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Tony Romo finally gets into a game this season for Cowboys, throws TD right away

It took until 2017, but Tony Romo finally got into a game for the Dallas Cowboys this season.

And he reminded everyone right away that he still has something left to offer.

Romo came in with 13 minutes left in the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, relieving rookie starter Dak Prescott. And he must have been excited because his first play was a deep pass that was well overthrown to Terrance Williams. On Romo’s third play, he fired a completion to Williams for a first down on third-and-11.

Tony Romo threw a touchdown pass on his first drive of this season. (AP)
Tony Romo threw a touchdown pass on his first drive of this season. (AP)

Later in the drive, Romo threw a nice 3-yard touchdown pass to Williams. Prescott congratulated Romo when he got to the sideline and gave him a playful shove.

Romo didn’t play long. After throwing a touchdown on his first series, Mark Sanchez came in at quarterback for the Cowboys. Romo completed 3 of 4 passes for 29 yards and a touchdown before Sanchez came in.

Romo’s back injury in the preseason opened the door for Prescott to start, and Prescott played so well he never gave the job back. So Romo was the No. 2 quarterback when he finally got healthy, and he didn’t appear in any of the Cowboys’ first 15 games. With Dallas having clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC last week, the Cowboys had an opportunity to rest Prescott and get Romo some snaps.

There was a lot of back and forth this past week over Romo and whether he would play at all in Week 17. The Cowboys ultimately decided it was prudent to give Romo some snaps. That will help if Romo needs to play in the playoffs due to injury. Romo had not played since Aug. 25, when he was injured in a preseason game at the Seattle Seahawks. The last time Romo played in a regular-season game was Nov. 26, 2015.

It seems likely that the Cowboys will try to trade Romo in the offseason. He has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be a backup and the Cowboys are set at quarterback for the foreseeable future with Prescott. It won’t hurt Romo that he put a few highlights on film for other NFL teams before the offseason.

Who knows what will happen in the playoffs, but at least Cowboys fans got one more chance to watch Romo – and see another touchdown pass – before what promises to be an interesting offseason.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!