Jason Witten and Tony Romo are longtime teammates, close friends and road roommates.
Once upon a time, Terrell Owens famously accused "his quarterback" of only having eyes for the All-Pro tight end in Dallas' aerial attack.
Of Witten's 1,064 career receptions, 649 of them have come via Romo's right arm -- for 7,287 yards.
If any of the Cowboys' players are harboring hard feelings about the veteran quarterback's banishment to the bench, Witten would seem to be the obvious candidate, right?
Wrong.
Dallas is the first team in the Super Bowl era to win eight of its first nine games while starting a rookie quarterback. With Dak Prescott and emerging MVP favoriteEzekiel Elliott leading the way, Witten is thoroughly enjoying the Cowboys' first eight-game winning streak since the dyansty days of the early 1990s.
"It's re-energized me," Witten told The MMQB's Peter King after Sunday's victory over the Steelers. "They're good football players, obviously, but what makes them different is how much they love football. They are special.
"My goodness, we have all these big wins, and they come back to work Monday to work, and they just work on football, because they know how hard it is to stay on top in this game. They embrace situations like today, on the road, against a tough team."
The offense's streak of seven consecutive games breaking the 400-yard barrier is the longest in franchise history -- and one of six such stretches by any offense since the 1970 merger, per NFL Research.
As Prescott and Elliott adjust to the pro game and master the nuances of their craft, there's reason to believe the best is yet to come.
Sunday's victory over the Steelers was the Cowboys' first in which Prescott passed for at least 300 yards, Elliott ran for more than 100 yards and Dez Bryant went over 100 receiving yards.
After the game, owner Jerry Jones astutely noted that Prescott is still "evolving" while playing at an "inordinate" level for an inexperienced quarterback.
Romo and Witten enjoyed the spotlight as the superstar tandem driving the league's glamour team for the past decade. Now the Cowboys' fortunes rise and fall with the dynamic rookie duo of Prescott and Elliott -- sidekicks for the next generation in Dallas.
