IRVING, Texas – While the comeback fell short in the end, the Cowboys obviously showed some fight on Sunday after trailing by 23 early in the second quarter.
That being said, Jason Garrett isn't giving up in his constant fight with turnovers.
After seven games, it might appear like a lost cause. The Cowboys have committed 19 turnovers and have only received eight on the other end for a -11 ratio, which ranks 31st in the NFL.
When asked how turnovers have affected the Cowboys' four losses this year, Garrett's answer was quick and blunt:
"I think it's probably been the biggest single factor."
Tony Romo leads the NFL with 13 interceptions thrown after four more on Sunday against the Giants.
Garrett was asked several times on Monday if the problem is to the point of no return.
"I don't think you ever do that. Taking care of the football and getting the football away from the other guy is obviously very important," Garrett said. "It's the statistic that correlates to winning and losing more than any other. Ultimately, you cannot do what we did early on in the game and again at different times later in the game and expect to win on a consistent basis. We have to continue to put that in front of our players and make sure that message gets in there somehow some way, and we'll keep doing that."
Before the problem can be fixed, it has to be properly assessed and that's not always an easy thing. While the interceptions get credited to Romo, Garrett said on Monday many of the turnovers cannot be pinpointed towards a particular player.
"Turnovers are a team thing. Takeaways are a team thing. If you look at each of those plays from (Sunday's) ballgame where we turned the ball over, a lot of people had a lot to do with each of those," Garrett said. "I don't want to going into specifics. But we've talked to our players about that and the importance of that. Certainly, the guy with the ball in his hands has the most to do with it. But other people are involved with it. There were some vivid examples of that yesterday in the game."
After his Monday press conference, Garrett chatted more about turnovers with reporters and said Romo's decision-making throughout his career has improved each year. He did not agree with one question about Romo regressing this year just because he has 13 interceptions after seven games and had 10 all of last year.
In fact, when asked about specific turnovers, Garrett said Romo had two poor decisions against the Bears for interceptions – in a game where he threw five. He also said there was a bad decision against Seattle. Garrett said of the four interceptions Romo threw on Sunday against the Giants, none of them were considered poor decisions on the quarterback's part.
"I think if you look at the turnovers this year, I think that's been the biggest issue for him and for our football team," Garrett said of Romo. "But turnovers are a team thing. You look at every one of them, and I can go through an explanation of why they happened. Tony's certainly a part of that. But I think if you look at his play outside of that, I think he's played pretty well. I think he showed last year a marked improvement in taking care of the football. I think he probably threw three times as many touchdowns as he threw interceptions. Starting the first seven games of this season, it hasn't been as good. We've got to make sure we rectify it going forward, because it has such a big impact in the game."
And it's not just interceptions as well. Dez Bryant and Felix Jones both had key fumbles in the game Sunday. For Jones, it's the second lost fumble he's had this season.
"We never shake our head and say it's going to keep continuing and it's out of our control," Garrett said. "We're going to find a way to stop it. Because it impacts the ballgame. We'll do that weigh Felix. We'll do that with everyone on our team."
