Backup QB Syndrom?

[birdwells1]

Its when a backup qb comes off the bench and slings the ball all over the field while his teams scores effortlessly. I think most of this is due because he's playing with no pressure, in his mind, hes the back up and even if he fails all the blame is going to go to the starter for his poor performance.

The key thing in this is playing without pressure, which I think Tony played without for 58 minutes Sunday. Imo all the talk during the week was about Peyton Manning and how many points he would score on the defense (which was true) in fact we were 7 point home underdogs. That set up a great low pressure, no expectation, situation for Romo and he performed brilliantly for 58 minutes but when Romo went back on the field with the game tied I think he felt the pressure of the situation. A tied game is a tied game no matter if the score is 48-48 or 3-3.

There's other examples of teams playing looser in no pressure situations, a basketball or baseball team that needs to win its last game against a team that has no shot to get into the playoffs. The team with no chance is raining 3s or hitting the cover off the ball because they are playing with no pressure. On the otherside, the team that's trying to make the playoffs cant buy a bucket or a hit.

Robert Horry opened my eyes to this, after his career that included many clutch baskets in championship situations he was asked how did he do it so many times. Horry answer was something like this "I knew that when I took the last shot that even if I missed I wasn't going to get the blame for it because I played with Shaq and Kobe in LA and Tim Duncan in SA, if we lost everyone was going to question them. So I was able to take that last shot with the same pressure of a 1st quarter shot without pressure".

Remember when Romo first became the starter (no expectations) he was throwing the ball all around the field, he was a breath of fresh air. The problem is now that is what he's expected to do all the time and he has trouble living up to what he started.

For the first 58 minutes of the game we saw the underdog, no expectations Romo but the last 2 minutes we saw what happens when he feels the pressure in his mind.

 

[Super_Kazuya]

Some of you people are bizarrely obsessed with the last two minutes of the game. Troy Aikman and our great nineties teams won three Super Bowls because they avoided those situations like the plague. We need to try to build a team like that, instead of worrying about made up clutch stats.

 

[Everson24]

The OP does make a good point. The other day I was walking on a 310 foot high railroad bride and I could easily walk on the rail as long as I was just looking forward or only at the rail. As soon as I would look between the railroad ties and see the distance to the ground I could no longer do it. I would tense up and immediately step off the rail. I found that to be interesting considering the fact that consciously I knew that I could not fall to my death.
I can understand where all the media criticism of Tony Romo over the years has taken it's toll and it probably does cause him to play tight in these pressure situations That being said, I don't think it was a bad decision by Tony on that interception but more a case of bad luck. The bad luck thing seems to happen too often as well and may not be correctable as opposed to the wilting under pressure problem.

 

[birdwells1]

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Some of you people are bizarrely obsessed with the last two minutes of the game. Troy Aikman and our great nineties teams won three Super Bowls because they avoided those situations like the plague. We need to try to build a team like that, instead of worrying about made up clutch stats.

I agree, LeBron had the same issues, he had problems dealing with expectations and performing in clutch situations. Why do you think that he went to Miami to team up with bosh and wade, if his team was dominate enough then those tight situations wouldn't ever come up but in the championship against Dallas it did and you see what happened.

To me Romo and LeBron are a lot alike in that resect, maybe Romo needs a coach or another player to shoulder the expectations and let Romo play with less pressure.