For Once, Drama Isn't About T.O.

Through everything, Terrell Owens would not change. His firing from Philadelphia only emboldened his vanity until every practice this summer with his new team, the Dallas Cowboys, became a spectacle of its own, a star moving freely in his own bubble of flashbulbs and camera crews.

But if his time away from the game was supposed to make a difference, it did not. If his ailing hamstring was supposed to snatch away some of his speed and power, both were clearly there on the field Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, Fla. There were moments when Owens still managed to shake the double-team coverage the Jaguars put on him and was left in the middle of the field -- wide open. And it was clear that if Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe had only managed to complete a pass to him in those moments, his return would have been a sensational success.

Which is what the Cowboys have been dealing with in this, the week they play the Washington Redskins.

They have bought themselves a wide receiver considered to be among the very best in the NFL.

Yet do they have a quarterback who can get him the ball?

The question has been simmering around the team's headquarters since Sunday afternoon's loss to the Jaguars when Bledsoe was intercepted three times and finished with a passer rating of 45.8. Even Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells, a Bledsoe loyalist who coached the quarterback in his formative years in New England, said he thought Bledsoe made several bad decisions in the loss.

"I think that he could have played better and I hope that he will," Parcells said in his news conference Monday. "I am going to give him an opportunity to do that."

The next few weeks could be tricky for the Cowboys. Now that he has proved he is healthy and hasn't lost his ability to catch almost any pass thrown within a reasonable reach, Owens could be the dynamic piece of the Dallas offense that it has craved. At the very least, he should help create a deadly tandem with fellow wide receiver Terry Glenn, who had four catches for 80 yards on Sunday.

But is Bledsoe the right quarterback for them?

On Monday, it seemed Parcells faced more questions about backup quarterback Tony Romo than he did about Owens, which after a summer of Owens melodramas was perhaps something of a surprise. Rumors had been flying all preseason that the Cowboys were considering replacing the aging and increasingly immobile Bledsoe with Romo, who has never thrown a pass in his four-year NFL career.

The coach growled at a question about his attempts in training camp to work Romo with the starting players.

"I told you I was getting Romo ready to play so don't go making something out of this because Bledsoe is starting next Sunday," he said.