Dallas Cowboys: Who Is to Blame for Inexcusably Sloppy Play?

At one point, late in the game Monday night with Dallas deep inside Redskins territory, sniffing the goal line in fact, Tony Romo looked like a frustrated rush-hour cop trying to direct unruly traffic.

Backup wide receiver Laurent Robinson was clueless. In fact, he would have needed to be better to get a promotion to clueless.

Kevin Ogletree, another backup receiver, was as bad.

If that's not enough, Cowboy center Phil Costa forgot how to make a shotgun snap. He had four bad ones, which is four too many. The Redskin defenders were barking at him all night, and surely that drove him batty as well.

"It's a credit to our team and credit to Jason Garrett that we got our act together and won the game," is how Dallas owner Jerry Jones put it afterward.

Translation:

"We were damn lucky to win this ballgame with all the chaos out there."

Jones did get it right when he said "act," as at times, the Dallas offense looked like a throwback to the Keystone Kops era.

With Miles Austin out and Dez Bryant working through an ailing thigh, the rest of the receivers looked like they own playbooks with the pages torn out.

At best, it simply didn't look like the backups, especially Robinson and Ogletree, were ready to play.

So whose fault is that?

Sure Garrett's supposed to be an offensive genius, but a lot of luster has come off that title in recent years.

Down in Tampa, Buccaneer coach Raheem Morris demands readiness from backups, he simply calls it: "Next man up."

The Next Men Up in Dallas weren't up to speed on situational football, especially red zone situational football. Let's face it, Romo has enough to worry about without having to show every receiver where to line up.

Romo has enough to worry about without Costa whipping the football back there without a clue as to where it was going.

Bad snaps, receivers who don't know where they are, receivers who don't know what route to run. Add it all up and you had the perfect storm, the failure to launch that put the game on the foot of kicker Dan Bailey, who surely did his part.

It all makes you wonder exactly what Garrett had the offense working on all week. After all, they had an extra day to prepare for what turned out to be a total mess on the offensive side of the ball.

"Pure will," was tight end Jason Witten's description of the victorious outcome for his Cowboys.

Witten was one of the few guys who knows what's what, and the Redskins knew that as well, making things even tougher on Romo.

What was revealed Monday night there, in the House that Jones' Ego Built, is that Dallas has very little quality depth at wide receiver.

You can also add to that that Robinson and Ogletree probably don't know where their playbooks are hidden.

Romo missed some practice last week, but it looked at times like he and the rest of the offense didn't practice at all.

This week, the Cowboys have a short week, and they'll take on those surprisingly superb Detroit Lions.

Garrett may want to be sure that the fellas study the playbooks. Garrett may want to have a word or two with Costa. Because if you think the Redskins' defense was tough, wait until you get a load of Ndamukong Suh.

If you think Rex Grossman was skillful, Matt Stafford will bring an entirely upgraded skill set.

Excuses won't cut it against Detroit.

And neither will field goals.