Without having to deploy any of his rhetorical sub packages -- such as mentioning that the man's girlfriend is on the cover of the December Cosmo -- Mike Tomlin still had a bunch of admiring things to say yesterday about Tony Romo.

For additional information, however, you may wish to visit your nearest newsstand or check-out aisle.

Meanwhile, the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys is presumed to be spending more time with video of Troy Polamalu this week than with the glossy photo spread of snuggle buddy Jessica Simpson, but again, that would be strictly a presumption.

While Jessica prepares her tour as the opening act for Rascal Flatts, Romo not only remains the headliner for a franchise that hasn't won a playoff game since 1996, but finds himself atop the quarterback world in passer rating, ramping up to what has evolved into the ultimate test for anyone at his position in the fall of 2008 -- namely this Pittsburgh Steelers defense.

"A great quarterback," Tomlin said before spewing Romo's stats all over the media room on the South Side. "He's got escapability" -- or was it escape ability? -- "and he can make all the throws on the field."

And that, of course, is Romo's problem this week: the better the passer who presents himself to Dick LeBeau's defense, the worse he has been treated.

Approximately.

San Diego's Philip Rivers came to town Nov. 16 with the No. 2 passer rating in the NFL --106.4 -- got sacked twice, threw for no touchdowns, and got beat.

Rivers' passer rating against the Steelers: 43.6.

Washington's Jason Campbell came into the "Monday Night" game Nov. 3 with the league's No. 5 rating, 100.5, and was promptly beaten and robbed. Sacked seven times. Intercepted twice.

Campbell's passer rating against the Steelers: 49.2.

New England's Matt Cassel arrived at last Sunday's game with the No. 10 passer ranking, 85.5, and also was promptly beaten and robbed. Sacked five times. Intercepted twice.

Cassel's passer rating against the Steelers: 39.4, his worst of the season.

Even the New York Giants' Eli Manning, who was neither beaten nor robbed, left Pittsburgh Oct. 26 with a passer rating not equal to the one he brought to town.

"We generally prepare the same way," Tomlin said, meaning without regard to the varying levels of accomplishment of the passers at hand. "We acknowledge that when we're facing Tony Romo that he is as formidable a quarterback as we've seen or that we will see, but we're more focused on what we need to do collectively from a rush and cover standpoint, both underneath and deep, and that will always be our philosophy."

The Steelers simply would rather create problems than take unusual precautions, and the problems they've been delivering to NFL offenses this season are transforming before our eyes. What were once problems are becoming legends. The New England Patriots, for example, who didn't have two turnovers in any game this season, had five on five possessions in the second half Sunday in the face of a rampage led by James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, who are now suddenly the greatest single-season sack tandem in Steelers history. At the same time, Polamalu was lifting his league-leading interception total to six on his way to a fifth consecutive Pro Bowl. No wonder Steelers opponents are 5-for-their-last-28 on third down.

For all of that, the Steelers wander this week into the darkest part of the quarterback woods. They've been beaten by both Mannings, and they got a reprieve from the wrath of Tom Brady, but in Romo they encounter perhaps the highest potential for a shredding.

It's not so much that Romo has six 300-yard games this year (which matches Ben Roethlisberger's career total), or that he has thrown three touchdowns in a game six times in nine starts (his pinkie hurt in the other three); it's that Romo likely sees the field better on the move than any passer in the league.

"His abilities in that regard are starting to characterize a lot of quarterbacks in the league," Tomlin said. "It seems every week we see someone with escapability" -- or was it escape ability? -- "Cassel, Campbell, [Jacksonville's David] Garrard, a lot of people who are capable of extending plays. Luckily, we have a guy capable of doing the same thing.

"What's maybe different this week is that [Romo's] vision and his ability to see the field [are] not reduced in any way as he moves."

Romo is 26-9 as a starter in the NFL, not what you might have expected from an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois, unless, of course, you have either an intimate knowledge of the Ohio Valley Conference or a subscription to Cosmo. They're equally valuable.