IRVING, Texas – Head coach Jason Garrett said he made a mistake leaving Tony Romo and his top offensive threats in the game in the waning minutes of Sunday's loss.
The Cowboys trailed by 32 points at the 5:44 minute mark of the fourth quarter when they began a drive that included two Romo sacks. That drive was the last time the offense touched the ball.
"We should have taken him out," Garrett said. "We were talking about taking him out, but he wanted to stay in. We should have taken him out."
Garrett said Dez Bryant should have been taken out as well with the game out of reach.
"We should have taken all those guys out," Garrett said. "They all wanted to stay in, 'We're not coming out,' but that was a bad decision by me. We should have taken them out of the game."
The players fought to stay in, but in hindsight Garrett said he should have removed Romo and put in Kyle Orton. When asked if Garrett kept the starters in to teach them to fight to the finish, he said everyone on the team is a competitor, but that shouldn't have kept him from taking the starters out. [embedded_ad]
"Everybody wants to play," Garrett said. "Those guys wanted to continue to play. If you throw all the factors together, we should have taken them out of the game – they shouldn't have played that last series."
Garrett didn't provide a direct answer as to whether or not he argued with Romo about the decision.
"I don't want to make a big deal out of this," Garrett said. "This happens all the time. Players want to play. When I reflect back on it, we should have taken him out. It's as simple as that. But he wanted to play. They all wanted to play – they wanted to keep playing. That's why they're the players they are, and it's a good thing."
