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By NATE SCOTT    http://ftw.usatoday.com

Today’s Big Winner: Tony Romo

Put Tom Brady back there. Or Peyton Manning. Aaron Rodgers. Build a time machine if you can figure out the whole technology thing and bring back an in-his-prime Joe Montana to the future.

It wouldn’t matter. You could put any quarterback in NFL history on the Dallas Cowboys right now and they wouldn’t win a Super Bowl this year.

That much became clear when the Bears thrashed the Cowboys 45-28on Monday Night Football last night in a game that more people will remember for the Mike Ditka celebration at halftime than for anything that happened on the field.

The Cowboys got crushed, and yet the narrative that Tony Romo isn’t “clutch” (whatever that means) survives. Still!

Tony Romo isn’t the problem. Tony Romo is completing 65% of his passes this season. He’s got 27 touchdowns to just 7 interceptions.  As our own Chris Chase pointed out, Romo actually has the highest QB rating in the fourth quarter of any quarterback ever.

Again: Tony Romo isn’t the problem.

You know what is a problem? You know what isn’t clutch? A defense that lets Josh McCown embarrass them on Monday Night Football. A Cowboys secondary that seemed disinterested in tackling anyone, like when Matt Forte ran for 22 yards up the sideline after being surrounded by Cowboys defenders. Or that same defense that didn’t seem to be bothered in covering anyone all night, as McCown found receivers open in the end zone time and time again.

Want more non-Tony Romo problems? How about a Cowboys coaching staff that inexplicably stopped calling running plays even though the Cowboys were carving the Bears defense up on the ground in the first quarter.

Or, if we really want to get to the root of it: Why do we continue to blame Tony Romo for the Cowboys’ problems when their GM is also their 71-year-old owner, someone who hasn’t shown he’s been able to put together a successful NFL team in over 15 years?

Enough with the Romo bashing. He doesn’t deserve it, and he really doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the situation he’s in.

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