ARLINGTON, Texas – Silent counts are supposed to be saved for road games.

Quarterback Tony Romo said he was surprised by the number of Texans fans, and the crowd noise was significant enough during Sunday's win against the Texans at AT&T Stadium that the offense had to go to a silent count.

"That was the first time I had to do that throughout the game at home," Romo said. "We need to do a better job as a team and a fan base to make sure that we understand how big a difference it is playing at home. If we're able to have that, we're tough to beat at home when we have that home field advantage."

Romo said if he needs to buy more tickets to home games, it would be worth it. He said going forward he's going to start "to push that issue a little bit" to get a better home field advantage.

He wasn't the only Cowboys player to notice the opposing fans' presence and crowd noise. Jason Witten was another player to note that after the game, but he didn't have a quick solution.

"I don't know," Witten said. "We knew it was going to be a lot of Houston fans there, and we were going on the silent count which was a good adjustment by us. Hopefully, it won't be so loud in the future."

Romo said it felt like playing on the road through much of the game. He guessed the crowd was about 50 percent Cowboys fans, but he could hear the visitors loud and clear.

"That was every bit as loud as going to St. Louis or Tennessee," Romo said. "We need to understand that we lose a lot of our ability to do some things at the line of scrimmage that gives us big advantages, from my perspective. We have got to make sure going forward that we have a lot more percentage of Cowboy fans." [embedded_ad]

Romo added that when the stadium has filled up with Cowboys fans, it's made a tremendous difference.

"When we're all here, it has been rocking," Romo said. "The place has been a tough place for other teams to come in and win when it gets going. I think the fans have been awesome this year, but I think we need to tighten up selling our tickets a little bit."

Running back DeMarco Murray tries not to focus on the need for a silent count or the lack of a home field advantage. Rather than expecting a dramatic difference, he's learned to live with the current situation and play through it.  

"We've just got to do a better job," Murray said. "We're a team here and outside the fans are with us. We definitely need their help. It'll be like that, so we're not worried about it. We'll continue to have our fans, they'll have their fans. We've just got to continue to play."