Carlos Rogers: “Let Romo be a pocket quarterback, and he can be a hall of fame quarterback.”

SANTA CLARA – The Niners top cornerback, Carlos Rogers, broke down Dallas’ passing attack fore reporters today at his locker. He also had big praise for Tony Romo.

Here are selected quotes from Rogers.

Q: Are you taking a more prominent role in the team meetings because you’re so familiar than Dallas’ offense?

ROGERS: Yeah, I’ve talked with some of the guys. We’re just now getting started. I’m kind of seeing what coach Vic and Coach D (Donatell) and all the defensive coaches have got for us. We’re going to go out there early and watch some stuff – our old games and what I remember them doing. I told my girl to FedEx my notebook. She’s back in Atlanta, but I still keep my old notebooks. Hopefully it will get here the next day so I can get back on the stuff they were doing when I was back in Washington.

Q: Do you keep notes during the game. Do you have a whole filing system?

ROGERS: Yeah. Each game that we play. The stuff I know about receivers. I kind of keep them throughout the year.

Q: When do you sit down and write?

ROGERS: During the week.

Q: How is the Cowboys’ offense dangerous?

ROGERS: Look at their skill players. That’s from Romo, from their running backs, to their tight end, to their two wide receivers, or how ever many wide receivers they’ve got. They’re very dangerous. I was telling some of the guys that if you sit back there and let Romo be a pocket quarterback, he can be a hall of fame quarterback. You’re going to have to put pressure on him. You have to give him different looks. Our line is going to have to do what they did last week and get after those guys and mix it up, because if not, Romo could pick us apart. You saw what they did last week. Doing good against New York until they mixed up some things and they made a play when they needed it. It’s going to be all four quarters. It’s not going to be like the kind of game that gets out of hand like with the Seahawks.

Q: Is blitzing him dangerous in that he can sidestep it and make a big play?

ROGERS: I don’t think so. You’re going to have to mix it up. You’ve got to blitz. You’ve got to know when to show blitz and step back and play coverage. You can’t sit back there and say you’re going to blitz them because they’ve got hot routes, they’ve got things they can do off the blitz. On outside, we’ve got a big challenge with those receivers – big, fast, tall guys, skilled guys. At times we’re going to have to man up and play man coverage. At times we’ve got to sit back there and look like man and play zone.

Q: Will one of those wide outs play on your side more often than the other?

ROGERS: No, they do a good job of mixing it up. I’ll get both of them. I’ll get Austin, I’ll get the other dude….

Q: Dez Bryant?

ROGERS: Yeah, Dez. Either way. Austin will be more in the slot when they go three receivers. I’ll be matched up on him more in the slot.

Q: How do you like playing the slot?

ROGERS: I like it. I played there last year for the first time and I liked it. A lot of opportunities. Got to be smart. Sometimes you’ll be a linebacker. Sometimes you’ll be a safety. Sometimes you’re blitzing, so it’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of chances to make plays.

Q: It didn’t seem like you got a lot of opportunities in week 1. Is that a compliment to you?

ROGERS: I don’t know how you want to look at it. Either they weren’t open or it was a different read from the quarterback. I just take pride in covering my man.

Q: On that play in the end zone, did you play the guys hands?

ROGERS: Yeah, that time I wasn’t in a position to look back. He was kind of on the outside of me because I had inside leverage. He just faded away. So at that time I had to just play the pocket, and hope to get the ball out, and that’s what I did.

Q: Why can’t you look back.

ROGERS: The pass can be low, it can be high, I don’t know. When I look back it’s a glare to me. If you don’t look back in time you might not have a chance to make that  play.

Q: Did you play that perfectly?

ROGERS: I would say that’s pretty perfect (laughs).

Q: Did playing Mike Williams give you a good practice run for the Cowboys with their two big receivers?

ROGERS: Mike isn’t as fast as those guys. Those guys are fast, they’re physical. They run a totally different offense, and when they’ve got a quarterback like Romo versus Tarvaris, it’s totally different. A quarterback can make a receiver look real good. Like Austin, you didn’t hear about him his first two years. Romo started getting hot, and boom, he just expanded and just blew up.