Dallas quarterback Tony Romo said the Redskins were simulating his snap count, an issue he says the Cowboys will address with the league.
Romo had a series of bad snaps from center Phil Costa in Monday night’s 18-16 win over the Redskins, miscues he blamed on the Redskins barking across the line of scrimmage.
“Costa said the D-line kept calling out the snap count,” said Romo. “We’ll get that worked out. We’ll tell the league and see if that’s something that can be fixed because you’re not supposed to be able to do that. So we’ll see.”
Simulating a quarterback’s snap count is against NFL rules, a personal foul that can cost a team 15 yards. But there’s not much that can be done after the fact.
According to ESPN Dallas, the Cowboys did complain to officials in the middle of the game, but to no avail. The report suggested that Washington defensive end Stephen Bowen’s familiarity with Romo aided the Redskins. Bowen played for five seasons with Dallas before signing with the Redskins as a free agent in July.
Dallas Coach Jason Garrett also said the Redskins were able to disrupt Romo’s cadence, but made no mention of taking up the matter with the league office.
“They were making noise on the other side of the ball,” he said. “It was pretty obvious Tony wasn’t even close to being ready, and they were saying some things that sounded a lot like our cadence.
“It gets you out of your rhythm,” he continued. “It gets you into some bad third-down situations. They’re among the best third-down teams in the league, so when you have those plays within a series, they’re hard to overcome.”
