Tony Romo Struggles in Cowboys' Big Game...Again

In a game where the New York Giants were thoroughly dominated by the Dallas Cowboys, it was once again QB Tony Romo’s inability to avoid making mistakes that cost Dallas a win in the opening game at the magnificent Cowboys Stadium.

A record 105,121 fans got to be first-hand witnesses to Romo’s three interception performance, which allowed a New York team, that was far from spectacular, to hang around just long enough to be able to strike late with a game-winning Lawrence Tynes' field goal, after a great two-minute drill was engineered by Eli Manning and Co.

Obviously, this leads us to ask the question once again about Romo’s ability to win when it counts most. He’s in a tough place to be a good-but-not-great QB, especially when you consider the Cowboys’ storied history and the fact that two of the best QB's of all-time in Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman played there before him.

Excluding the miscues, as hard as that might be to do, Romo’s numbers are usually respectable, but last night he was a miserable 13-of-29 for 127 yards, and only found the end zone once, on a one-yard TD pass to Jason Witten.

You can’t really blame Dallas’ rushing attack of Marion Barber and Felix Jones, who combined to tear up the G-Men’s vaunted defense to the tune of 220 yards with two TD's on only 25 carries.

Give a little bit of credit to the Giants, though. Eli Manning had another solid game against the 'Boys, as we’ve seen so often these last few years, going 25-of-38 for 330 yards and two TD's, which made up for the lack of effective running by Brandon Jacobs, who was held to just 58 yards.

Also, so much for the Giants missing Plaxico Burress, as both Steve Smith and the very surprising Mario Manningham each had 10 catches in the game, combining for 284 yards and two TD's. The Giants scored 24 of their 33 points coming off of Dallas turnovers in the game.

The other story to come out of this game was Justin Tuck’s apparent shoulder injury, suffered in the 3rd quarter, that forced him out for the remainder of the game. Tuck went for X-Rays that came back negative, but is still scheduled for an MRI this morning.