I didn't get much support when I chided the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys for easing up in their final games of the regular season and ceding playoff spots to division rivals. The conventional wisdom seemed to be that those teams, by dint of their superior play and records, had earned the right to do whatever they wanted. And if their coaches believed rest was the best playoff prescription, then so be it.

Last weekend the football gods delivered a double dose of rough justice to those favored teams, in support of my view. The Colts were outplayed by the battered but spirited San Diego Chargers. And the Cowboys, in losing to the New York Giants, couldn't shed the lackluster play that has dogged the Dallas team for a while now—a collective torpor that suggested the last thing the team needed in that final regular season game was any excuse to take the day off.

Dallas coach Wade Phillips is turning into the new Marty Schottenheimer, a bulldog in the regular season and a bust in the playoffs. But Cowboys fans are having far more fun blaming the upset on Tony Romo's romantic getaway to Mexico with Jessica Simpson during the team's bye week. And they are not entirely wrong.

Romo's defenders say that Tony Boy's vacation was nothing different from Tom Brady's trip to New York to spend time with his girlfriend, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. But there are several notable differences. Brady's three Super Bowl rings, compared with Romo's playoff résumé: two bitter playoff losses and a reputation as the number one goat of last year's playoffs. The sense that Brady's relationship with Bundchen is seasoned now, comfortable enough that he can be left behind to babysit her dog, versus the newer Romo-Simpson romance. And, of course, there is the bottom line from last weekend: Brady, 26 of 28 for 262 yards, three touchdowns and another victory; Romo, 18 of 36 for 201 yards with one TD and one interception, as well as license to go back to Mexico until training camp opens in July.

Having signed a new $67.5 million deal midseason, Romo was expected to assume certain responsibilities. And one of those is to convince everybody—fans, teammates, coaches, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones—that the playoff game was paramount in his life. It may have been, but nobody was buying it—except possibly a tearful Terrell Owens, who, apparently preferring to attack his quarterback only when no one else will, rose to Romo's defense.

To fully appreciate Romo's inadequacy last weekend, we must adjust our perspective in line with the new-millennium NFL. There was a time, not all that long ago, when completing 18 of 36 passes in a game would have been quite respectable. But the changes in the NFL—particularly the way they don't call holding on offensive lineman and do call holding and everything else on defensive backs—has put the passing game on a new footing. Romo's .500 completion percentage in last week's competition should be viewed not only in comparison Brady's MVP standard of 93 percent but also next to all the other quarterbacks who toiled last weekend: Eli Manning, 12 of 18; David Garrard, 22 of 33; Philip Rivers, 14 of 19; Billy Volek, 3 of 4; Matt Hasselbeck, 19 of 33; Bret Favre, 18of 23; and Peyton Manning, 33 of 48. Seven of the nine quarterbacks completed at least two-thirds of their passes, and four of them were well above 70 percent.