Romo, Cowboys feast on Buccaneers
QB ties team record with 5 TD passes in 38-10 victory
 Ronald Martinez / Getty Images Dallas is 4-1 since Tony Romo took over as quarterback. |
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IRVING, Texas - For a three-play stretch Thursday, Tony Romo looked like a guy making only his fifth start after 3½ years on the bench.
He threw low and inside on what could’ve been a long touchdown pass to Terry Glenn. On the next snap, he held the ball too long and got sacked. Then he came up short on a deep ball to a wide-open Terrell Owens.
He hardly misfired again.
Romo went on to throw five touchdown passes, tying a Dallas Cowboys record and leading them to an easy 38-10 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I thought it was Aikman out there,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden said.
Well, there was one difference: Troy Aikman needed overtime for the only five-TD game of his career. And Roger Staubach, the other Hall of Fame quarterback for the Cowboys, never did it.
While it’s tough to lump Romo in with those guys at this point in his career, it is no longer “ludicrous” to consider him being Pro Bowl-caliber, as coach Bill Parcells said earlier this week.
The Cowboys are 7-4, with a half-game lead in the NFC East and the second-most wins in the conference behind Chicago (9-1), and Romo is a major reason for it.
He’s 4-1 as a starter, with three straight wins. In the previous two, he outplayed Peyton Manning as Dallas handed Indianapolis its first loss and he earned NFC offensive player of the week honors for his performance against Arizona.
This time, Romo was 22-of-29 for 306 yards, with a stretch of 13 straight completions. He went 9-of-10 in the second half, making him 29-of-31 after halftime over his last three games.
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The Buccaneers (3-8) continue living down to their expectations.
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Romo responded to the early 7-0 deficit by leading Dallas to five touchdowns in a span of six drives. He was at his best right around halftime — with a 74-yard drive during a 2-minute drill that made it 21-10 at the break, then opening the third quarter with an 82-yard drive that featured a 45-yard pass to Glenn.
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