Sunday night was one step back, and one step forward for Tony Romo.
The step back, obviously, being the three interceptions Romo threw, although, in fairness, one of those--the freak play late in the second quarter that saw a pass glance off Jason Witten's hands, then foot, and into the arms of Kenny Phillips--can't reasonably be pinned on Romo. In any case, those, combined with Felix Jones' fumble, resulted in 24 points for New York, thoroughly handcuffing Dallas' attempt at taking the inagural game at JerryWorld.
But the step forward came after the loss. Romo, who has been criticized in the past to his laissez faire approach to the game (particularly directly following a loss), was dejected and sullen in his press conference Sunday night; basically, it appears that, more and more, the 29 year-old is beginning to get it.
"I think our team played some really good football, and I think that obviously my mistakes really put us in a hole and allowed them to capitalize on some things that maybe we were keeping in check," Romo said. "I thought the defense played great for us. I thought the offensive line played wonderful. We had a lot of guys step up tonight and make some good plays and, you know, I really cost us this one."
While refraining from a Tebow-esque promise, Romo said that he would go back to the proverbial drawing board in evaluating himself and, hopefully, improving upon what was, at best, a mediocre performance.
"We're going to be alright, we just need to keep getting better the next day, keep grinding it out and improving, and I will," Romo said. "I'll look at myself and figure out why I did those things and hopefully will not make those mistakes again, and I can't. We can't win games if I do things like that. I'm going to work very hard and diligently to make sure that doesn't happen again."
Jason Garrett, who knows a thing or two about quarterbacking under the microscope of Dallas' media hoarde, saw some positives in Romo's competitiveness on Sunday night, and remains confident in his ability to evaluate and move forward.
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