While no one is getting the blame here in Dallas like Tony Romo, nor should they, it doesn't mean there aren't a few other head-scratching performances that took place in Sunday's epic collapse.
For the second straight week, a running back has a major mental lapse late in the game and goes out of bounds for some odd reason.
Sunday, it was Felix Jones who apparently had no clue what the down-and-distance was and/or failed to realize the time on the clock. On a fourth-and-20 with just 11 seconds remaining, Jones just had a mental gaffe when he took a short pass from Jones and decided to hurry out of bounds after just seven yards.
Umm . . . what? Clearly he didn't realize what the situation was, but that's not really an excuse either. Going back and watching it again, it seems obvious that Jones thought it was third down. And so did the Fox TV analysts, both Troy Aikman and Joe Buck were thinking the Cowboys had another down.
Still, it's not that hard to count to four and a few people weren't doing it. So either Jones just went out on his own, or didn't know what down it was, either way it's inexcusable to be that unaware.
Last week, Tashard Choice ran out of bounds on third down just before a game-winning field goal by Dan Bailey, which allowed the Redskins to keep another timeout. Obviously, it didn't come back to bite this team, but it was still a bone-head play that shows mental lapses in situational football.
I thought the running backs were taught to have a good vision and awareness. The last two weeks, the Cowboys have been plagued by these poor decisions at the running back spot.
Obviously, it should've never gotten to that point. And we all know by now why it did. But in the middle of Romo-bash-week, let's not forget there were some other mistakes as well.
