Almost every time the Dallas Cowboys snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the scapegoat is quarterback Tony Romo, whether he deserves to be or not.

It’s not quite the halfway point of the NFL season, and what happens from here will be as unpredictable as a drunken night on Bourbon Street. Still, it’s safe to say quarterback Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints are wholly relevant again.

Every once in a while, a football game lives up to extreme hype and maybe even exceeds it. Lately, most of those games involve Peyton Manning.

While all eyes are focused on his big brother this weekend, Eli Manning is staring down a big game of his own. The New York Giants are winless, and no team wants to wear that black eye into late October.

What’s most important to bettors is how to cash tickets this week and, in the big picture, how to handicap explosive offensive teams such as Oregon. The Ducks scare the heck out of bookmakers, who are not setting lines high enough, and sharp bettors, who usually prefer to buy underdogs when the price appears inflated.

A game up for grabs came down to an unlikely play. A perfectly thrown ball into the back of the end zone, a great catch and a comeback win. Drew Brees had pulled a rabbit out of his helmet and beat the New England Patriots again.

It has been bad, it can get worse, and it could become humiliating. How low can Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers go?

The Lakers hosted a preseason game Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden, but there was no Bryant and a definite lack of buzz. Imagine the E Street Band showing up to play without Bruce Springsteen.

Tony Romo, after the finest performance of his career, was destined to lose. “You were almost waiting for it to happen,” South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro said, “and it happened.”

In the absence of coach Sean Payton, the New Orleans Saints were stumbling down the stairs in the dark, with last season turning into a lost cause before it even got started.

The Denver Broncos’ popularity with the betting public is so over the top, South Point sports book executive Jimmy Vaccaro was compelled to tweet, something he rarely does. “The magic carpet ride continues. Denver is now America’s team,” he posted Wednesday @JimmyVaccaro.

A stand-up comic searching for new material might want to look to the Houston Texans and their clumsy quarterback, Matt Schaub, whose latest football-throwing folly is worth a lot of laughs. “That was a joke,” said Nick Bogdanovich, William Hill sports book director. “That’s unbelievable.”

Weekly news conferences with Bill Belichick wind up being hilarious simply because he is humorless. It’s all mumbling and terse answers from a football genius wearing a frown and a hooded sweatshirt.

It was a Sunday of mourning at the sports books, and everyone who bet on Eli Manning and the New York Giants was in a foul mood before noon.

On second thought, Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III probably wishes he had not rushed his comeback. First, his right knee needed rehabilitation, and now it’s his image.

The Jacksonville Jaguars opened as 20-point road underdogs to the Seattle Seahawks, and the number has dipped to 19½. The point spread is the oddsmakers’ equalizer. In this case, the number is a monster, and it presents a dilemma for a handicapper.

In a mismatch, Peyton Manning led the Denver Broncos to a win by fourth-quarter knockout. It’s never safe to leave it to the judges, because one might come up with a mysterious score.

Not only does Chip Kelly speak as quickly as an auctioneer, the Philadelphia Eagles coach instructs his offense to play at high speed. Kelly probably eats breakfast and reads the newspaper in less than a minute.

Too frequently, when Floyd Mayweather Jr. takes center stage, fans overpay to see something resembling a dance competition and a pillow fight.

When it goes bad, it tends to get worse before it gets better. Eli Manning’s first pass was a screen thrown directly to a defensive lineman and intercepted. That’s how the season started for the New York Giants.

With his passing accuracy and ability to make plays out of the pocket, a strong argument can be made for Aaron Rodgers as the NFL’s most complete quarterback. At 29, he’s going to be at or near the top for a while.