Bill Barnwell (formerly of Football Outsders, and now the resident NFL expert on Bill Simmons' Grantland.com effort) offers up a fairly rational assessment of the Cowboys-Lions game from this weekend, noting that neither of Romo's Pick-6s were of the type where a touchdown was automatic once the interception was made and that the Cowboys offensive players did him no favors in trying to stop the return, and that historically Pick-6s are fluky and happen to the best of QBs. He also points out that it was not Romo that was completely unable to get to the QB or cover Megatron and Pettigrew in the second half.

He then closes with this sobering assessment that is probably the fairest thing I've read in the past 24 hours:

The reality is that the Cowboys could easily be 4-0 or 0-4 with a few small breaks going in either direction for them in any of their four games. Romo has been inconsistent, a mix of big plays with some poor decision-making, injury limitations, and communication issues with his receivers. If you truly believe that Romo is holding back the Cowboys and that they lost on Sunday because he blew the game, you're kidding yourself. He's carrying them.

Yesterday was tough to take, but it's time to move on. There were a lot of positives to take from this game (one that I didn't give us much chance of winning in a fanpost last week). The season is not lost. If you would have told me before the season started that we would lose Austin for two weeks, that Romo would play 3 of the first 4 games with a combination of fractured ribs and punctured lung, that Newman would miss the first 2 games, that Scandrick would miss nearly every minute of the first 4 games, and that Jenkins would be banged up the entire first month, I would have been pretty depressed. But if you would have then told me that, in spite of all that, we'd be 2-2 going into the bye, I would have been ecstatic.

So let's try and keep a little perspective through the bye week, mmmkay?