OPINION

By Tim Dahlberg

updated 9:32 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2008

IRVING, Texas - Jessica Simpson had probably given up and gone shopping during the drive commanded by her boyfriend that took up much of the second quarter and gave the Dallas Cowboys what turned out to be a short-lived lead over the New York Giants.

But, really, what’s a girl to do? Long drives can just be so boring.

Not terribly effective, either, as Tony Romo and the Cowboys found out Sunday when they extended their streak in playoff futility to 11 years in a loss so hard to take that even the popcorn man himself, Terrell Owens, was reduced to tears.

In truth, no one knew where Simpson was, though there was no shortage of blonde women in No. 9 jerseys in Texas Stadium. But most in the white-wearing crowd of 63,660 no doubt thought she had sneaked back into a suite and put yet another hex on her boyfriend during an especially futile fourth quarter for the celebrity-squiring quarterback.

As steady as could be when the game plan called for controlling the ball, Romo was equally shaky when he was forced to bring the Cowboys from behind. And when Romo’s last pass went into the hands of New York’s R.W. McQuarters in the end zone, the worst fears of Cowboys fans upset over his vacation with Simpson to Cabo seemed to come true.

All week long, the talk around town was that Romo should have never left town, especially with the celebrity wannabe whose presence in this very same stadium a few games earlier coincided with one of the quarterback’s worst performances of the year. Fans worried that Romo wasn’t focused, and worried more that Yoko Romo would interfere with their chance to finally celebrate.

Oh, Yoko.

In Romo’s defense, he wasn’t helped by a ball dropped by Anthony Fasano on the goal line and two other drops by Patrick Crayton in crucial moments. He didn’t have a lot to do with the penalties that hurt the Cowboys late, save for an intentional grounding call on the second-to-last drive.

And he wasn’t on the field playing defense when the Giants scored in just 46 seconds after Dallas had taken a 14-7 lead with a 20-play drive that chewed up more than a sixth of the game.

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“This is not about Tony,” Owens said, his lower lip quivering and sniffling away tears in a passionate defense of his quarterback. “You guys can point the finger at him. You can talk about the vacation, but if you do that it’s really unfair. It’s really unfair. He’s my teammate. He’s my quarterback. If you guys do that, it’s unfair. We lost as a team. We lost as a team, man.”

Indeed, Owens was so passionate in the defense of his quarterback that he probably will be the first invited to the season-ending barbecue that Romo and Simpson will now have plenty of time to plan.

But this was Romo’s moment to shine, his moment to put away last year’s bobbled snap that left him in tears. Just as important, this was his moment to show that a little Mexican R&R wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

“I’m content in my own skin. I feel like I’m doing it the right way,” Romo said. “When I made the choice to those things I thought I was making good decisions like not going to Vegas and drinking for two or three days.”

Romo’s decisions looked good for much of the game as he took the Cowboys on two first-half touchdown drives of 96 and 90 yards, only to go to the locker room at halftime tied 14-14. With Marion Barber gaining yards in big chunks, Romo hitting short passes, and the Cowboys keeping the ball away from the Giants it seemed like only a matter of time before the New York defense simply wilted on the field.

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