[InmanRoshi]

If you ever read the book Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, they go into great detail about his main racing rival War Admiral that they really didn't touch upon as much in the movie adaptation. War Admiral physically was a labratory specimen of a horse, but but he had one Achilles Heal that the Seabiscuit team was able to exploit ... he was just very high strung in his mental hardwiring (not unlike his father. Man of War, who is probably the greatest thoroughbred of all time). He was prone to bouts of frenzy. He went crazy when they put him in the claustrophic starting gate, and was prone to injuring himself. Dez reminds me of War Admiral, and I think teams exploit it. His very first catch in the Giants game, the Giants DB gives him a little half a shove while he was on the ground to get him wound up, and Dez predictably retaliated and went into a frenzy. No more able to ignore the bait than a cat is able to ignore the dancing feather in front of him. He might be doing the right things in practices and training camp and mini-camps, but that all goes for naught when he's frothing the the mouth and not thinking clearly in the heat of competition. The older I get the more I realize how people can change consciously make changes in their routines and habits through diligence and self awareness, but more times than not people are beholden to their natural hardwired personalities, and it gives me less hope for Dez. At this point I kind of look at him as a sunk cost that they Cowboys are going to keep going to hoping for the payoff.

I've been a Day 1 Romo fan dating back to the Romo vs. Henson days, but I agree something is off this year. I do think he's probably got a mechanical flaw (but then again he's never been a picture of perfect mechanics), but in a bigger picture he's not even the same person in persona and mannerisms. When he was his younger self everyone jumped on him for being too happy go lucky and carefree. I personally long for the days of the hat-on-backwards, going to Cabbo during the bye week, needling Parcells for being an old dinosaur Romo we got to know 5-6 years ago. It almost takes that kind of open defiance of gravity to play under this spotlight. Now he look like a guy with who fully realizes he's got one of the world's most visible franchises on his back. Chalk it up to being a new father, husband, playing for his last contract, knowing his window is closing ... but there is an air of beatendown, quiet desperation about him.