The Cowboys' only hope of coming anywhere near the playoffs failed them in an embarrassing 34-18 loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday night. Like it or not, quarterback Tony Romo offers this team its best/only chance to survive a stretch of four out of five games on the road.
It sounds like an odd thing to say after Romo threw five interceptions in Monday's loss and once again served as a national punchline. Noted Cowboys hater Joe Theismann dusted off the mothballs from his failed broadcasting career Tuesday to take the sharp stick to Romo during a Toronto radio appearance.
"What hit me is Tony isn't really that good," Theismann told 590 Sportsnet radio. "Just because he wears a star on his helmet, we all think that people who are Dallas Cowboys, 'Ooh, they're wonderful,' and 'Ooh, they're terrific. Ooh, they're the next Roger Staubach' or whatever the heck they want to say. They're full of bologna. Tony makes bad decisions with the football. And I'll tell you something else: He missed two wide open touchdowns last night that nobody's talking about. Forget about the five interceptions. He misses Miles Austin and Dez Bryant with easy touchdown throws, and he airmails the ball over their heads."
Theismann's wrong to suggest that Romo hasn't received harsh criticism for his poor decision-making. That said, it should absolutely be open season on Romo for being careless with the football. In the Bears game, the first interception was Dez Bryant's fault for not adjusting the route. And the second INT appeared to pop off wide receiver Kevin Ogletree's chest.
After that, Romo's on his own. He certainly felt the pressure from behind from Bears defensive tackle Henry Melton before foolishly attempting to squeeze off his trademark shovel pass. The pass/fumble was picked off by Bears linebacker Lance Briggs and returned for a touchdown. The score put the Bears up 24-7 and ended any hopes of a Cowboys comeback. It's fairly obvious that Romo believes more than ever that he has to do everything on his own.
And we've been here before. You can even trace it back to his first season as a starter in 2006. The Cowboys lost a game at home to a bad Detroit team to end the season, and it was obvious that Romo had lost faith in his offensive line and wide receivers. At the time, Bill Parcells was beside himself because it appeared his quarterback had forgotten the fundamentals and was trying to play a form of hero ball. That was Romo at age 26. You would think most of that would be out of his system by now, but he's still capable of those back-breaking mistakes. And his vows to change are falling on deaf ears this week.
That a performance like Monday's could still occur is an indictment of Romo and Jason Garrett. At times, Garrett has seemed more interested in being Romo's friend than his coach. As Parcells was leaving Valley Ranch, he told anyone who would listen that Romo needed to be "coached all the way through games." He felt like a coach needed to be in Romo's ear at all times because the quarterback could become too easily distracted.
Now, Garrett's having to answer the same question that's been asked since that '06 season: How do you balance Romo's uncanny ability to create plays with his tendency to do too much? Garrett has punted on this question too many times. At his news conference Tuesday, the head coach was only offering alibis for his quarterback.
"Well, I think if you look at the first three turnovers in the ball game, they're a team thing," Garrett said. "It's a collective thing. When you look at the last two, you say Tony was trying to do too much in that given situation.
"Now, we're down three scores and there's less than 10 minutes to go in the ball game, and he's a competitor. He wants to win. He doesn't want to look good losing, you know. Some guys do that."
And most of those guys don't end up having sustained playoff success. Unfortunately for Romo, the Cowboys don't have reinforcements on the way. Center Phil Costa was able to participate in practice Wednesday, but he doesn't belong in the "godsend" category.
Romo will continue to take the field with wide receivers who aren't always in the right place and offensive linemen who haven't created any holes for running back DeMarco Murray.
The Cowboys don't want Romo to feel like he has to do it all himself. But to have any chance of surviving this upcoming stretch, he needs to be great. That seems like a tall order with the Cowboy preparing to travel to Baltimore after the bye week. Especially when you consider that Romo's thrown eight interceptions in the first four games after having only 10 all of last season.
But if you're looking for silver linings, none of the Cowboys' NFC East rivals are going to run away with the division. The Eagles are the most suspect 3-1 team in the league. And they have to travel to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Washington (2-2) is hosting the undefeated Falcons, and the Giants (2-2) are showing signs of a Super Bowl hangover. If the Cowboys can win two of the next five games, they'll still have a fighting chance. If they somehow win three of five, they'll be in excellent shape.
All hope is not lost. No, seriously.
