Romo's presence restores pulse to Cowboys' offense

LANDOVER, Md. -- There's a reason Tony Romo was playing a horrific 1980s band on a small Bose boom box with an iPod Nano attached following what was a gutsy if imperfect 14-10 victory over Washington. Romo nodded his head to the beat and in certain moments sang out loud the way you might in a shower with no one watching.

No, Tony Romo isn't perfect in his return, but he provides exactly what Dallas was missing. (Getty Images)

The music was so boisterous at times you could barely hear tight end Jason Witten speaking and Witten stood just several feet away. Witten laughed at his partying quarterback but there was a method to Romo's Guitar Hero madness.

"What's up with the music?" Romo was asked.

"It's Survivor," he said.

Survivor, the group. Meet Survivor, the team.

"We treated this like a playoff game," he said.

Not to make Romo sound like he rode onto FedEx Field on a white horse, a sword in one hand, a freshly rescued virgin maiden in the other, but Romo (with a lot of help from Marion Barber ... a lot of help) saved the Cowboys' season.

He was far from perfect. But neither are the Cowboys. They often can't tackle, they drop catchable passes and they make stupid mistakes. Furthermore, in key moments they're poorly coached. There were instances in their critical win over Washington where if you took that star off the helmet and replaced it with Bengals stripes you wouldn't know the difference.

This team, and all of its Neiman Marcus free agent celebrities, came this close to being a terrific bust this season. Dallas owner Jerry Jones said this week the Cowboys would make the playoffs. What playoffs was he guaranteeing, some around the NFL thought? The NAIA playoffs?

Yet, Dallas is still dangerous and they're still alive, and for the first time in weeks they demonstrated heart and toughness. The rest of the NFL failed to kill them off when Romo's pinkie hit the spa. Now, they might regret it as the Cowboys have regrouped.

How long their regrouping will last, how deep it is, how substantive it is, remains in question. Yet, for now, this is big for them.

In the next two weeks Dallas has the opportunity to put clown suits on doormats San Francisco and Seattle. Two wins, in the bag, for sure. Both teams will serve as ladders for the Cowboys to climb back into the postseason picture.

First, came Washington.