KO'd

Cowboys blow 20-7 lead, Tony Romo (9) breaks clavicle in ugly 41-35 loss to the Giants. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

Say goodnight, the party's over... for real this time.

For only the fourth time in franchise history, the Dallas Cowboys (1-5) have five or more losses six games into the season. The Cowboys were thoroughly dismantled on Monday Night Football by Eli Manning and the NFC East division leading New York Giants (5-2).

"I'm staying optimistic," Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo said. "This football team has a lot of high-character guys, a lot of competitive individuals who aren't going to give in to a tough situation."

"Staying optimistic?" That makes one of us.

The Cowboys just lost the biggest game of the season to a division rival now four games ahead of them in the NFC East, effectively ending any playoff aspirations for this season. Oh, and Dallas lost it's franchise and Pro Bowl quarterback in the process.

Romo went down with 12:07 to play in the second quarter after a crushing hit by Giants' linebacker Michael Boley forced him to land awkwardly on his left shoulder. Romo was helped off the field and X-Rays in the locker room showed a fractured left clavicle that will likely keep him out 8-10 weeks. It's the fifth time this season the Giants have knocked an opposing quarterback out of the game.

"The guard didn't see me," Boley said. "I came in scot-free. ... I didn't think he was going to lay down. I thought it was a normal hit. After I got up and started running, I looked back and saw he was down."

As usual, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones tried to put a positive spin on the situation after the game.

"There are a lot of teams in this league that have had to step in and do a different direction at quarterback," Jones said. "We've got to be able to play without Romo."

Unfortunately for Jones and the Cowboys, losing Romo didn't cause Dallas to lose 41-35 in a game that wasn't that close. The Cowboys scored two garbage-time touchdowns in the final 3:20 of regulation Monday night, allowing one to believe this blowout was a close game - it was not.

An outstanding first quarter saw the Cowboys defense intercept two of Manning's passes, leading to 10 points on their first two possessions on offense with Romo at the helm. Even after Romo went down, David Buehler knocked in a 41-yard field goal and rookie Dez Bryant showed his speed on a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown. This gave Dallas a 20-7 lead and seemingly put the Cowboys defense in a good position to hold the lead.

This was not the case.

The Dallas "D" responded by allowing the Giants to score on their final three possessions of the half. New York put up 17 points in the final 4:22 of the second quarter to take a 24-20 lead they would not relinquish. N.Y. continued to put the pressure on to start the second half, scoring touchdown on their first two drives of the third quarter. With 5:25 left in the third quarter, the Giants had a 38-20 lead, having scored 31 unanswered points.

"The way we started the game tonight, to be able to come back from that and show the mental toughness was big," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

New York's offense had it's way with the Cowboys from the second quarter on. Manning torched the Cowboys for four touchdowns and 306 yards, and both Hakeem Nicks (108) and Steve Smith (101) had over 100 yards receiving, while combining for three touchdowns. On the ground, Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs combined for 201 yards and touchdown as Dallas defenders failed at just about everything on that side of the ball.

Missed tackles, blown assignments, and failure to wrap up on routine tackles were all prevalent throughout as you would expect when allowing an opponent nearly 500 yards of total offense. With this defense, Romo can go ahead and take the rest of the season off because it's over Johnny, it's over.

Turnover, Penalty Problems Solved? Who Cares

The Cowboys forced five turnovers against the Giants and committed only five penalties for 42 yards for the game. These were two key areas Dallas worked on in practice all week leading up to the game.

Maybe they should have practiced some defense 101, too.

What's Next

The 2011 NFL draft is April 22-24 and hopefully Dallas will have a top-10 or even top-5 pick to shore up the gaping holes on this paper-champion team.

Oh and if sadomasochism is your thing, the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-4) come to Cowboys Stadium next Sunday.

News and Notes:

• New York is undefeated at Cowboys Stadium (2-0).
• Dallas has now lost three straight games. The last time the Cowboys lost three straight regular season games was Nov. 21, 2004. Vinny Testaverde was the starting quarterback that season and the team finished 6-10.
  

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)