Romo's late-season struggles has Dallas QB on spot

Despite securing the NFC's top playoff seed, the Cowboys have plenty of reason to worry if Tony Romo's last two Decembers are any indication of his playoff potential. Brian Bahr/Getty Images

Tony Romo's late-season slide wouldn't be so alarming if it hadn't happened last year, too.

Tremendous start to the season, tons of long-range touchdowns, huge passing performances, Pro Bowl selection -- the works. And then something happens in December.

Romo is 15-3 in his brief career through the end of November, and he's 3-6 from Dec. 1 onward.

Maybe it's a fluke. Maybe he's just been a little banged up late in the season -- Romo did play the last three weeks with a sore thumb on his throwing hand. But maybe it's more than that.

Last year, Romo had a monstrous 110.8 passer rating going into December and then a pedestrian 77.1 mark the last month of the season. And the Cowboys, who looked so good in winning four straight games soon after Romo replaced Drew Bledsoe, lost four of their last five games, including the playoff downer in Seattle.

This year, Romo took a 107.7 passer rating into December, and the Cowboys were 11-1. Since? He has a 50.7 passer rating and the Cowboys head into the playoffs having lost two of their last three games, including a blowout at the hands of the Redskins that was meaningless for Dallas but in which the starters played well into the game.

So far in his career, Romo has had six truly bad games, which we'll define by a passer rating under 60. Five of those games have come in his eight December starts.

Romo has already been anointed the Next Big Thing, although he turns 28 in a few months, is completing his fifth NFL season and has yet to win a playoff game. In Donovan McNabb's fifth season, he reached his third NFC Championship Game and won his fourth and fifth playoff games. Ben Roethlisberger had already won a Super Bowl by his 24th birthday. Heck, even Eli Manning -- who came out of college a year after Romo -- has more playoff wins.

That's why Sunday is so huge for Romo. It's a mandate on hype vs. substance.

But as the Cowboys-Giants game approaches, something is askew with Romo and the Dallas offense. And although the Cowboys should be able to escape the Giants at home, even with Terrell Owens still hobbled, this just doesn't look like a championship offense. There's something missing, something that has slipped away for the second year in a row.

Last year's slump began after a win over the Giants. It was a game the Cowboys won despite a poor performance from Romo. This year's slump began with a loss to the Eagles.

Both games had one thing in common. The Giants and Eagles both got to Romo. They not only hurried him, but also they hit him, intimidated him, changed the way he played the game. And in both cases, the battering he took seemed to have a lasting effect.

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