Tony Romo: Ready for Prime Time? Definitely Not Yet

To quote Yogi Berra, this is "déjà vu all over again."

The Cowboys blow a lead in the fourth quarter. Tony Romo makes a bonehead play. The team basically falls apart, aided in part by their coaching. Is this 2010 or 2011?

Romo played pretty well until about nine minutes remained in the game against the Jets (a 27-24 loss, although you probably already knew that) when Romo blew a gasket. First, he and Miles Austin have no idea what's happening on a pass play that has Romo throwing the ball while Austin isn't looking for it.

I especially liked the what happened after the play was over. Does Romo get in Austin's face and try to find what the basic malfunction was? No, he's smiling about it with a sort of "Aw, shucks" attitude. Could you imagine Peyton Manning or Tom Brady smiling after a play like that? It seemed like he was thinking, "Gee, we'll just have to do it on the next play." 

Only the next play turns into a disaster because with Dez Bryant covered, Romo decides to scramble up the middle where he gets stripped of the ball and the Jets take over on about their own 5-yard line. Instead of just throwing the ball away when his receiver was covered and then kicking the field goal for a 10-point lead with nine minutes left, he decides to run.

I'm sorry, but that's a bonehead play. And to top it all off, the Jets defender just reached in and grabbed the ball away from him. Romo didn't even get hit that hard. That shows both a lack of focus and concentration on the same play.

It's just the same old Romo. He throws for a lot of yardage and when everything's on the line he has a major mental lapse and there goes the game. Down the drain. Now, it wasn't all Romo's fault in this game, but those two particular plays illustrate exactly what is still wrong with him.

There's no sense of urgency to win and no killer instinct. You don't get to a Super Bowl playing like that. He still hasn't grown up, and you know what? At 31, he's done all the growing up he's going to do. What we see is what we're going to keep getting.

As I said, it wasn't all Romo's fault, although that horrible interception he threw to Darrelle Revis certainly put the nail in the coffin with a few minutes left. However, why was Bryant on the field in the first place? Why wasn't Kevin Ogletree out there? Bryant couldn't even run by that point in the game, having injured himself sometime earlier. What was head coach Jason Garrett thinking?

Despite the fact Bryant shouldn't have been on the field, Romo simply threw the ball right to Revis. There was no way he should have even considered throwing that ball as there was nothing there but Revis, another Jet and Bryant trying to make a move and failing miserably.

The blocked punt was a horrendous play and just made you feel like the Cowboys were almost trying to lose. The Jets defender ran right up the middle untouched. I can't remember what the center did on that play, but whatever it was, it was wrong.

While it was a team effort that caused the loss, Romo definitely led the way. And if he keeps playing like this, the Cowboys can forget about a Super Bowl for the foreseeable future. At this point there isn't much cause for hope in Dallas.