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Not just yet ... Parcells still isn't ready to name Cowboys' starting QBPosted: Saturday August 16, 2003 4:33 PMIRVING, Texas (AP) -- Bill Parcells had planned to determine who would be the Dallas Cowboys' starting quarterback after two preseason games. The second game is over, so will it be Chad Hutchinson or Quincy Carter? Or somebody else? "I don't know yet. We'll try something different next week," Parcells said. "I'm not ready to make a decision. We'll look at the film and evaluate the performances." The quirk in that is Hutchinson didn't even play in Friday night's 34-6 win over the Houston Texans. He was on the sideline as Carter played the first half before free-agent rookie Tony Romo, the likely No. 3 quarterback, and Clint Stoerner finished the game. Carter hit 10-of-17 passes for 141 yards, including all six passes to six different receivers for 90 yards on a 96-yard touchdown drive. On the first play after Houston fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Carter threw a 30-yard TD pass to Antonio Bryant. "It's important for any quarterback to play well," Carter said. "I just tried to complete passes and move my team. I will let the coaches make the decisions." And let everybody else try to interpret what Parcells is doing. Parcells stuck with his plan for Hutchinson and Carter to both start a preseason game. It was Carter's turn against the Texans, so it was no surprise when the coach confirmed him Thursday as the starter. The twist came in the next sentence when Parcells said Romo, and not Hutchinson, would be the second quarterback against the Texans. "The reason these guys played is because I wanted to look at these guys," Parcells said after the game, again not elaborating. Parcells has said nothing should be read into Hutchinson staying on the bench. Hutchinson started the 13-0 loss at Arizona in the preseason opener, but owner Jerry Jones said Hutchinson was hurt by a couple of dropped balls and graded higher than Carter in that game. The owner indicated Friday's game was to find out about Carter. "He got the opportunity to be exposed and didn't mess it up," Jones said. "He did the kind of things that make you consider him." After getting a day off Saturday, practice resumes Sunday in San Antonio. The Cowboys break camp from there on Tuesday. Parcells had hoped to leave San Antonio with the starting quarterback determined. That would give the starter the rest of the preseason, with games the next two Thursday nights, to prepare for the Sept. 7 opener against Atlanta. Instead, the Cowboys head into their fourth week of training camp with plenty of questions.
Only Parcells knows the answers. And he's not ready to give them. Extra points: After losing a yard on four carries in the preseason opener, Troy Hambrick ran for 11 and 10 yards on his first two carries Friday. Emmitt Smith's apparent successor finished with 38 yards on eight carries, including a 1-yard TD run to cap the long drive and a key block on Carter's TD pass. "I know what it takes to get the job done and I would like to take my hat off to my teammates for also doing a good job," Hambrick said. "I wanted to prove my team that we can run the ball well and the run will work." ... Randal Williams had a 60-yard TD catch from Romo. "It was a go route and I used my speed to go up and get the ball. I feel like that's my ball and I have to go and get it," he said. ... Romo was 4-of-6 for 74 yards after he lost a fumble while scrambling on his first play and bobbled his second snap. "Before the game, I was not as comfortable as I wanted to be. I was not nearly as focused as I needed to be," said Romo, who played at NCAA Division I-AA Eastern Illinois. ... Dallas hadn't scored more than 30 points in a game since a 32-13 win over Washington on Dec. 10, 2000.
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