After taking time to digest the atrocity that I witnessed two Sundays ago, I am still in shock of the complete meltdown. Tony Romo should be ashamed of himself for letting this happen again. Unfortuatly for Cowboys fans this happens far too often for comfort.

This has become the ongoing theme with Romo as our starting quarterback. He will play great for a while and start to earn fan confidence back, the it is almost like a light switch is turned on and he starts trying.g to do things that no sane QB in the NFL would do.

Hopefully Jerry Jones will get tired of this happy go lucky attitude and smack Romo upside the head. He either needs to take his job more serious, or realize he will never be as good as he thinks he is. The Dallas faithful can’t handle many more meltdowns before they turn on Romo and the team

Believe it or not, the Detroit Lions will be the biggest challenge Dallas has faced this year. Matthew Stafford is healthy and throwing out of his mind. Calvin Johnson is a top 5 receiver in the league.

Jahvid Best is showing himself to be a top 10 running back when healthy. Brandon Pettigrew, one of the players Detroit drafted thanks to the dog butted Roy Williams trade, is turning out to be a solid tight end. Nate Burleson and Titus Young are at least as good as the #2 and #3 receivers Dallas will put on the field Sunday.

And then there’s the defense. And Ndamukong Suh. And Kyle Vanden Bosch. And yes, even the curly haired Bobby Carpenter.

Cowboys will have their hands full this weekend.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvDZ7q8jtwU]

Keeping it Real

Now wait a minute. Did you watch that video? Yes, the Lions came back from a 20-0 deficit to win the game in Overtime. But you can hardly say that they demolished Minnesota.

In fact, I think you could argue that a couple fortunate pass plays are the only reason Detroit had a chance. So can the Lions repeat last week’s luck? Or will it finally catch up to them?

The upside for Detroit is that Calvin Johnson can catch just about any ball in his vicinity. So you don’t have to be pinpoint accurate on your throws.

But despite the epic comeback, I still see a Lions team that allowed 20 unanswered points in the first half. If Minnesota didn’t have so many problems, they would have run up the score and embarrassed Matthew Stafford.

Prediction: Cows Win

I’m going with Cowboys by 3. With a healthy Romo, Felix, and Miles, I’d take Dallas by 10. I think the banged up Cowboys will scrape out a win unless their receivers make a couple key mistakes that cost a couple interceptions.

Brady Tinker and Everson Walls talk Game 2 about Jesse Holley and Tony Romo.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxjM4W1Heck]

Wow. I love the camera angles from this recap of the 49ers game.

Then the video pans to Warren Sapp, Chris Colinsworth, and Phil Simms. Warren Sapp goes after Tony Romo until he pops up on the screen for a surprise interview. Watch Warren Sapp back pedal off his earlier criticisms.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya3XjK7qbyM]

Watch Tony’s expressions and the effort he goes to to talk with Ed Werder.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6c9Hwv2o7I]

I sat in a local wing restaurant last night, watching the most unbelievable comedy of errors in recent memory. Missed snap after missed snap. Dropped pass after dropped pass.running backs stopped behind the line of scrimmage. Wide receivers running wrong routes. A banged up Tony Romo managed to avoid a potentially catastrophic meltdown.

Tony’s an even keeled guy. Maybe too much so. Not last night. You could see the frustration on his face, especially if you could read his lips play after play. Phil Costa got an earful.

Which makes me wonder: why are we seeing this side of Romo tonight? As always, I see a couple possibilities:

1. Romo feels more comfortable calling out the players on the line now because he’s the veteran and they’re the rookies.

2. He gave so much effort and focus to play injured that he had no sympathy for mistakes made by healthy players. I can almost hear Tony say, “Don’t make my effort and risk tonight a waste! Get your sh** together! Don’t tell me I came out here for nothing!”

Whatever the case, Romo led his team to a touchdownless victory over the dogbutted Redskins, and Dallas now holds a two game advantage over Washington, which has to make Jerry feel good.

I’m going to look for some postgame Jerry talk, and I’ll post it here if I come up with anything. He seems overly emotional this year after each game, probably because he couldn’t legitimately expect a playoff season with last year’s fiasco.

Stay tuned.

Warren Sapp, Michael Irvin, Kurt Warner, and company debate whether Tony Romo is a winner. Irvin backs him up saying that he’s a winner, but not yet a champion.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk9Xg8WfrMc]

NFL Live talks Tony Romo and how the public perceives him. Chris Carter praises Tony, but is realistic. He acknowledges that Tony will make mistakes late in the game trying to make things happen.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVREaZL0za4]

But the question remains: is Tony Romo good enough to win a Super Bowl? Can he be a top quarterback in the league?

Chris Carter, rather than answering yes or no, wisely focuses on who Romo has to beat. It’s not that Romo isn’t a great quarterback. It’s that there are too many better quarterbacks ahead of him.

Let’s also keep in mind that the same public who anoints him now crucified him after Week 1. Next week, everyone’s opinion will probably have changed again.

On Sunday, Tony Romo showed that he can be as tough as they come while playing through a broken rib and a punctured lung.

But there have been a lot of knocks on him as an NFL quarterback over the years since he busted onto the scene.

Nobody will dispute that he is one of the more talented quarterbacks in the NFL, but there is always that debate of where he ranks within the echelon of NFL quarterbacks.

It is easy to name the top five quarterbacks, and unfortunately Tony Romo wouldn’t land in that group.

Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Phillip Rivers are the top five quarterbacks in the NFL.

The Contrast

Four out of those five have all won Super Bowl rings, and the last one, would probably have one himself if he hadn’t run into two of the five in the playoffs. Besides Super Bowl rings, these quarterbacks have all shown that they can be the difference in the big games.

All of these guys are cool, calm and collected when the game is on the line. So where does Tony Romo fit into this group? Right now he is a good quarterback but to be mentioned in the select club of the Top 5, he has to become a great quarterback.

What It Will Take

For starters, Tony Romo has to start having a better game presence and better decision making ability within the game. Romo will have one great game and do amazing things that put all the fans in awe. But then the very next week, he will start “gun slinging” and end up making decisions that will make every fan scream for a quarterback change.

Does Tony Romo have talent? That is a resounding yes, but one of his biggest issues is the fact that he will fly off the cuff and make a decision that ends up putting the team in jeopardy of winning the game.

If Tony Romo wants to become a top 5 NFL quarterback then there are some simple things he needs to do. First off, he needs to make better decisions during the course of the game, know when there is a play to be made and know when to toss it 3 rows deep.

The next thing he needs to do is show the persona that he cares about winning and losing as much as the fans do. One reason everyone loves guys like Peyton Manning so much is because when the team loses, he takes it personal and gets back to work before everyone else.

The happy go lucky, loveable, I am living a good life persona that Tony Romo shows off to the media is one of his biggest detractors to the fans.

Last thing Tony needs to do is find a way to make something happen when the game matters the most and it is crunch time.

Consistency is King

Nobody in the NFL is perfect, but to be a top quarterback, you have to know how to win when it is on the line. Even Tom Brady has lost a game when it mattered the most, but he has won a lot more than he has lost. Tony needs to be able to start showing that quality, which will endear him to the fan base.

Being a top 5 quarterback doesn’t mean you have to win a ring, but you have to be able to win the big games, and show up during crunch time. Tony Romo has a history of making that decision that ends up ruining the game for the Cowboys.

If he can change a few simple things, and with a little luck, because everyone needs some luck, there is a chance that Tony could be mentioned as a “Top 5 NFL Quarterback.”

For a city characterized by supposedly soft superstars, 2011 has been an eye opener in the Big D.

It is the year of herculean effort among Dallas pro sports stars. We all remember Dirk Nowitzki playing through the flu and hitting the last minute shot in the NBA Finals to put Dallas back in the series.

We all felt the outrage and the insult of Dwayne Wade and LeBron James mocking Dirk and making light of his illness.

This week we have another local hero.

Tony Romo left Sunday’s game before the half with a rib injury that turned out to be much more. We heard announced yesterday that Romo also suffered a punctured lung.

These injuries make Romo’s return to the field and stunning play execution all the more heroic. You may have noticed that Tony had trouble fielding questions after the game due to the level of discomfort cracked ribs and punctured lung can cause.

Who Had the More Legendary Performance?

It’s a toss up which performance is more legendary.You have at least two deciding factors: difficulty of challenge and importance of game.

On the one hand,

You have Tony Romo enduring more pain and mobility problems. Many players would sit for the rest of the week, if not two. Meanwhile, Dirk took over and won the game against Miami while fighting to stay vertical with 105ish degree fever.

On the other hand,

Dirk was playing in the NBA Finals, and that win kept their championship hopes alive. That performance cemented Dirk into Dallas sports lore for the rest of his life.

Tony Romo, though perhaps overcoming an even greater obstacle, won on a much smaller stage. Game two, though a critical game for the progress of the season, was no playoff game and certainly no Super Bowl victory.

So I’ll leave it to you. Whose performance was more legendary? Dirk’s dagger mid-flu or Tony Romo’s overtime win with punctured lung?