Dallas Cowboys: Why Underdog is the Perfect Role for Romo and the Cowboys

Since the emergence of Tony Romo as the Dallas Cowboys franchise quarterback, his team as well as himself were anointed one of the top teams in the National Football Conference up until last year and into the early part of 2011.

When the Cowboys went 13-3 in Wade Phillps' first year as head coach, the media dubbed Dallas as one of the Super Bowl favorites, only to see the future champion New York Giants defeat them in the first round of the playoffs.

When Dallas beat the Philadelphia Eagles for the third time in a single season in the opening round of the 2009 playoffs, they were hyped to be heading to the big game once more, only to see Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings blow them out in the MetroDome.

The point of bringing up all these horrible memories for the 'Boys faithful is that the team hasn't been able to perform to expectations when they are one of the media's favorite NFL teams in any given season. This group of Cowboys likes being under the radar much like they did in 2006, when Romo first took over for then starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe.

Heading into the 2011 season, the Philadelphia Eagles took all the preseason attention off Dallas, and now with the resurrection of teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions as well as the undefeated Green Bay Packers, America's Team is still flying under the radar even with the four game winning streak.

This year's edition of the Cowboys have been able to excel in the face of injuries to key players like Terence Newman, Mike Jenkins, Sean Lee and most famously Miles Austin. The team has got to 7-4 without ever being at full strength talent-wise, which they hope to be by next week for their NFC East showdown with the Giants.

Dallas has accomplished plenty through the first 11 games this year, and with the media's attention diverted to Green Bay, the implosion of Philadelphia and other surprise teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cowboys are right where they like to be: under the radar.

Analysts are already planning for a Green Bay vs New Orleans Saints NFC title game, which is music to the Cowboys' ears because that means the spotlight is finally off themselves for once heading into the latter part of 2011, and they can simply focus on winning football games and not living up to hyped up expectations.