Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo left last night with his left arm in a sling.
But his mental anguish over playing as poorly as he did before the injury might have been worse than the physical pain.
Romo admitted he wasn’t himself during Thursday’s loss to the Panthers, with the mental rust evident in the three interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) which he threw in the first half. He finished the day 11-of-21 for 106 yards.
“There are so many subtle things that come up when you see different things and you just have to get there,” Romo said, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “I wasn’t quite there yet. It was going to take a little bit of time. You hope you can win games until you get that back, but it’s just disappointing I wasn’t able to do that and played poor today. I really put our team in a hole. That was the difference in the ballgame, really.”
It wasn’t so much that Romo was throwing poorly, it was more of an issue of things he couldn’t see — which seems odd considering the Panthers were wearing all-blue Smurf uniforms.
“Playing the position, I was not as adept at some of the things that I have been used to doing,” Romo said. “They were slower. I’ve got to look at the mechanics part, the physical [part], but I just feel like my natural instinct, some of the mental aspects, I was slow with. . . .
“I would like to think that I am a good enough player to not just give touchdowns to the defense. When you do that, you put your team in a big hole. Our defense battled out there and gave us chances for stretches for the outcome to be different.
“I didn’t give us a chance, and for however long I’m going to sit and live with that, and that will eat at me.”
That time might be an entire offseason. He’s having more tests today, but only a slim chance exists he’ll be able to return later this season. It probably won’t matter even if he’s able to come back, especially not if he plays the way he did yesterday.