Tony Romo delivers another complete performance in win over Eagles

Posted Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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By JEFF CAPLAN

jcaplan@star-telegram.com

PHILADELPHIA — With a quick pump fake followed by a tight, arching spiral that Miles Austin snatched in mid-stride, quarterback Tony Romo sent Wade Phillips bouncing downfield, his arms stretched to the sky and a smile spilling over the face of the coach of the NFC East’s first-place team.

Phillips, the always embattled head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, never seemed to take the early season criticism and questions of his quarterback seriously.

Was the coaching staff allowing Romo to be Romo? Should Romo be Romo? If not, who should Romo be anyway? Eli Manning?

"Tony Romo will be fine," Phillips would say.

In a conference top-heavy in quarterback play with Brett Favre, Drew Brees and Kurt Warner at the highest level, Romo, his team 6-2 after a 20-16 victory, is right there in the conversation.

One game after Romo spread the ball around to 10 pass-catchers, seven caught balls Sunday totaling 307 yards, Romo’s fourth 300-plus-yard game of the season.

And, yes, his perfectly placed 49-yard bomb to Austin in the fourth quarter was the back-breaker. But Romo’s best achievement might have finally been getting him and struggling receiver Roy Williams on the same page.

Williams caught a season-high five balls for 75 yards. Most impressive was the percentage Romo completed to him. Romo threw his way eight times, completing five. Entering the game, the two had connected just 38 percent of the time.

Doing it in Philadelphia, the site of last season’s embarrassing end and Romo’s forgettable comments, made it all the more special. And when the game was on the line and either Romo or Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb would make the plays to win the game, it was Romo taking the lead.

Romo had talked last week about such a situation unfolding, realizing the doubt hovering from past failures.

"We think we’re a different football team now," Romo said earlier in the week. "We’re a confident group that feels as though if we go out there and execute we can score on anybody."

The Cowboys’ defense came through in the fourth quarter with a fourth-and-1 stuffing of McNabb up the middle to give the offense the ball at the Dallas 45. A holding penalty on center Andre Gurode put the Cowboys in a first-and-20 hole at their 45.

Then Marion Barber lost 4 yards to make it second-and-24, and it appeared the Cowboys were about to blow the momentum switch.

Romo stepped up and hit Patrick Crayton for 10 yards to the Philadelphia 49 for a third-and-14.

Quiet all night under the watch of Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel, Austin broke free of Philadelphia’s other stellar corner Sheldon Brown — Romo’s pump fake freezing the defense — and split the secondary.

Austin made a bread-basket catch and took it in for the score. Romo jumped into Marc Colombo’s arms as Phillips chugged down the sideline as coach of the NFC East’s first-place team.

Jeff Caplan, 817-390-7760

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