DMN: JJT: Defending Tony Romo, Jason Garrett and Jay Ratliff

[WoodysGirl]

Posted at 8:59 PM on Tue., Oct. 12, 2010 | Permalink (http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/taylor-this-team-is-maddening.html) | Yahoo! Buzz (http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzz?publisherurn=dallas_morning&guid=http%3A%2F%2Fcowboysblog.dallasnews.com%2Farc hives%2F2010%2F10%2Ftaylor-this-team-is-maddening.html%3Fnpc)
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Each week, Jean-Jacques Taylor answers your questions in our Cowboys newsletter.

It's easy to sign up and free to receive. Just click over to our newsletter page. (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/registration/reg_newsletter.jsp?hd=1)

Some highlights of his most recent newsletter:

Martin Williams from Atlanta (http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Atlanta) writes, "The offensive coordinator should have being fired after game one."
TAYLOR: I don't know that I'd go that far. This is such a weird team because the point total and win total almost never matches the production. Like, should we really rip Jason Garrett after the offense gains 511 yards with a 400-yard passer, a 100-yard runner and a 100-yard receiver? Three receivers had more than 80 yards, and he gave the ball to Felix Jones instead of Marion Barber for a change. This team is maddening, because there's a different culprit every week.


Ira Haron wonders, "Why haven't I heard Jay Ratliff on the TV these days as much as the last two years? Is he bigger and slower like Felix Jones too?"
TAYLOR: I don't know. Maybe you're at the fridge getting a cold beverage whenever he makes a play. Tell you what, why don't you spend a quarter of a game ­- it doesn't matter which one ­- watching him play. You won't find a guy who plays any harder on this team. Watch how many times he'll get a piece of a tackle on a pass play. Do you know how much effort that takes?

Emerson Lattimore writes, " Based on his body of work on Sunday, Romo is in the vast middle of NFL (http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/National_Football_League) QBs. You don't win many games when you have three interceptions. Romo, in my opinion, lacks two of the essentials to being an elite QB: arm strength and accuracy."
TAYLOR : It sounds like you have your mind made up. You can criticize a lot of things about Romo, but a lack of arm strength and accuracy aren't two of them. He's never had a completion percentage under 61.3, and he's never had a passer rating of less than 91.4. Is he the best? No. But if you think he's an average quarterback, then you should remember the days when Drew Bledsoe, Vinny Testaverde, Clint Stoerner, Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright (http://topics.dallasnews.com/topic/Anthony_Wright) and Drew Henson were taking snaps from center.

Read more: http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/taylor-this-team-is-maddening.html

[BHendri5]

now that guy was an idiot, Accuracy is not one of Romo's weaknesses

[Skinsradiosucks]

I love people who just stare at the 3int stat while failing to mention TWO of them were tipped or through the hands of our receiver. Romo has 6 INTs, 5 of them were either tipped or hit our guy's hands first.

ABSURD!!

[sago1]

But to cite some of the horrible Cowboy QBs prior to when Romo took over as reasons we should be happy to have Romo as our QB is plain dumb. Romo is every bit as good as "wonderkids" Rivers in SD & Rogers in GB. He's not Manning, Brady or Brees but even those 3 are having a tough time this year. Realize the latter 3 have each won at least 1 SB & of course Rivers, Rogers & Romo haven't. And there's the great Eli, whose won 1 SB. Now if our defense was as good as the Giants that year, we'd have a SB ring.

Did you all catch ESPN after the Vikes-Jets game on Monday night. They called Favre's performance "heroic" & he was a "warrior". But here in Dallas, our JFE claims Romo had a horrible game. Let's see, Romo & Favre both threw for 3 TDs, both turned the ball over 3 times (Romo with 3 INTs) & Favre with 2 fumbles & 1 INT. Favre complete 14-34 passes and 260+ yards while Romo was something like 35 out of 50 with 400+ yards. Of course they claim Favre had a bad shoulder & knee also bothering him, while Romo had to put up with 5 sacks in the first half, an OC who doesn't understand the need for a balanced attack, etc.


Maybe I'm not writing this correctly but just seems to me the media and many football fans, including a lot of Cowboy fans, give Romo little credit for when he's successful while throwing bullets at him when the Cowboys lose. While other QBs don't take anywhere near that abuse.

And then there's the QB Rothsenberger. Not as much mention about his suspension & what he did to get it, because I believe, he's the darling Steeler QB whose won 2 SBs. Bet some Cowboy fans would like him as our QB. Can you imagine if similar allegations over last few years were made against Romo. He'd probably have been suspended for half the season & every Sunday the media would be jumping all over him re those allegations. But not much said about good old Roth, who may be 2 SBs but also leds NFL QBs in allegations of harrassment/rape, etc.

Unfortunately, Romo will have to take all the criticism until the Cowboys & Romo win the SB. Unfortunately, with Wade as HC & probably Garrett as HC/OC, I'm rally doubting either provides the coaching necessary to get this team to the next level & Jerry as GM makes lot more mistakes then most other GMs would be allowed to make. And then there's the circus around the Cowboys...