Dez Bryant continues to underwhelm

• Dez Bryant has just second 100-yard game of his career
• Huge talent doesn't make up for crucial mistakes
• Cowboys eventually have to decide if Bryant is worth the hassle

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It went into the books as a 100-yard game for Dez Bryant.

But here's how stats can lie: It was about the ugliest 100-yard game -- Bryant's first since his rookie year -- that you will ever see.

Two dropped passes in key situations and an apparent mishap that resulted in the first of Tony Romo's five interceptions on Monday night tarnishes whatever eight catches for 105 yards suggests.

And the woeful impact also fuels the question: Will Bryant ever fulfill his potential?

No question, the third-year Dallas Cowboys receiver has talent. Yet he's been around too long to keep making rookie mistakes and having crunch-time lapses.

Rather than hitting his stride and emerging as one of the NFL's best playmakers, Bryant, 23, is one of the league's biggest teases.

That the team mandated round-the-clock security as part of the recently enacted "Dez Rules" and has seen fit to provide transportation to get him to-and-from work says something about Bryant's instability -- and his perceived potential.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who gambled and drafted Bryant 24th overall in 2010 despite the questions about his maturity coming out of Oklahoma State, has stuck with the receiver through assorted off-the-field issues.

Yet at some point, the Cowboys have to decide if he's worth the effort.

It sure didn't pay off during the 34-18 loss to the Chicago Bears.

Sure, there was a lot of blame to go around. Romo was a train wreck, matching his career high with the five picks and missing Bryant and Miles Austin for might-have-been TD strikes. The offensive line, the running game, and the defense were faulty, too.

Yet for the Cowboys to break out of this pattern of mediocrity, they need some big-time players to emerge when it matters most.

Hello, Dez.

Bryant has the hands to make the type of clutch, last-minute, 59-yard, leaping haul Roddy White made for the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. He has the physical tools to offer the type of security-blanket presence Brandon Marshall provided for Jay Cutler on Monday night. He can be as electric for the Cowboys as A.J. Green is for the Cincinnati Bengals.

But when?

Under the Monday night spotlight, Bryant didn't adjust his route on the interception that Charles Tillman returned 25 yards for a touchdown. Afterward, he sounded like a man who still believed he did the right thing by continuing to run his sideline route instead of breaking off the pattern. He said Tillman deserves the credit for peeling off press coverage.

Hmmm. Romo saw something else.

"Really, it's probably not characterized the right way to say it was a miscommunication," said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. "We just were seeing how the corner played. Dez saw it one way and Tony saw it the other way."

Who saw it the right way?

"We'll have to watch the tape," Garrett said.

The drops won't look good on film, either. One happened on a slant pattern that would have kept the chains moving on a third-and-6 from the Bears' 22 in the third quarter. The other came on a flag route in the fourth quarter that would have been a huge gain. On the second drop, Bryant said he lost focus on the ball while trying to gauge his position near the sideline. In both cases, the throws were pretty perfect.

Said Bryant, "There's really no excuse."

Even worse, Bryant, Romo and this group of Cowboys continually have to explain themselves one meltdown after another.

And now it sounds so much like a broken record.