How great was Romo?

[khiladi]

Parcells wasn’t even making the playoffs until Romo saved his image here. People forget ex-players of his were flying down from NY to be on the sideline, because they observed how much Parcells was wallowing in self-pity as his homeboys like Drew Bledsoe kept chucking INTs straight into the hands of the opposition. Parcells was trying his best to keep his guys in, but even he could t justify Bledsoe any longer.

Then Romo had to overcome a defense that couldn’t even stop a screen pass when Kitna threw them in December. And then Parcells went conservatives against a Seattle decimated backfield that had to get guys off the street to play cornerback in the playoffs because of injuries.

Parcells was an ingrate that year to Romo. And he was always known for his conservative nature offensively.

 

[aikemirv]

History may dictate moving on from Romo in 2017 was a bad decision. We know Dak sucked and the "should've, could've, would've" is undefeated. We don't have an alternate universe to show were Romo comes back and either leads the team to the SB or gets injured yet again with millions of dollars of cap space being flushed down the toilet. But, I'm sure Romo fans believe SB was on the horizon.

MIllions of cap space that we are using for what? Nobody can predict the future but we know the past. Wow, bringing all kinds of presumptions in response to me that I never stated. Bringing up the highest QB rating to ever lose a playoff game does not help your cause either!

 

[Diehardblues]

That's not a phenomenon unique to the Cowboys. Most teams don't go to the playoffs without their starting QB.

I always wanted a greater QB than Romo most years but it wasn’t an anemic passing game and 30th ranked offense which was preventing more success and playoff appearances.

 

[DFWJC]

you know Seattle doctored the ball and an NFL rule change was placed to prevent teams from doing that again, right?

A starting NFL QB shouldn't ever be holding for FGs anyway.
Has nothing to do with him as a QB. In fact, as QB, he led the team down the field for the go-ahead points in that game.

But yes. They changed the rules after that season.
The offense gets to use its own balls.

 

[black label]

Romo was a great QB not some college stiff that cant run the simplest offense in the nfl

 

[Diehardblues]

It illustrates how weak our current situation is when we want to compare our lack of success we had in Romo era. Oh boy .. lol

 

[kycowboyfan]

you know Seattle doctored the ball and an NFL rule change was placed to prevent teams from doing that again, right?

That ball was Armor Alled to death. It was so slick it glowed.

 

[Aviano90]

MIllions of cap space that we are using for what? Nobody can predict the future but we know the past. Wow, bringing all kinds of presumptions in response to me that I never stated. Bringing up the highest QB rating to ever lose a playoff game does not help your cause either!

Teams don't have the luxury of making decision with the benefit of hindsight. Romo was getting injured every 2-7 hits he was taking, and missing significant time. He had a major injury in 2013. While this only caused him to miss 1 game, it was a season ending injury that just happened to occur late in the season. Had it been week 1, he would have missed the entire season. I bring this up because, even when cleared to play the following year, it was always something that was going to cause issues. The man even had to stand the entire flight to prevent his back from tightening up. Tiger Woods has the same surgery and took him years to recover to be able to play golf. Romo was getting hit by 300 lb linemen.

How he managed to survive 2014 is beyond me. He was getting shots as frequently as he could (I've heard weekly). He was barely able to walk late in the 3rd quarter after being thrown to the ground in the GB playoff game. He could barely stand. Thankfully, he was able to finish the last 2 drives after getting back to the sidelines.

The man was beaten down physically and I think likely he would have kept on getting injured. You can disagree but the team made a decision to move on from an injury prone player. I don't fault them for that. I'm not happy they are sitting on the cap space, but I still think it was the right move and I don't care if we go 0-16. It was the right move. Draft another QB and start a new era. The Romo era was over.

And I never said anything about passer rating. I think passer rating is highly overvalued. I know it is a proud stat for Romo fans though.

 

[khiladi]

I always wanted a greater QB than Romo most years but it wasn’t an anemic passing game and 30th ranked offense which was preventing more success and playoff appearances.

Yes it was..

We were a top five offense yardage-wise, but bottom of the league in red-zone scoring, play action passing and bottom half scoring wise.

Jason Garrett was totally clueless in how to blend a running game with a passing game and the changes in offense from a running perspective only started happening after the 2012 purge of coaches, including Garrett’s boy Hudson Houck, which led to us kicking into Callahan, whose contract with the Jets was over and who built the zone-blocking schemes and running game and also started the revamp with the OL by bringing in Leary as an unfrafted FA or a bottom pick in the draft, I can’t remember right now off the top of my head.

Teams would just defense us deep cover 2 with Garrett and give us the twenties while locking up the red-zone. And most of our yardage and scoring came in the second half when they abandoned Garrett’s game plan and pushed the tempo. In 2012, talk around town was Garrett had no answers and that they should go more up tempo.

The signs started as soon as Garrett was given full control. Jerry had to leverage a draft in 2008 and brought in Roy Williams, because that was supposed to open up the stagnating offense that couldn’t score. They were harping on the second WR excuse for years and Miles Austin’s breakout game against KC was supposed to resolve those ills. The problem with that game is that MA got most of hus yardage after the catch and poor tacking by KC. It has nothing to do with Garrett’s scheming. So the word continued.

In Wade’s final year, Garrett’s offense had 19 TOs in 8 games, putting incredible pressure on the defense, which was often the scapegoat.

 

[Aviano90]

I always wanted a greater QB than Romo most years but it wasn’t an anemic passing game and 30th ranked offense which was preventing more success and playoff appearances.

Then let's get a new QB and start a new era. If we have to cycle through 5 of them, let's do it. The Romo era was over. I'm not married to Dak. If he can't get it done, find someone who can.

 

[Diehardblues]

Yes it was..

We were a top five offense yardage-wise, but bottom of the league in red-zone scoring, play action passing and bottom half scoring wise.

Jason Garrett was totally clueless in how to blend a running game with a passing game and the changes in offense from a running perspective only started happening after the 2012 purge of coaches, including Garrett’s boy Hudson Houck, which led to us kicking into Callahan who built the zone-blocking schemes and running game.

Teams would just defense us deep cover 2 and give us the twenties while locking up the red-zone. And most of our yardage and scoring came in the second half when they abandoned Garrett’s game plan and pushed the tempo. In 2012, talk around town was Garrett had no answers and that they should go more up tempo.

The signs started as soon as Garrett was given full control. Jerry had to leverage a draft in 2008 and brought in Roy Williams, because that was supposed to open up the stagnating offense that couldn’t score. They were harping on the second WR excuse for years and Miles Austin’s breakout game against KC was supposed to resolve those ills. The problem with that game is that MA got most of hus yardage after the catch and poor tacking by KC. It has nothing to do with Garrett’s scheming. So the word continued.

In Wade’s final year, Garrett’s offense had 19 TOs in 8 games, putting incredible pressure on the defense, which was often the scapegoat.

So, your assessment in the Romo era is our offense was preventing more success than our defense?

 

[Diehardblues]

Then let's get a new QB and start a new era. If we have to cycle through 5 of them, let's do it. The Romo era was over. I'm not married to Dak. If he can't get it done, find someone who can.

Agreed! We’ll see how married we are.

 

[ArtClink]

2 wild card wins in his career. Not a ring of honor candidate when comparing to Danny White, Aikman, and Roger.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I don't know Tony Romo personally but I have had opportunity to watch him over the years. He strikes me as a pretty good human being. One of the very best, in that regard, I've ever watched in Professional Sports. To me, that's a better testament to his greatness then anything.

That's just my opinion of course.

 

[khiladi]

So, your assessment in the Romo era is our offense was preventing more success than our defense?

My assessment is Wade should never have been hamstrung by Garrett, because we could have competed for SBs.

Our problems defensively were the pathetic backfield that the FO saddled this team with, but it clearly wasn’t bad like people assume. Jacques Reeves was awful and Henry who got smoked by Cooper in the 2007 playoff game was old **. We had no safeties either and our LBs were bad in pass coverage. This is ultimately why the Cowboys didn’t that much on Claiborne in the draft.

When we won our first playoff game in 17 years, Wade’s defense was like the second best scoring defense in the league and generated 26 TOs and posted two shutouts to end the season, despite this personnel he was saddled with.

Offensively, we were EIGHTEENTH in RED ZONE scoring. The offense was bound to break against a great defense that year like Minnesota, who made life a living hell for Romo in the backfield. Garrett as an OC had his career made off Romo’s arm and padded stats. He couldn’t devise any offense to score in shortened fields, primarily because he couldn’t field a running game to keep the defense off balance and his passing game was just built on long-developing routes, meaning the pressure on Romo was incredible. Teams would just pin back and blitz against these long routes on third in long in particular, which we were often saddled with.

Most of our runs were built off the motor of Barber, who couldn’t sustain that level of play for a long time. Our run game amounted to the draw on second and long. And Garrett’s passing attack was heavily built off check downs to the RBs over the middle because of the deep cover 2.

That being said, most of our offensive success was in the second half or the last two minutes of the guest half when we pushed the pace.

 

[Blackspider214]

Great enough to lead a perennial 0-16 pile of sht to winning %. Fans got what they deserve now. I love it!

Three straight 8-8 seasons. 3 straight win or go home losses. 0-3 divisional round record. Never played a full season since 2012. In fact, only played a handful of full seasons. This dude is so romanticized it isn't funny. He shriveled up when it mattered most. He's not even as good as Phillip Rivers. This guy could not be counted on to stay healthy for the life of this team yet people still cry over this dude. And quit exaggerating with your 0-16 comment to try and make a point. This guy played with a lot of offensive talent over his time here. But the narrative is it was only him here. Which isn't true.

 

[JustChip]

So, you believe Dak is the best Qb for this offense?

I think it’s a better argument if we had those Giants defense we could have won a SB.

No, Dak is not the best QB for this offense. That's not even debatable since all it takes is one other QB better. But that's not what's at issue. The original post that I responded to was that this team would be 3-0 with Romo. All I've said is that is not a given, which absolutely true. It has nothing to do with Dak, but somehow you've turned this into a Dak debate, probably because I struck a nerve that you perceive as being critical of Romo.

I think those Giants defenses would have improved the chances dramatically, but again, there's no guarantee so it's purely conjecture. The only fact that is indisputable is that that Giants team with all of it's players and coaches won the SB. That's it. Anything else is a "what is the greatest team ever" conversation - fun to debate, but no provable.

 

[Diehardblues]

My assessment is Wade should never have been hamstrung by Garrett, because we could have competed for SBs.

Our problems defensively were the pathetic backfield that the FO saddled this team with, but it clearly wasn’t bad like people assume. Jacques Reeves was awful and Henry who got smoked by Cooper in the 2007 playoff game was old **. We had no safeties either and our LBs were bad in pass coverage. This is ultimately why the Cowboys didn’t that much on Claiborne in the draft.

When we won our first playoff game in 17 years, Wade’s defense was like the second best scoring defense in the league and generated 26 TOs
And posted two shutouts to end the season.

That being said, most of our offensive success was in the second half or the last two minutes of the guest half when we pushed the pace. And Garrett couldn’t field a running game to save his life. Most of our runs were built off the motor of Barber, who couldn’t sustain that level of play for a long time. Our run game amounted to the draw on second and long. And Garrett’s passing attack was heavily built off check downs to the RBs over the middle because of the deep cover 2.

Are you only evaluating the Romo era under Wade?

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

2 wild card wins in his career. Not a ring of honor candidate when comparing to Danny White, Aikman, and Roger.

Danny should be in the ROH but Tony deserves it too.

 

[Diehardblues]

No, Dak is not the best QB for this offense. That's not even debatable since all it takes is one other QB better. But that's not what's at issue. The original post that I responded to was that this team would be 3-0 with Romo. All I've said is that is not a given, which absolutely true. It has nothing to do with Dak, but somehow you've turned this into a Dak debate, probably because I struck a nerve that you perceive as being critical of Romo.

I think those Giants defenses would have improved the chances dramatically, but again, there's no guarantee so it's purely conjecture. The only fact that is indisputable is that that Giants team with all of it's players and coaches won the SB. That's it. Anything else is a "what is the greatest team ever" conversation - fun to debate, but no provable.

I’d argue it’s more probable we’d be 3-0 with Romo.