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Ashley Fox | 'Boys find their man in Mr. RomoBy Ashley Fox
Inquirer Columnist
After six seasons and eight quarterbacks, the Dallas Cowboys finally have found their man of the future. He isn't the second coming of Troy Aikman. He is Tony Romo.
Romo doesn't have the pedigree or stature of a high draft pick. He wasn't even drafted. He isn't all that big, and hasn't totally won over his gruff, old-school coach.
But what the 26-year-old former Eastern Illinois product does have in eight starts this season are six wins and a legion of statistics that say he is good enough to stick - 2,440 passing yards, a 66.3 completion percentage, 16 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, and a gleaming 98.4 passer rating that is second in the league, behind that of Peyton Manning.
And after his shakiest performance of the season, against New Orleans, in which he misfired on 17 of 33 pass attempts and threw two picks in a loss, Romo rebounded last Saturday with one of his best games, a victory over Atlanta. He has the Cowboys, who looked all but dead earlier this season with Drew Bledsoe at quarterback, in first place in the NFC East with a huge divisional game against the Eagles on Christmas night.
Romo is for real, and the Cowboys are overjoyed by it, even though they aren't willing to rework the modest contract he agreed to in August, before he ever started an NFL game. At least not yet.
"At some point, you're going to have to make a decision at that level and make a permanent decision," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week.
The longer Jones waits, the more expensive Romo will become.
With Dallas pushing toward the playoffs, however, Romo's contract is not a top priority. Beating the Eagles, then Detroit on New Year's Eve, is more important. Whether that happens in large part will be up to Romo.
Former Cowboys scout Jim Garrett is credited with discovering Romo, although it was former Dallas assistant coach Sean Payton, now the head coach in New Orleans, who brought Romo to Dallas. Payton also played at Eastern Illinois. He had seen Romo's fast release and his scrambling ability, and assured the Cowboys that if they signed Romo, he would be ready to start in one or two years.
It took four, but Payton was right nonetheless.
"I think there are some things you look for at the position," Payton said recently. "I think the thing that everyone took note of is he had some of those characteristics... . You saw a quick release and you saw someone who could locate the ball in tight traffic. Those are the things for me initially that were appealing and felt gave him a chance. Now, how that is going to play out in a guy's career, you don't know. But it's important to him, and he works hard at it."
Romo got his first real work of the season against the New York Giants on Oct. 23. At halftime, with Dallas trailing, 12-7, Cowboys coach Bill Parcells benched Bledsoe and put in Romo, who completed 14 of 25 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns, but threw three interceptions in the 36-22 loss.
In his first five official starts - which included four wins - Romo threw for 10 touchdowns and suffered only two interceptions. He has proven to be much more mobile than Bledsoe and has wowed fans with his gunslinging mentality, which was born, at least to some extent, by his boyhood love of Brett Favre.
Dallas fans have embraced Romo and made his jersey the NFL's No. 1 seller since Thanksgiving, but there were questions about Romo after the New Orleans game. How would he respond to adversity? What would he come back with against the Falcons? Was he really the real deal?
"I see that he keeps his composure," Jones said after the Atlanta game. "He did it coming into the game from last week. I think we learned a lot about Tony last week. We saw him willing to go ahead and do the things it takes to try to win the game, even though there might be some stat consequences. That's not what he's interested in. He's interested in winning the ball game. By this comeback win, he's showing he can bring this team back. I think that's really important."
Said Terrell Owens, who caught two touchdown passes from Romo against Atlanta: "Some guys have that uncanny ability to kind of just mesh and feed off each other... . Tony is my guy."
Romo is the Cowboys' guy, too. This week, it will be the Eagles' job to figure out how to slow down both Romo and Dallas' fourth-ranked offense, which is averaging 371.9 yards per game, slightly less than the Eagles.
Will the Eagles try to keep Romo in the pocket, as the Saints did so successfully? Or will they try to take away one of his favorite targets?
We will see in a few days. What we know for sure is that Dallas has finally found its quarterback of the future, and he's right here in the present.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Ashley Fox at 215-854-5064 or afox@phillynews.com.
Inquirer Columnist
After six seasons and eight quarterbacks, the Dallas Cowboys finally have found their man of the future. He isn't the second coming of Troy Aikman. He is Tony Romo.
Romo doesn't have the pedigree or stature of a high draft pick. He wasn't even drafted. He isn't all that big, and hasn't totally won over his gruff, old-school coach.
But what the 26-year-old former Eastern Illinois product does have in eight starts this season are six wins and a legion of statistics that say he is good enough to stick - 2,440 passing yards, a 66.3 completion percentage, 16 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, and a gleaming 98.4 passer rating that is second in the league, behind that of Peyton Manning.
And after his shakiest performance of the season, against New Orleans, in which he misfired on 17 of 33 pass attempts and threw two picks in a loss, Romo rebounded last Saturday with one of his best games, a victory over Atlanta. He has the Cowboys, who looked all but dead earlier this season with Drew Bledsoe at quarterback, in first place in the NFC East with a huge divisional game against the Eagles on Christmas night.
Romo is for real, and the Cowboys are overjoyed by it, even though they aren't willing to rework the modest contract he agreed to in August, before he ever started an NFL game. At least not yet.
"At some point, you're going to have to make a decision at that level and make a permanent decision," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week.
The longer Jones waits, the more expensive Romo will become.
With Dallas pushing toward the playoffs, however, Romo's contract is not a top priority. Beating the Eagles, then Detroit on New Year's Eve, is more important. Whether that happens in large part will be up to Romo.
Former Cowboys scout Jim Garrett is credited with discovering Romo, although it was former Dallas assistant coach Sean Payton, now the head coach in New Orleans, who brought Romo to Dallas. Payton also played at Eastern Illinois. He had seen Romo's fast release and his scrambling ability, and assured the Cowboys that if they signed Romo, he would be ready to start in one or two years.
It took four, but Payton was right nonetheless.
"I think there are some things you look for at the position," Payton said recently. "I think the thing that everyone took note of is he had some of those characteristics... . You saw a quick release and you saw someone who could locate the ball in tight traffic. Those are the things for me initially that were appealing and felt gave him a chance. Now, how that is going to play out in a guy's career, you don't know. But it's important to him, and he works hard at it."
Romo got his first real work of the season against the New York Giants on Oct. 23. At halftime, with Dallas trailing, 12-7, Cowboys coach Bill Parcells benched Bledsoe and put in Romo, who completed 14 of 25 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns, but threw three interceptions in the 36-22 loss.
In his first five official starts - which included four wins - Romo threw for 10 touchdowns and suffered only two interceptions. He has proven to be much more mobile than Bledsoe and has wowed fans with his gunslinging mentality, which was born, at least to some extent, by his boyhood love of Brett Favre.
Dallas fans have embraced Romo and made his jersey the NFL's No. 1 seller since Thanksgiving, but there were questions about Romo after the New Orleans game. How would he respond to adversity? What would he come back with against the Falcons? Was he really the real deal?
"I see that he keeps his composure," Jones said after the Atlanta game. "He did it coming into the game from last week. I think we learned a lot about Tony last week. We saw him willing to go ahead and do the things it takes to try to win the game, even though there might be some stat consequences. That's not what he's interested in. He's interested in winning the ball game. By this comeback win, he's showing he can bring this team back. I think that's really important."
Said Terrell Owens, who caught two touchdown passes from Romo against Atlanta: "Some guys have that uncanny ability to kind of just mesh and feed off each other... . Tony is my guy."
Romo is the Cowboys' guy, too. This week, it will be the Eagles' job to figure out how to slow down both Romo and Dallas' fourth-ranked offense, which is averaging 371.9 yards per game, slightly less than the Eagles.
Will the Eagles try to keep Romo in the pocket, as the Saints did so successfully? Or will they try to take away one of his favorite targets?
We will see in a few days. What we know for sure is that Dallas has finally found its quarterback of the future, and he's right here in the present.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Ashley Fox at 215-854-5064 or afox@phillynews.com.
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