What is an excuse? He had a horrible game against the Eagles in a short week and followed it up with the best month of his life. That same Eagles team he beat on a full week a couple weeks later to take the division. We didn't get to see if he would've followed the Panthers performance with similar results.
It's not really an excuse, these are facts. Romo struggles without his normal weekly routine.
It's Thanksgiving.. people watch football, regardless. I don't necessarily think more will watch just because they're division opponents. They should always schedule the team that they think will have the least.amount of viewers each season to play us on TG, and save divisional games for primetime, or later in the season. (IMO)