Is Romo just in a slump or is he on the Downside?

[BTX]

Originally Posted by rocyaice

First off, i'm one of Romo's biggest supporters but its troubling to me when he's having a bad year and all people want to blame are "receivers running bad routes"? The same receivers he's had for the past 3 or 4 years? Stop it. Romo is struggling. Not as of late but overall. Phillip Rivers is as well as Eli Manning. It happens. Blaming 13 interceptions on "bad routes" is silly.

Good post. At some point we have to blame the guy that is throwing the ball for all of these picks. Enough excuses for Romo.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by aikemirv

67% completion percentage and "he is missing WR everywhere".

Whatever - you guys are ridiculous

How many of those 67% are within 7 yards of the LOS - I think a lot. This is different from past situations where Romo used to be up around 63-67% but with throwing the ball down the field a lot more.

Romo is definitely having the worst season of his career thus far. Now hopefully he can turn it around over the last half of the year - he was very good over this stretch last year. He now has a better defense to backstop him if he can get in going with Dez and Austin.

I am actually quite hopeful that a healthy Felix, some slightly improved play along the OL (? return of Costa) and a weak schedule down the stretch will launch us to a 6-1 finish to the year and a playoff berth. But Romo definitely needs to get it going for us to have a chance.

[dallasfan4lizife]

as i've watched the season, i tend to lean towards a downside.

his arm just isn't the same anymore. His accuracy has been terrible compared to every other year.

he is scared back there, understandably so, but once you get gun shy you stay gun shy.

QB's careers have come apart after a couple seasons of bad o-line play.

he's a good QB, exciting to watch, but we need to start thinking about rebuilding.

[CowboyFan74]

I just hope we hedge our bets and draft a QB early...

[rynochop]

Originally Posted by CowboyFan74

I just hope we hedge our bets and draft a QB early...

Who?? Name a name. Anyone, just name a name who our next qb is?? I just want a name, that's all. Who are we gonna draft or sign and let Romo walk..

[tantrix1969]

Originally Posted by rynochop

Who?? Name a name. Anyone, just name a name who our next qb is?? I just want a name, that's all. Who are we gonna draft or sign and let Romo walk..

considering we won't draft a qb in the 1st maybe grab E.J. Manuel in the 2nd or 3rd if he's still there,he does need some work but could be really good with the right mentor( Romo for a few yrs)
ehh just my opinion but would be nice to have a young qb back there learning sooner rather than later

edit:not saying let Romo walk think the best thing would be for him to learn from TRomo for a few

[big dog cowboy]

It's easy to see why Romo may seem off this year. Robinson is gone and no one has stepped up. OTree is is replacement? Really? Romo is back to running for his life more time than not. There is plenty of blame to go around. Any offense we generate seems completely dependent on Romo making a play. Is he having the worst season of his career? Maybe. But it's my opinion the only reason we are having any success this year is because of him not despite him.

[BTX]

A qb I wanted the Boys to draft was Kirk Cousins. I think that dude could be a good one to bad he's a skin.

[SWG9]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

I honestly do believe he is in decline because his ability to make quick reads seems to have diminished. He has never been able to exploit the middle of the field due to poor ability to avoid INTs on these throws except on simple check downs to Witten or RBs.

Now you can add an arm that is weaker taken some throws off the table, poor accuracy and limited ability to throw deep with even a single deep safety on the field.

IMO the defense is just squeezing the throws that he is able to make and it is causing great difficulty for us right now. In order to have a chance with Romo the OL has to get a lot better so we have an effective running game and more time for routes to develop. I do believe the top tier QBs would do a lot better in this offense and with this roster.

I no longer believe that Romo is a top 10 QB.

[View Full Quote]If we get an attractive offer for him we should probably trade him and start to re-build. There are still too many missing pieces here for us to contend with a non-elite QB to think we can turn it around before Romo falls off a cliff. There are some teams strapped by poor QB play including the Eagles, 49ers, Chiefs, Bears, Bucs and Browns.

Very well said. As I've said in other threads, this offseason presents a pretty serious fork in the road for the organization. We either trade Romo for a solid package of picks and players and kickstart a partial retooling, or we double down with this core and face a complete and total rebuild in 3 years.

I'd personally trade Romo and start the process this offseason, but knowing Jerry, we'll hang on to all of these guys until the bitter end and get nothing for them.

[percyhoward]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

How many of those 67% are within 7 yards of the LOS - I think a lot. This is different from past situations where Romo used to be up around 63-67% but with throwing the ball down the field a lot more.

Targets 20+ Yards Downfield
(as a percentage of total attempts)
2012 11.0%
2011 11.7%
2010 11.3%
2009 7.8%
2008 13.1%

Rather than seeing the number of downfield targets decrease over the last 5 seasons, we see that Romo threw deep the most when he had Owens ('08) or Robinson ('11), and the least when he had Austin and Crayton ('09).

Romo is still throwing the ball down the field. Both Miles and Dez are on a pace to have the most 20+ yard targets of their careers. And that's a bigger part of the problem than most people realize. Deep routes, or even intermediate-to-deep routes, are not their strength. Dez is (we hope) still emerging in this area, and Austin's specialty is catch-and-run.

Even at 15 yards or more beyond the LOS, neither Austin nor Bryant has ever been targeted more than 30 times in any one season. This year, Austin is on a pace for 48 such targets, and Bryant is on a pace for 41. For comparison's sake, last year, Robinson and Bryant had the same number of 15+ yard targets, even though Bryant was on the field for 127 more pass plays than Robinson.

Basically, Romo lost his go-to receiver for anything 15 yards or more downfield. He lost his leader in touchdowns, yards per target, and passer rating on passes targeted. In essence, he lost his most dependable, most efficiently productive receiver.

[Clove]

Romo has his little following of cult faithful that over the last 6 years, always have a different excuse year after year. When they run out of excuses, they always have the offensive line in their back pocket.

Meanwhile, we'll continue to be mediocre, and at the end of his career, his cult followers will have a million excuses as to why he couldn't win but 1 playoff victory in his entire career.

[Jimz31]

Originally Posted by Clove

Romo has his little following of cult faithful that over the last 6 years, always have a different excuse year after year. When they run out of excuses, they always have the offensive line in their back pocket.

Meanwhile, we'll continue to be mediocre, and at the end of his career, his cult followers will have a million excuses as to why he couldn't win but 1 playoff victory in his entire career.

I guess it's in the back pocket because it's always been true. How many sacks has he avoided? He's been sacked how many times the past two games? Like 8? Could have EASILY been 16.

LESS than a year ago he had one of his best years ever...now, less than a year later people are wondering if he's onthe downside? Please.