Contenders Face Injuries

The Carolina Panthers lost Steve Smith rather early Sunday but still with a mostly  defensive effort took down the Saints and can clinch first in the South Division this Sunday if they can win at Atlanta.  Smith's knee injury is considered a knee sprain and I can tell you from experience I doubt he plays Sunday.

The Denver Broncos lost Von Miller to a year ending knee injury.  Denver is already in the we need Peyton to score 40 every week and the pressure could be that they now will need to score 45.  Since the playoffs are the best teams in the NFL the Broncs will have a hard time romping up and down the field in the playoffs.

Tony Romo is probably the most abused quarterback in the NFL.  If you really do pay attention Romo is a very good quarterback. His problem he plays for the owner who has to have his own after game news conference and just like playing for the New York Yankees tries to make Dallas to be the most important and best team in the league but we all know that is in the mind of Jerry Jones not that Dallas is any more than average.

Romo is believed to have a herniated disc in his back.  That has to be painful for any one just trying to get out of a chair much less try to play football.   Kyle Orton will probably  start Sunday and  with all of the abuse Romo gets when he has one of his flubs in front of a national audience and most of them occur right when the game seems to be at it's emotional climax.

Just suppose Orton comes in Sunday and has a Peyton Manning type day and leads Dallas to the playoffs and say they win one or two games in which Romo has never won  one.  If you recall the dropped snap on a kick was as close  as Romo has ever come to winning a playoff game.  If you were Romo could you root for Orton knowing well if Orton does well the news media will spend all spring and summer trying to talk Jerry Jones into getting a new quarterback.