your head down. You have to be able to beat the double-team. You have got to stay on your feet, nose tackles cannot play on the ground."

He might have a point when it comes to backup Tank Johnson, who hasn't done a whole lot other than force a fumble against the Bengals. But Jay Ratliff has been the Cowboys' best defensive player other than DeMarcus Ware this season.

Maybe Baldinger based his analysis on the Rams game. Pretty much every Dallas defensive starter other than Ware was awful in St. Louis. But Ratliff played at close to a Pro Bowl level through six games. It's ridiculous to pin the Cowboys' problems on him.

At least Baldinger did spread the bashing across the board a bit.

"Right now, the guys are like Velcro, just sticking to the opponent's blocks," Baldinger said. "What happened to the idea of running through ballcarriers, finishing the play? It seems to be lost with the Dallas defenders. What is it with leaving your feet, diving at the feet of running backs? The suffer from this throughout, in every phase of their defense."

"I think play time is always a concern, no matter if you're under contract," Jerry replied. "My experience has been, even with our highest-paid players, when they're not on the field, they're very unhappy. That can come about obviously by injury, but it can also come about because for whatever the reason, they weren't getting the job done."

Sounds good, but means nothing. Wade Phillips said this week that he doesn't plan on making major personnel changes. His hands are tied with his eight-figure-guarantee underachievers anyway.

Everybody knows it'd be asking for a disaster to put T.O.'s butt on the bench. It'd also be foolish to put Patrick Crayton on the field instead of a guy with gamebreaking ability.

Does anybody believe Flozell Adams feels threatened at all by the possibility of being yanked for Doug Free or Pat McQuistan? Didn't think so.

How about Ken Hamlin? I doubt he's concerned about Courtney Brown or Pat Watkins taking his starting job.

So much for using play(ing) time as motivation. Maybe the underachieving, overpaid Cowboys can find some professional pride and/or desire to salvage a season that started with Super Bowl aspirations.

Like the Cowboys had anything to do with that.

Palmer probably had no business playing in the winless Bengals' loss at Texas Stadium. He sat out the previous week with a sore elbow and might have to get Tommy John surgery on it. If he had been healthy, he probably would have hit a wide-open Chris Perry for a couple touchdowns, and we might be talking about a four-game losing streak for the Cowboys.

Anyway ...

Rams RB Steven Jackson will be a game-time decision Sunday against the Patriots. He strained his thigh while rushing for 160 yards and three touchdowns against the Cowboys, which could be considered proof that Dallas' defensive scheme was aggressive enough if you're really desperate.

But Aqib Talib, a Richardson Berkner product drafted five picks before Mike Jenkins, has as many picks in the last couple games as the Cowboys have all season (two). Talib, who plays in the Bucs' nickel and dime packages, is tied for fifth in the league with three interceptions this season.

"He's come in and bought into our system, and that has allowed him to develop," LB Derrick Brooks said. "He's creating confidence every week, facing different types of receivers. I think the mental part of his game is now starting to kick in."

The Bucs have four key offensive players listed as questionable: RB Warrick Dunn, WR Joey Galloway (foot), QB Brian Griese (elbow) and WR Ike Hilliard (head). Griese would back up Jeff Garcia if he dresses out Sunday.

Galloway has missed the last five games with a foot injury and is iffy this week. Ex-Cowboy Antonio Bryant, who arrived in Tampa Bay after stops in Cleveland, San Francisco and NFL purgatory, has filled Galloway's shoes as the Bucs' primary weapon in the passing game.

"He's put it together here," coach Jon Gruden said. "It's real credit to him. ... He's clearly on the rise, and we need his help, that's for sure."

Gruden has mentioned a few times that Bryant was talented enough to start opposite Michael Irvin as a rookie. That's not true -- Bryant arrived in Dallas a few years after The Playmaker's retirement and wore his No. 88 -- but Gruden really only cares about what the ex-Cowboys receivers do after they join the Bucs.

"We like those ex-Cowboy receivers," Gruden said. "They've done quite well for us. If you'd like to pass us a few more, we'd be happy to take them."

The breakdown:

Offside - 2
False start - 4
Offensive pass interference - 1
Delay of game - 2
Offensive holding - 3
Illegal use of hands - 1
Neutral zone infraction - 1
Unsportsmanlike conduct - 1
Illegal contact - 1
Unecessary roughnes - 1

While Williams didn't win a lot of football games in Detroit, he did claim a couple world titles. One belt is for the World Tonk Championship. The other is for the World Dominoes Championship.

I'm not sure whether anybody but Williams recognizes the titles. After all, he bought the belts himself at Toys R Us.

Ken Hamlin, Williams' neighbor in the Valley Ranch locker room, started jawing about the dominoes title. Hamlin was recognized as Valley Ranch's dominoes king before Williams' arrival, and he doesn't believe that changed after the trade with Detroit.

"You see that bling up there?" Williams asked, interrupting Hamlin. "You see the way the light reflects? I don't have to talk!"

Hamlin quickly pointed out that he's won both times he's played the self-proclaimed world dominoes champion in the Cowboys' lunchroom. Williams said those were just sparring matches, but a championship game is coming soon.

"He's going to be the first challenger," Williams said. "He's earned that right."

1) Whiny Cowboys fans got all hot and bothered last week by the Football Outsider formula that stated the odds were against Dallas making the playoffs. (Then the Cowboys reduced those odds by losing to the Rams, dude.) Let's try to get you back in those folks' good graces. Is there a stat you can point to that provides hope the Cowboys can snap out of their month-long funk?

There are whiny Cowboys fans? On the Internet? No way. I've noticed that the Cowboys fans in the comments are kind, warm-hearted folks, and from what I can tell, many of them are ex-NFL players with decades of experience playing football.

The normal things we look for when it comes to a team that's underperforming their record aren't there with the Cowboys, which is a little scary. DVOA, our core metric that measures a team's performance after adjusting for down, distance, situation, and opponent quality, has the Cowboys as the 21st-best team in football. Not exactly a positive indicator.

"I'm hearing a lot about who calls what," Jerry said on The Ticket this morning. "That's so overrated. You really will never get real good answers in that area, if you really think about it. The facts are the one that makes the final decision, you ultimately say makes the call, whether he utters a word or not. He does it by acquiescence, he does it by a nod, he does it by having a suggestion and then saying, 'Go ahead.' ...

"In this particular case our head coach Wade Phillips does make, either by acquiescence or by direction, all decisions relative to what we're doing on the defensive side of the ball."

I couldn't agree more.

They teamed up for some entertaining talk about their teammates.

Check out the video.

"If he can deal with whatever issues he may have, handle his responsibilities, make good decisions, then he may have an opportunity to play again in the league," Goodell said.

"I'm frankly tired of talking about it right now."

I get the feeling Wade Phillips feels the same way.

We asked Gruden on Wednesday about Johnson and he wasn't very good. He was a bit better with the Tampa Bay media on Thursday when he was asked about Johnson being "Captain Checkdown."

"Well, you play against Tampa Two every day, you don't have much choice," Gruden said. "Every day in practice you're going to have to find those passing lanes. He's had 4,000-yard seasons. He's wearing a Super Bowl ring. He threw for 280 yards in the Vet in the NFC Championship Game. I've seen him throw five touchdown passes in a game. Call him whatever you want, he's a hell of a player. He's a good player, a good player. A great guy, too. A winner."