Don't put Romo in Canton just yet.

Just when you thought it was safe to start pollishing the Tony Romo bust bound for Canton, Ohio he reminds us that he is still a young quarterback with very few NFL starts under his belt. I am not sure if Monday was a mirage or a sign of things to come. Romo appears to have a gunslinger mentality and interceptions do not keep him from pushing the ball down the field. He did appear distrought on the sidelines but once he was on the field, he appeared to have no fear. That's a good quality to have but can also lead to 5 interception games. Tony was right though, he thought he'd thrown 7 interceptions and I remember at least 2 that were dropped.

Every good team will squeak out a win or two during the course of the year that they probably should have lost. Usually it occurs when an opponent takes optimum advantage of a few mistakes by the good team and subsequently makes very few mistakes of their own. This was the case on Monday Night except for the Cowboys did not make a few mistakes, they made a lot of mistakes. The Cowboys had 6 turnovers. 4 interceptions, 2 of which were returned for touchdowns, and 1 fumble near mid field. The Cowboys also allowed the Bills to return a kickoff for a touchdown after they had narrowed the score to 17-13. That's 21 points off of returns. Had the Cowboys defense not played their best game of the season, they would have surely lost and by a large margin.

The Cowboys defense allowed only 3 points and 229 total yards to the Bills offense. The Bills could only muster 81 yards rushing despite having the lead for the entire game. The Cowboys defense recorded 3 sacks and allowed the Bills to convert only 3 of 13 third downs. The Cowboys only take away occured during a crucial point of the game. The Bills had the ball at the 13 yard line with just over 6 minutes left to play. A field goal would have given the Bills an 11 point lead. On 3rd down, the Cowboys DE Demarcus Ware tipped a Trent Edwards pass that was subsequently intercepted by Terrance Newman and returned 70 yards. The Cowboys offense failed to capitilize (5th interception) on their good fortune but their defense had kept the Bills from scoring and increasing their lead.

In the end, the Cowboys offense was able to find enough magic to drive the ball 80 yards for a last second touchdown. They still needed a 2 point conversion to tie the game and send it into overtime but The Bills defense came up with a (no call, pass interference) play to help secure a sure win. With only 20 seconds left, the Cowboys would have to recover an onside kick and then squeak out enough yards to attempt a long field goal. The odds were long, VERY LONG. But sure enough, the Cowboys did recover the onside kick and in doing so were able to gain another 10 yards as the ball rolled free before backup tight end Tony Curtis recovered the ball at the 47 yard line. The Cowboys picked up 12 more yards on 2 short plays and Nick Folk nailed not 1 but 2 53 yard field goals for the win. A time out at the last possible second by Bills coach Dick Jeron forcing the Cowboys to attempt a 2nd game winning field goal but the result was the same. Cowboys win, they should have lost, they did not deserve to win but good teams find ways to win games they should loose.

There is a couple of points to be made here. The Cowboys obviously were not very prepared for this game. At least from an offensive standpoint. Romo and his receivers did not appear to be on the same page on at least 3 of his 5 interceptions. Bill Parcells would have no doubt pulled Romo after the 3rd or 4th pick but the Cowboys stuck with Romo and in the end it paid off because he was able to lead them to 2 late scores. The Cowboys may be 5-0 but they appear to be a few rungs below both the Colts and the Patriouts. The Cowboys will find out just how far behind they are when they host the Patriots next Sunday!

The last second timeout called before the winning field goal attempt was an obvious move that is becoming over used. It worked once but has not worked the last 2 or 3 times. It will stop when the first field goal is missed or blocked and the subsequent field goal is made. Eventually this will happed and the coach calling time out will have snatched defeat from victory having nullified a missed field goal giving the kicker new life.