For Romo, the distractions are gone, but the mistakes remain

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The excuses have long been made for Tony Romo. First it was Jessica's fault. Then it was Terrell's fault. Mean old Terrell Owens was picking on poor little Tony Wony, so goodbye Owens.

Now, there's no more boogeyman. The boogeyman is in Buffalo, and Jessica Simpson has moved on to the next hunk. Now, it's all on Romo, and so far, not much has changed. He still alternates between moments of brilliant missile lock and stupefying brain freeze.

Tony Romo can exhort his teammates all he wants, but he has to limit his own mistakes to help get the most out of them. (Getty Images)

In other words, gorgeous new stadium, same old Romo.

If Romo continues to play the way he did against the New York Giants in the Cowboys' 33-31 loss the only thing Dallas will win this season is Stadium of the Year.

"It's frustrating," Romo said. "I'm really, really disappointed in myself right now."

To his credit, Romo wisely took the blame for the loss when meeting with the media, and he did lose it. Blame the Cowboys turning Mario Manningham into Jerry Rice all you want, but this loss is squarely on Romo.

Romo remains an indecipherable and many times unreliable component of the offense. Quite simply, Romo can no longer be wholly trusted.

There will be games where Romo lights up the extra jumbo scoreboard and has fantasy owners grinning, and others when he looks not like Tony Romo but Tony Banks.

Against the Giants, it was vintage Romo. There were the bursts of potency immediately followed by undisciplined footwork and lazy throws tossed softly into the air like kisses. Plus, of course, the prerequisite Romo pick six.

This is the Romo dance-step (all together now): good throw, good throw ... floater; good throw, good throw ... floater.

Tony Float-o.

The statistics are horrid enough. He completed only 13 of 29 passes for one touchdown and three interceptions for a hearty passer rating of 29.6, the second-lowest of his career.

It's the way Romo blows games that's the problem. He has become a Pro Bowl drive killer. His pass that was intercepted by Giants cornerback Bruce Johnson was a floater that was returned 34 yards for a touchdown. His second interception was thrown behind tight end Jason Witten, skipping off Witten's foot, and ending up in the hands of the Giants. If not for the wrong call by the officials who blew the play dead, that would've been returned for a Giants defensive score as well.

"We can't win games when I do things like that," Romo said.

There was a badly overthrown floater meant for Felix Jones that looked like a strong gust of wind took it, a rocket to Patrick Crayton that required touch, a ball that was simply thrown up for grabs and intercepted, and a fourth-quarter throw tossed into double coverage.

Romo was also badly outplayed by Eli Manning, who threw for 330 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Manning had a passer rating of 110.6.

Romo -- again to his credit -- didn't pass the blame. "My mistakes," he said, "really put us in a hole ... " He later added: "I'll improve. I'll fix this. We'll be better tomorrow. I'll be better."

"I know I made a couple of throws ... " he said, "you look back now and [they] were stupid."

The problem is we've seen this movie before. Romo had dire issues with turnovers last season and vowed things would change this year. In fact, Romo has had issues with turnovers for some time.

Last season, Owens was a convenient scapegoat for some fans and others in the media. Owens is gone and the same stuff is happening, which tells you it wasn't Owens.

There was a time when some believed Romo was one of the elite throwers in football (columnist raises hand). The Cowboys have to be worried about what has happened to Romo. They won't publicly admit it, but how could they not be?

Elite? Right now, they would just like to see consistent.

And somewhere, Owens is laughing his butt off.