Cowboys beat Dolphins in Romo’s return

“It’s a dream, but not a fantasy”.

“You do want to be disruptive, especially with a guy like him coming back from that type of an injury”, Rivera said.

The Cowboys, by virtue of their vaguely frightful division, still aren’t completely out of the playoff hunt, but Dallas essentially has to win out.

Asked if he learned anything from his preparation a year ago, Romo said Tuesday: “In some ways, just some of the decisions I made were not conducive to me being ready in that short period of time”.

It wasn’t close to the prettiest performance of Romo’s career (18-of-28, 227 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 2 sacks, 83.5 passer rating). At times, he looked rusty. And other times, you have to kind of work your way through things.

“I got more comfortable as the game went on”, Romo said.

It will be interesting to see how Dallas bounces back on the quick turnaround with a big game facing them this week.

Amusing thing, Romo in 2014 was really no different than he was as a full-time starter from 2007-2013 (he didn’t start his first game until the seventh game of 2006).

He said game. Now the change must affect the season. Be it finding the open receiver, getting the offense into the right play pre-snap, or extending the play with his creativeness, this team now and always has, goes as Romo goes. “I thought that against Miami we put the best team on the field that we’ve put on there this year – period”. Even though we didn’t win over the last seven weeks, and I know that’s ultimately what we are all defined by, how you perform and play on Sundays is really a direct reflection of who you are. The record speaks volumes – the Cowboys are 3-0 when Romo is their starting quarterback and 0-7 when he is not. The 2006 Colts were 9-0 before losing to the Cowboys 21-14. Yes, Miami is still technically in the wild-card race, but does anyone truly believe they will win five out of last six games to make the postseason a possibility? And not only are the Panthers (10-0) visiting four days after a long-awaited victory, but the Cowboys face December road games against Green Bay and Buffalo. He’s working. He blew the dust off, so to speak, and now all he has to do is win every single game left. Romo completed all four of his passes, the last a 16-yarder to Bryant in the end zone when he threw well out in front of his All-Pro receiver and between a pair of defenders on a crossing route.

-SPECIAL TEAMS: D. Returner Jarvis Landry botched the handling of a kickoff and the Dolphins started on their own 4-yard line.

-RUSH DEFENSE: F. Miami allowed 166 yards rushing, 129 to RB Darren McFadden. He was also able to float a ideal pass down the sideline for a 31-yard score when his team had to overcome a second-and-27 situation on the touchdown pass to Williams. Ryan Tannehill broke up a scoreless punters’ duel in the second quarter with a pick-6, the easiest touchdown linebacker Rolando McClain will ever score from 12 yards out. In the second quarter, he was being pressured in the pocket and did his patented spin move, stumbling out of the pocket and hitting Devin Street for a nice 19 yard pickup. His success in the passing game against the Dolphins came nearly entirely out of shotgun. He can go the distance at any time, and the Dolphins have failed to find creative ways to get him more involved. They got an interception return for a touchdown and limited Miami to just 210 total yards of offense.