ARLINGTON, Texas — The biggest Tony Romo apologist this side of Jerry Jones was in full excuse mode yesterday after the Cowboys’ 29-24 loss to the Giants.
Dallas coach Jason Garrett, who seemingly hasn’t seen a Romo mistake that he can’t explain away, was at it again after the Cowboys’ gaffe-prone quarterback threw four interceptions that all but handed Big Blue its fourth win in four tries at Cowboys Stadium.
“Quarterback is a hard position in this league,” Garrett said after what appeared to be a 37-yard touchdown pass from Romo to Dez Bryant with 10 seconds left that would have redeemed Romo was overturned on replay. “He is an outstanding football player.”
But Romo himself said he merited the boos that rained down on him from the crowd of 94,067 after he tossed three interceptions in the game’s first 17 minutes — a miserable run capped by a typically ill-advised throw that was returned 28 yards for a score by Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.
“I would have booed us, too,” Romo said. “We deserved it at that time. We did not start the game the way we wanted to.”
Jones agreed, pointing the finger of blame for the Pierre-Paul interception at his QB and saying: “You couldn’t draw it up to start a game any worse than we started. It’s very disappointing.”
But as terrible as Romo was early, he morphed into a different player almost as soon as Pierre-Paul celebrated his score by dunking emphatically over the goalpost to put the Giants in front 23-0 with 13:05 left in the second quarter.
With Romo leading the way through the air and with his feet (he scored on a 1-yard bootleg early in the third quarter), the Cowboys scored 24 of the game’s next 31 points and put themselves in position for the biggest comeback victory in franchise history.
Romo finished with gaudy numbers, completing 36 of 62 passes for 437 yards despite being sacked four times, but the four interceptions outweighed his one TD pass and the scoring run.
Romo’s last interception was a killer as the Cowboys drove to the Giants’ 19 with 1:14 left but his off-balance throw on a fourth-down rollout ended up in the hands of Big Blue safety Stevie Brown.
Romo still had a final chance to rewrite his ugly day but the apparent scoring pass to Bryant was overruled because Bryant’s hand came down out of bounds. And even then, much to the dismay of Tom Coughlin, Romo had three more chances in the final 10 seconds to find the end zone.
Romo couldn’t do it, dropping the Cowboys to 3-4 and 2 1/2 games behind the Giants in the NFC East race, but he still found the warm embrace of his defenders afterward.
“Tony is a great football player,” said tight end Jason Witten, who had a franchise-record 18 catches for 167 yards. “Until we can compete for a championship, the critics are going to come. But Tony does make a lot of plays, and I think he’s a great quarterback.”