The 49ers' Frank Gore ran for a franchise-record 212 yards in a 20-14 win over the Seahawks. US Presswire
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• Frank Gore (he plays for San Francisco) is two yards behind NFL rushing leader Larry Johnson. Shaun Alexander is 821 yards behind.

• They say if you can run and stop the run, you'll have the foundation of a great team. Well, Minnesota's got the stingiest run defense in football, and free-agent find Chester Taylor's on pace for a 1,380-yard rushing season. And the Vikings are in free-fall mode.

• There's an NFL game on TV on Thanksgiving night for the first time in our lifetimes. Some TVs, anyway. At least 30 million cable homes in the United States don't get the NFL Network because of a fight over how much it should cost the companies to carry it. What if they held an NFL game and nobody watched? I am not optimistic there will be a thaw in the negotiations this year, and I think the eight games on the NFL's channel will play to millions and millions of dark homes in the last six weeks of the season. I asked Pat Bowlen, the NFL's Broadcast Committee chairman, what fans who don't get the channel should do, fully expecting him to use the old, "Call your cable operator,'' line. Nope. He said: "Get a dish.''

• Tony Romo's the second-rated quarterback in football, half a point behind Peyton Manning.

• Romo is 20 of 21 in his last two second halves.

Which brings us to Romo, who is rapidly becoming the story of the year.

Tony Romo, Frank Gore, Marques Colston. They're the stories we love. Undrafted free-agent from Eastern Illinois, injury-ravaged risk pick from Miami, end-of-the-draft flyer from Hofstra. What are they doing dominating the league?

How does Romo have the gumption to right the ship, with an intimidating coach chewing his behind and getting thrust into a starting job with a splintering 3-3 team? This wasn't America's Team when Romo took the reins, it was National Enquirer's team.

Dallas is 3-1 in Romo's first four career starts, one field-goal-team screwup from being 4-0. Where do you get the training to funnel everything out, to complete 83 percent of your passes against a 9-0 team? What is there inside of you that allows you, in the last 20 minutes, to drive your team 68 yards for the tying touchdown and 80 yards for the winner, completing six of six throws for 86 yards? With Manning watching, waiting to match you, drive for drive?

Without all the nerdy stat detail, I asked Romo that Sunday night. "I try not to make it too big,'' he said over the phone from some celebratory venue. "The way we're prepared every week, I feel like we're going to win every game. I learned this a while ago: Think back to the time you did this before. You've done this before. Just do it again.''

"But,'' I said, "before you did this in front of 8,000. Now you're doing it in front of 80,000, with the world watching.''

"Hey, if we got 8,000 to come to our games, we were lucky at Eastern Illinois. I'm just saying you've been through these situations before, having to bring a team back when you're down. Don't make it any harder than it is. Just go out and play like you've always played.''

Except the numbers say he's playing better. In college, where he won the Division I-AA player of the year award as a senior, he completed an impressive 62.1 percent of his throws. As a pro, he's at 68.2 percent. One thing about Romo we're just starting to know: He's Cool Hand Luke.

Last week, when Bill Parcells got mad at him for a fake-spike pass attempt near the end of the first half at Arizona, Romo digested the reaction and said later: "I wonder how he feels about the touchdown pass I audibled to.'' Parcells might finally have a latter-day Phil Simms, who could take it all and learn from everything, but had the ability to let most of the verbal abuse roll off his shoulders.

"Bill's going to get on me, but I know why,'' Romo said. "He's just trying to make me tougher, make me better. Eighty percent of the things he's on me for, I let them go in one ear and out the other. The rest I take and learn from. On that spike, I saw what I thought was a lazy guy on defense, and I wanted to take advantage. We all weren't on the same page on our side of the ball, but we'll work on it.''

"You remember when Dan Marino did the fake-spike 10, 11 years ago?'' I wondered.

"I do,'' he said. "Against the Jets, I think. Aaron Glenn was the corner, wasn't he?''

"I think so,'' I said.

"You remember the receiver?''

"Well, it was Miami ... uh, no.''

"Mark Ingram.''

"Yeah. Well, I knew it was too late for the Marks brothers. I had no idea who the receiver was, just loved the play.''

Now it looks like Dallas is one of those hot teams down the stretch, with a hot hand at quarterback. Their last six (Tampa Bay, at Giants, New Orleans, at Atlanta, Philly, Detroit) have some landmines, but four are at home, and the Eagles and Lions could have their cars packed for the offseason by the time they come to Texas Stadium.

"If we could just get in the tournament,'' Romo said, "we're going to be a tough team for people to play.'' The Cowboys are already.