The Dallas Cowboys had several botched shotgun snaps on Monday night, with center Phil Costa hiking the ball to Tony Romo before Romo was ready. After the game, the Cowboys said that was because the Redskins were cheating.
NFL rules prohibit defensive players from making “disconcerting signals” by pretending to call out the quarterback’s cadence, but Romo said after the game that’s exactly what some Redskins defensive linemen were doing.
“We’ve got to get the snap thing worked out,” Romo said. “Costa said the D-line kept calling out the snap count. We’ll get that worked out. We’ll tell the league and see if that’s something that can be fixed because you’re not supposed to be able to do that. So we’ll see. But we can’t have that happen. We shouldn’t have been in that situation.”
ESPNDallas.com suggested that former Cowboys defensive end Stephen Bowen, who now plays for the Redskins, might have helped the Redskins learn Romo’s cadences to fool Costa into snapping the ball.
Disconcerting signals happen often in the NFL but are rarely called. Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck accused Broncos defensive lineman Kevin Vickerson of doing the same thing on Sunday.
For his part, Costa says he won’t blame anyone but himself for the botched snaps.
“I mean, you’ve got to take the blame for it,” Costa said. “And right now, get that problem fixed, without a doubt, and move on to the Lions.”
With Ndamukong Suh coming to town, Costa has his hands full this week.