And there was the blowout loss to the Vikings one season in the playoffs when Romo was the QB. And the Cowboys have fallen behind by double digits in elimination/playoff games where Romo was the QB. But for some reason, some Cowboys fans want to believe that 2016 would be different. And believes the Cowboys would not have fallen behind to the Packers in 2016 if Romo was the QB.
The Cowboys had ugly losses in big games and elimination games, even when Romo was several years into starting for the Cowboys and considered a veteran at the QB position. And Romo even going years into being a starting QB, would make costly mistakes or would QB offenses who struggled in important games. But some wish to give him the benefit of the doubt, by blaming the team and players he had around him.
There tends to be revisionist history as some insist that Romo never had or QBed the types of ugly losses or bad offensive games, like the Cowboys have had at times with Dak.
I think there are valid reasons to believe 2016 Romo was superior to previous versions of Romo that had made the playoffs.
1) Experience.. this is the most obvious one but the most important. Romo's passer rating during his last playoff run in 2014 was 125.7 over the two games against Detroit and Green Bay. He had 4 TDs and zero INTs in those games. He completed 68% of his passes.. Romo was no longer the gunslinger at that point. His last two full seasons featured 65 TDs and 19 INTs.
2) He was at the top of his game. Romo led the NFL in completion percentage and TD percentage in 2014. He also led the league in passer rating AND QBR. As good as Dak was in 2016, that version of Romo was better.
3) Desperate team (player) theory. It's a known fact that the more desperate team typically can play over its head for a game or two. I think Tony Romo sensed the end was nigh for him in 2016 and would have played out of his mind that playoffs.. and might well have outplayed even Rodgers and Ryan and even Brady in the Super Bowl..
People just assuming Romo would fail in 2016 just because he had failed previously are just being lazy.. Romo was the best version of himself from 2014 forward when healthy. No one will ever convince me that he wasn't the team's best chance for a ring in 2016. I absolutely love Dak and was happy we'd found our QB of future.. but no rookie had never led a team to a Super Bowl.. and there are literally dozens of examples of veteran QBs doing just that..
