Dallas did not suffer from Romo holiday, says QB

DALLAS (Reuters) - Dallas quarterback Tony Romo has no regrets about his bye week trip to Mexico with Jessica Simpson and denied it had been a distraction that cost his team a place in the NFC championship game.

Faced with questions about whether his holiday with the singer-actress had played any part in the Cowboys' upset 21-17 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, Romo said he would live by his decisions.

"I don't live with regrets. I'm content in my own skin," Romo said.

"If I try and be a good person and I'm strong enough in my faith, I'm strong enough in what I'm trying to do, then I feel like I'm doing it the right way.

"When I made the choice that I did I thought I was doing the right thing, not going to Vegas and drinking for two or three days."

Deep-threat receiver Terrell Owens got emotional in defending his quarterback after the NFC's top-seeded team was upset by the wildcard Giants.

"This isn't about Tony. You guys can point the finger at him. You can talk about the vacations. And if you do that, it's wrong," he said, tears trickling down from under his sunglasses.

"That's my team mate. That's my quarterback. If you guys do that, it's not fair. We lost as a team.

"He gives it his all every day. He's the quarterback of this team and win or loss it's going to fall on his shoulders. But let it fall on the team's shoulders."

LIGHTNING DRIVE

The victorious Giants pointed to a lightning drive just before halftime as the turning point in the game.

The 71-yard drive lasted less than a minute and ended with quarterback Eli Manning throwing a touchdown pass to receiver Amani Toomer that brought the score level at 14-14.

"Getting that touchdown right before halftime was big," Manning told reporters.

"They had all the momentum. Our defense was gassed. They had been out on the field for so long. To get a touchdown right there and tie it up before halftime was a real momentum-builder for our team."

Toomer, who caught two touchdown passes in the win that will see the Giants take on the Green Bay Packers for a place in the Super Bowl, said New York were on the verge of letting time run out before the intermission.

"I think we were going to kneel down on it if we didn't get any good plays but Steve Smith came up with some huge plays for us to get the momentum going," he said.

"Once we got into the red zone, I knew were going to score."

(Writing by Larry Fine in New York, editing by Peter Rutherford)