Barry Church Reveals Jason Witten Was Deciding Factor for Dak Prescott to Take Over for Tony Romo

[PA Cowboy Fan]

No, season-ending "elimination games" don't count as playoff games. That's total horse crap.
Playoff games are playoff games.

Always excuses. And it wasn't like we were competing against powerhouse teams either.

 

[SultanOfSix]

Me and others on this site have told y’all this. Dez confirmed this awhile ago but maybe it sounds better coming from Church? They didn’t go back Romo because Dak won the locker room. He took his spot. Witten giving his blessing was the nail in the coffin.

That tells me this team wouldn’t have done anything if Romo stayed at qb because this team was willing to ride with a rookie over him.

Players should never decide who plays on the field. This is one reason why the team hasn’t won anything that matters in almost thirty years.

 

[Clove]

An idiotic decision that cost them a Super Bowl trip

And you know this how?

 

[calico]

Et tu, brute?

 

[Whirlwin]

Having Zeke in his prime helped Dak a lot....without him, Tony may have been back.

He definitely gave Prescott an opportunity to learn the game

 

[Whirlwin]

Then Green Bay, which was a HORRIBLE defensive team, was down 31-7 early the next playoff game. That said nothing.

Even this season teams that played us went on a losing streak

 

[Whirlwin]

Lol


Yea ignore getting down 21-3. This is why “stats lie”

Byron Jones

 

[BoysForLife]

They partied their tails off those first 2-3 years. Saw them out a lot.

I did see Romo at dinner once with Dak. I'm told he took him out (not partying, but dinner and talk) every once in a while during his rookie year. But I only saw them once.

They just didn't do it in Cabo, so that makes it ok I guess

 

[Nova]

2 straight years of waiting for Romo to heel from his injuries, It was time to move on.

yup

/thread

People who think Romo might have given us a better chance could be right, but it doesn't matter. There's a pretty good chance Romo wouldn't have even made it to that playoff game.

He legitimately could not take a hit anymore.

 

[Chuck 54]

I didn’t see anything in this that Witten was involved in the decision at the front office or coach level. It sounded more like locker room conversation. Church says,

• he personally was wowed with Dak in camp but super impressed by the preseason game that they finally had a backup who could win if Romo went down. He even referred to Moore and Cassel as backups in previous years where they all knew the season was over when Romo went down because they didn’t have a legit backup.
• church explains that if Romo had been ready to return after 2-3 games, the locker room may have been split between young guys and vets, but after the roll they were on with Dak, no one wanted a change, that you have to roll with the momentum. Then he said that when Witten said, no way you can go back to “9”, have to roll with “4”, that was IT. He meant no doubts at all from the locker room.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think it was ever intended to infer that Witten influenced the actual decision.

 

[WillieBeamen]

yup

/thread

People who think Romo might have given us a better chance could be right, but it doesn't matter. There's a pretty good chance Romo wouldn't have even made it to that playoff game.

He legitimately could not take a hit anymore.

Lies

 

[SlammedZero]

Garrett ruined many careers.

The more time goes on, the more I realize how bad it was. Usually a Coach looks better in retrospect.

Right? What a decade lost. Even when he had a team good enough to carry his coaching, it felt like fate wouldn't even give it to him, between the Dez "non-catch" and then the 3rd and 20.

 

[Havic]

Reminds me of the chiefs giving back grbac the qb job back when rich gannon played all year to get them to the playoffs

 

[tyke1doe]

Nothing surprising. You have to ride the hot hand, especially when your main quarterback (Romo) was one more hit into retirement.
If Romo was young, I could see him regaining his starting position. But I supported Dak remaining the starter.

 

[DFWJC]

Always excuses. And it wasn't like we were competing against powerhouse teams either.

Just shut up. You are clueless on this topic.
Always have been

If you think regular season games are the same as playoff games, I don't know what to say.
Just crown the Raven the SB champ then.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

Just shut up. You are clueless on this topic.
Always have been

Nice comeback. If Dak played like Romo did in those play-in games he would get crucified on these boards and rightfully so. Just don't understand the cult of Romo. He was a good QB who failed in the biggest games yet some want to put him up with HOF'ers. I'll never understand it.

 

[DFWJC]

Nice comeback. If Dak played like Romo did in those play-in games he would get crucified on these boards and rightfully so. Just don't undewrstand the cult of Romo. He was a good QB who failed in the biggest games yet some want to put him up with HOF'ers. I'll never understand it.

He never played on teams remotely that bad.
How can you even compare

And always the bad games never the good.
I notice no mention of the end-of-season Philly game in 2009 for the division and home field, or the week-after-week division on the line December games in 2014, or the lose-and-go-home game at Washinton in game 15 in 2013 (Romo had surgery the next week so didn't play).....multiple Cowboy wins.

But even then, they were not playoff games.

Romo (and the team) deserved criticism for those losses, and Dak (and the team) would too. But they were not playoff games.

 

[KJJ]

Always excuses. And it wasn't like we were competing against powerhouse teams either.

Washington was certainly no powerhouse when we faced them in a season finale elimination game in 2012. RG3 was a rookie playing on an injured leg. He only had around 100 yards passing but he was still able to scramble (limp) for a few key first downs. Alfred Morris, another rookie rushed for 200 yards. Romo suffered a complete meltdown tossing 3 INT’s. After the game practically the entire board wanted to move on from him. He was up for an extension and no one wanted to pay him. Even the Romo lovers disappeared and wouldn’t defend him.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

He never played on teams remotely that bad.
How can you even compare

And always the bad games never the good.
I notice no mention of the end-of-season Philly game in 2009 for the division and home field, or the week-after-week division on the line December games in 2014, or the lose-and-go-home game at Washinton in game 15 in 2013 (Romo had surgery the next week so didnt play).....multiple Cowboy wins.

But even then, they were not playoff games.

He had 2 good playoff games in a decade of play. That's it. And all of a sudden people act like he was going to do something he never did before and that's beat the great AR when Romo hadn't played for the majority of 2 years. Of course Romo always gets excuses made for him. I don't dislike Romo but I don't like when people elevate him to something he wasn't. I mean he's retired. It's over. Let's see how close he gets to the HOF.

 

[krimson]

I still feel Romo was a better passer at the time. Bringing him back would have really opened up our passing game. That coupled with a great rushing attack and a top 5 scoring defense would have been really hard to stop.