Giants rip heart of Texas

IRVING, Texas -- A week after his Mexico getaway, Dallas quarterback Tony Romo couldn’t get away, from pass-rush pressure -- or from questions about his judgment.

Not far away, teammate Terrell Owens tearfully came to his defense.

At least the Dallas Cowboys can say they were knocked out of the NFL playoffs by a Manning. Only it was the other Manning -- Eli, not Peyton.

In a dramatic ending Sunday to a rollicking weekend of divisional playoff games, Manning’s New York Giants eliminated the Cowboys, 21-17, ruining their hated rivals’ most promising season in years.

Despite trailing in most statistical categories, the Giants made the plays they had to make, and clinched a spot in the NFC championship game Sunday at Green Bay. They went into the game as 7 1/2 -point underdogs but left with their ninth consecutive road victory.

“Nobody had given us much of a shot to win these last couple of weeks,” Manning said. “But we’re playing smart football.”

As for the Cowboys, they’re just smarting. It was the fifth consecutive one-and-done performance in the postseason for Dallas, whose defeat rendered meaningless a 13-3 regular season.

“Very disappointing,” Coach Wade Phillips said. “I wanted our team to play. I thought they played hard, but I wanted to play better than they did, and we didn’t.”

Dallas was looking to make franchise history by beating a team three times in the same season. Instead, the Giants became the seventh team to bounce back from a regular-season sweep to beat the same team in the playoffs.

“When I was walking off the field the last time, I was thinking to myself that I wished we had an opportunity to play them again,” said New York receiver Amani Toomer, who scored on receptions of 52 and four yards. “We got that chance and beat them when it counted.”

Now, the Giants have an opportunity to avenge a 35-13 loss to the Packers at the Meadowlands in September. Asked whether it helps that New York and Green Bay have played each other already, Giants defensive end Justin Tuck said it doesn’t.

“We’re both different teams now,” he said.

Likewise, Dallas was a different team in recent weeks. The Cowboys averaged only 10.7 points and 264.0 yards in their last three regular-season games, down from 32.5 points and 389.2 yards in their first 13 games.

The question, one that could linger for a long while, is whether Dallas made a major strategic error by taking its foot off the accelerator and coasting into the postseason.

Part of the reason for that drop-off was the absence of Owens, who suffered a high-ankle sprain in a Dec. 22 game against Carolina. He returned to the lineup against the Giants and caught four passes for 49 yards, including a five-yard touchdown.

“This loss hurts because I know this team is dedicated and put in a lot of hard work to get where we are,” he said. “We knew in order to win this game we had to put some points on the board, and we didn’t do that.”

The Cowboys ended a 14-14 halftime tie with a field goal in the third quarter, but the Giants answered with a touchdown in the fourth, then clinched the victory by intercepting a Romo pass in the end zone with nine seconds to play.

Romo, who faced a fierce pass rush in the second half, didn’t play a particularly poor game. But he was under heavy pressure even before kickoff. It was he who blew the hold on a field-goal try in the playoffs last season, a gaffe that cost the Cowboys a possible victory in a first-round game at Seattle.

Then, in the week off leading up to this game, he took a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Jessica Simpson that attracted a lot of speculation and media scrutiny.

Even though it’s common for players to spend part of that week relaxing -- a reward for securing one of the top two seedings in the conference -- there were already rumblings that Romo was overly focused on living the celebrity lifestyle.

“I don’t live with regrets,” he said, when asked if that mini-vacation was a distraction. “I’m content in my own skin.

“When I made the choice to do those things, I felt like I was making a good decision, not going to Vegas and drinking for two or three days. I was just trying to get away and not be around people.”

Many players from both teams shrugged off the decision. (“I’ve done things like go to the Bahamas; it’s perfectly normal,” Giants receiver Plaxico Burress said.) But Owens was by far the most emotional in coming to his defense.

“This isn’t about Tony,” he said, his voice and chin trembling. “You guys can point the finger at him. You can talk about the vacations. And if you do that, it’s wrong. It’s not fair. It’s really not fair. That’s my teammate. That’s my quarterback.”

The Cowboys weren’t the only players who felt the need to stand up for their quarterback. Many of the Giants did the same for their oft-criticized leader.

“Everybody wants to criticize the guy,” New York center Shaun O’Hara said of Manning. “I’m just happy he’s on our team.”

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Bad streak

Dallas lost for the sixth consecutive time in the playoffs, tying the NFL record:

*--* No. Team Seasons 6 N.Y. Giants 1939-1950 6 Cleveland 1969-1985 6 Seattle 1984-2004 6 Minnesota 1988-96 6 Detroit 1991-present 6 Kansas City 1993-present 6 Dallas 1996-present *--*

Source: NFL