Tony Romo can go wherever he wants with Jessica Simpson now. Eli Manning and the New York Giants knocked him and the Dallas Cowboys into the offseason Sunday.

Having to wait out long, slow drives by Dallas, Manning made his few chances count, throwing two touchdown passes to Amani Toomer and getting a 1-yard touchdown run from Brandon Jacobs for a 21-17 victory that put New York into the NFC championship game for the first time since the 2000 season.

“I won’t get tired of hearing that this week,” Manning said. “No one’s given us much credit and probably still won’t. But that’s OK. We like it that way.”

Manning is heading to his first NFC championship game, at Green Bay next Sunday. Manning had a much better day than his brother, Peyton, whose Indianapolis Colts were stunned by the San Diego Chargers.

“I know he was watching and rooting for me,” said Eli, who was 12-of-18 for 163 yards.

Cornerback R.W. McQuarters intercepted a pass into the end zone with 9 seconds left, turning away a last-ditch drive by Romo. It marked his second straight disappointing finish to a playoff game, following his flubbed hold of a short field goal in Seattle last January.

“It hurts,” said Romo, who was 18-of-36 for 201 yards with a touchdown. “It’s tough right now.”

Terrell Owens came to his quarterback’s defense, even crying behind dark sunglasses with a quivering bottom lip while declaring, “You can point the finger at him, you can talk about the vacation (with Simpson), and if you do that, it’s really unfair. That’s my teammate. ... We lost as a team.”

Dallas’ failure is huge.

The Cowboys just wasted a 13-3 season, which matched the best in team history. They’re the first No. 1 seed in the NFC to lose in this round since the NFL went to the 12-team playoff format in 1990. They also became the seventh team to lose a playoff game against a team they’d beaten twice in the regular season — joining Dallas’ 1998 club.

Worst of all is the extension of all the skids: Romo now 0-2 in the playoffs, coach Wade Phillips 0-4 and the team 0-for-the-postseason since winning a wild-card game in 1996. The Cowboys have dropped five games since.

The Cowboys might be headed into a stormy offseason. Team owner Jerry Jones said Thursday he would keep Phillips regardless of what happened in the playoffs. Now that will be tested, especially with highly valued assistant coaches Jason Garrett and Tony Sparano interviewing for jobs elsewhere.

Critics may point to Romo’s trip to Mexico last weekend with his latest celebrity girlfriend as a disruption, but the problems went a lot deeper. There were all kinds of penalties that hurt Dallas drives and helped New York’s, sloppy tackling on defense and special teams, dropped passes and wasted timeouts.

The Giants loved every bit of it.

New York gave up 45 and 31 points in the first two meetings, in part because the defensive front that produced an NFL-best 53 sacks went hard after Romo but missed and wound up allowing big plays. This time, the Giants were content to give up short yardage, and the Cowboys accepted the invitation.