Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Star-Telegram.com writes that the media should stop giving Tony Romo a free pass and call him what he is in December: a choker.

Sunday was just about that point for Romo. The Cowboys were on the verge of what would have been a gigantic, momentum-building victory in Pittsburgh. It was not a stretch to say this could have been defining. Until they collapsed, in a 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh

And Romo has to be dropped in the grease for this.

He was responsible for four of the five Cowboys turnovers. And he is lucky the tuck rule saved him from another. The last, of course, was the worst — a pick to Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend that went for seven in the other direction. It was the game winner.

The Cowboys needed him to be his best Sunday, or at least not screw it up for the defense who was finally playing theirs. He was not … not even close. There were moments of good, but not enough. Too often, what we saw from Romo was the recklessness Big Bill had often warned about, the one play in the game that ends up negating the others.

Romo has a bit of a December problem, much like his team. He has not brought his best self in said games which often is synonymous with big games. And he is no longer young or inexperienced or all of the other things people like me say to defend him when he is being attacked.

The reality is, if this were anybody else, he’d have no defenders.

But this is Romo. So we tiptoe around the reality that he has to start showing he has what it takes to win when it counts. Or else he’ll prove something else.

This fits under the old adage that quarterbacks take too much credit when their teams when win and too much blame when they lose. Romo wasn’t very good in Pittsburgh Sunday but he also was playing without his running back due to injury and he can’t help if Jason Witten runs the wrong route. I will agree that he gets less criticism than say, Donovan McNabb, but the media needs to go on a game-by-game basis and then paint the larger picture.

Romo was bad yesterday, but the Cowboys were a completely different team without him when he was out with a pinkie injury. The Cowboys aren’t knocking on the door of a playoff berth without him and Pittsburgh’s defense can make any quarterback look silly. So let’s relax on the here-we-go-again mindset with Romo in regards to his December play and let’s see how this thing plays out.

Entering their game with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys had a great opportunity to take a one-game lead for the final Wild Card spot in the NFC because the Atlanta Falcons lost to the New Orleans Saints earlier in the day.

After tying the game 3-3 just before halftime, the Cowboys built a 13-3 lead just before the start of the fourth quarter after Terrell Owens caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo and Nick Folk converted on his second field goal of the day.

Earlier in the fourth, Dallas also came up with a huge goal line stop on fourth down, but they couldn’t carry the momentum from the play and finish the Steelers off. Pittsburgh managed to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 13-6 on a Jeff Reed field goal, then scored a touchdown four minutes later when Heath Miller caught a 6-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger.

Then disaster struck for the Cowboys as Romo was picked off by Deshea Townsend, who returned the gift 25 yards for the game-winning touchdown as Pittsburgh held on for a 20-13 victory. On the interception, it appeared that tight end Jason Witten ran the wrong route.

Even with the loss, the Cowboys still hold onto the sixth and final playoff spot in the NFC because the Falcons’ loss to the Saints goes against their conference record. But that said, Dallas can’t feel too good about practically handing the Steelers a victory. It hurt not having Marion Barber on offense, but the defense played well enough to win and had Witten run the right route on the interception, the Cowboys might have drove down the field or at least forced overtime.

The Steelers did not look good offensively, but their defense is sick. And the funny thing is, because the offense hasn’t looked particularly sharp, this team continues to fly under the radar. But even with how good the defense has been this year, the Steelers still have some glaring, underlying issues. The offensive line is being held together by duct tape, Roethlisberger still holds onto the ball way too long and every once in a while, Mike Tomlin shows his inexperience as a head coach. For example, Dallas made a great play on that goal line stand, but Tomlin’s decision to go for it instead of making it a one possession game with the entire fourth quarter left to play was a questionable decision to say the least.

That said, even anyone thinks that the Steelers aren’t a Super Bowl contender, you’re dreaming. Their defense is that good.