Dallas quarterback Tony Romo’s interception with three minutes left in the fourth quarter on Sunday night effectively ended the Cowboys’ season. Romo took the blame on his own shoulders after the game.
“It just does not feel good, and I feel as though I let our team down,” Romo said. “We’ve done such a good job in those last five our 10 minutes to come back and win games. We were back in that position again, and that’s on me. And that’s a hard thing to think about.”
Romo feeling as though he let his team down is not just a state of mind. He did let his team down. Although Romo deserves a lot of credit for playing well this season to get the Cowboys into a position in which they were playing for the division title in Week 17, he also deserves a lot of blame for his three-interception performance against the Redskins.
The question now is whether Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has always been fiercely loyal to Romo, will attempt to find a replacement for him this offseason. Jones acknowledged after the game that he needs to make changes, but he didn’t specify what those changes will be.
“This is very disappointing,” Jones said. “We have players that have fought hard all year, but it did not get done. One of my jobs is to basically evaluate, analyze and make decisions in the offseason that can have us be in better shape when we’re standing here going into the playoffs.”
Going into the playoffs is something the Cowboys haven’t done for three straight years now. Fair or not, Romo will continue to get a lot of the blame for that.