After Cowboys center Phil Costa spent all of Monday night snapping the ball to Arkansas and getting yelled at by Tony Romo, the center and QB both explained the consistently botched center/QB snap exchanges by accusing the Redskins defensive line, notably former Cowboy Stephen Bowen, of simulating the snap count, which is both a flagable offense and a bush league tactic. But Bowen fired back at those accusations Wednesday, saying Romo and Costa are straight-up lying and that their snap issues were their own problem. From the Post:
“Honestly, I don’t understand how I could simulate his snap count. Am I supposed to memorize the colors and the numbers he was saying? Honestly, I lost a lot of respect for Costa. If that was the case, then why didn’t any of their offensive linemen jump offsides? It makes no sense, because he’s lying. Just be a man and stand by your word. Everybody respects a man that tells the truth.”
Well, now. SOMEONE is lying here, that much we know. Either Costa made it up and Romo backed up the lie to cover for his teammate (what a dreamy guy!), or Bowen is lying about Costa lying, which makes sense because he’s not gonna readily admit to such malfeasance. But Bowen played with the Cowboys just last year, so unless Jason Garrett is a complete meathead, he probably changed up snap counts for this game to prevent someone like Bowen from giving the Redskins vital inside information.
To Costa’s defense, I didn’t see any sign of this kind of trouble in the Cowboys’ first two games. It was like Costa suddenly got the yips for no reason at all, and for it to happen in his own stadium made it doubly bizarre. BUT, if Romo was so understanding of Costa’s excuse this week, why was he yelling at him on Monday night, and not yelling at the refs? That’s the real question. There’s only one way to get down to the bottom of this mystery: by seeing if Costa can snap the ball like a normal person for the rest of the season. If he can’t, then Bowen will have his vindication, whether or not Costa’s a liar or not.
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