Tony Romo: "The Game Turns Obviously On Turnovers"

It's deja vu all over again. Tony Romo's two turnovers against the Jets had cost the Cowboys a late lead in the first week of 2011. Two great comeback wins later, Romo had turned a corner, or so we thought. This week, an even larger lead was squandered on three Tony Romo turnovers. We've hitched our wagon to Romo, we'll go where he takes us. Right now, where that will be is highly uncertain. For the second time in this short season, Romo is taking responsibility for a loss. And rightly so. There's no excuse for his second half performance.

"The game turns obviously on turnovers," Romo said. "It is the most important stat there is in a game. That’s why you protect the ball. It’s my No. 1 job and I didn’t do a well enough job of that today. For a lot of the game we did. I’m not taking anything away from them. They made a play when they had to. I shouldn’t have allowed them to have that chance."

It's inexplicable how Romo can turn a masterpiece of a game into a debacle. How can anyone look so good, then totally lose the plot in a matter of minutes? Again, it's the battle of being competitive vs. taking caution. Take his last turnover of the game for example.

Romo on the last interception:

"My feet I didn’t feel quite as set as they need to be to push it down as far as it needed to be," Romo said. "I want to watch the tape to see what it was. It’s disappointing because he was coming open past all the linebackers and there’s no safety help to that side. I wish I could have that throw back and just throw it further."

Actually, you should just want that throw back, period. Forget throwing it further. Take the checkdown, take the throw out of bounds, scramble out of the way, heck, take the sack. Do anything except float a ball over the middle from the back of your feet with no room to follow through. No matter how enticing the target is. You still had the lead. Yellow caution lights should have been going off in Romo's head.

I'd like to believe in Tony Romo, but he's making that very hard. We're still 2-2, and it's a long season, and we're going to get healthy again. The defense looks ready to compete, even the offensive line looked improved. If Romo could just learn that caution is sometimes the better route, the Cowboys might go somewhere in 2011.