Fresh off comeback win, Romo turns focus to Eagles

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Tony Romo laughed as he popped out from behind a black curtain in the Cowboys' locker room late Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.

"Eight-and-a-half seconds," he called across the locker room in disbelief. "Someone timed it."

The amount of time the Cowboys quarterback had to find Dez Bryant in the back of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown in a 31-28 victory over the Giants was actually about a second shorter. But it must have felt like an eternity behind the Cowboys' talented line.

The Eagles' showdown in Dallas on Thursday will include a key element missing from last season's winner-take-all-meeting in Week 17: a rejuvenated, confident Romo, who is playing what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called the best football of his career.

But even his 27th game-winning drive, which capped a four-touchdown, zero-turnover performance Sunday, will only temporarily keep Romo's critics at bay if he doesn't start winning important games at this time of year. Romo has finished two of the last four seasons on the shelf with injuries as the Cowboys have missed the playoffs.

Two games against the Eagles in the next three weeks with the NFC East on the line will give Romo a chance to write another narrative.

Romo wasn't completely impressed by the way his team played Sunday night. The Cowboys needed to overcome an 11-point deficit to put away the struggling Giants.

"Philly is playing great football," Romo said. "So we're going to have to play better than we did tonight to win that game."

Holding court in the Cowboys' locker room Sunday, Jones did nothing to diminish the stakes for his quarterback.

"It will be, I think, the most negative thing about my ownership, in my mind, if Tony has a career here and we don't win a Super Bowl," Jones said. "To have his talent come through this organization . . . if we don't do that while he's active, it will be the biggest disappointment for me."

The Eagles are 3-3 in the Cowboys' state-of-the-art stadium, but they've lost all three games there in which Romo has started and played the whole way. That includes the Cowboys' last playoff win in 2009.

Romo missed the Eagles game in Dallas in 2010 because of injury. In 2011, he hurt his passing hand on the first series against the Eagles at home and did not return. Last season, a herniated disk kept him out of the home finale against the Eagles.

Romo has thrived this season despite offseason back surgery and a new back fracture that cost him a game and has limited his practice time. He has 22 touchdown passes and six interceptions, which is on track to be the fewest he has thrown in a full season since 2009.

Moments after watching Romo throw the winning pass, Jones left his suite and hurried toward a bank of elevators that would take him to the Cowboys locker room.

"Drama," he said as he cut through the press box, an entourage in tow. "Drama."

As Sunday night bled into Monday morning at MetLife Stadium, the Cowboys owner captured what he had just seen from his quarterback, and what surely awaits.

@ByTimMcManus