NewsBot
New Member
- Messages
- 111,281
- Reaction score
- 2,947
IRVING, Texas—Less is more generally means the minimalistic approach is often more effective
It could also mean when we narrow our focus we have a greater impact.
When it comes to the Cowboys' formerly pass-happy approach behind quarterback Tony Romo, less is more has resulted in him being more efficient, more mistake free and more effective.
In the end, it could result in Romo, America's favorite whipping boy for hollow stats and big-game failures, finally having some playoff success and him being appreciated more than ever.
It's all possible now for Romo and a Cowboys team that has gone from pass-happy to run-oriented, led by league-leading rusher DeMarco Murray and the team's massive offensive line.
Romo has gone from having to do everything to a complementary piece in the Cowboys' 5-1 start and the first five-game winning streak since 2007.
"I think the best thing that we've done as an organization is we've very purposefully tried to take the burden off our quarterback," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "At different times in Tony's career, he's had a lot of burden on him—we haven't played great defense, we haven't been great on the offensive line, we haven't run the ball very well—and all of a sudden the way we're going to move the ball and the way we're going to score points is by throwing it. We've made a very conscious effort as an organization to say, 'OK, let's get better on defense. Let's get better up front. Let's spread this burden around.' The best teams in this league, the best teams in any sport, have a burden that is spread around. It's rare that one guy can carry a team. It's really important for everyone to understand that they have a role, and the more that we can spread the responsibilities around throughout your football team, the better you're going to be as a team."
No longer are all the expectations and all the blame placed on Romo having to work miracles while making up for a poor offensive line, a suspect defense and inefficient running game as has been the case for the majority of his career.
The Cowboys are on pace to run it more than they have passed for the first time since Romo took over as starting quarterback in 2006.
Romo remains one of the league's top quarterbacks. He ranks fifth in the NFL through six games, completing 131-of-191 passes for 1,510 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions and a quarterback rating of 100.5.
He is on pace for the best completion percentage of his career. He is currently at an efficient 68.6, good for fourth best in the NFL.
Take away the three-interception meltdown in the season-opening loss against the San Francisco 49ers and Romo's less-is-more numbers are even more impressive.
Over the last five games, all Cowboys wins, Romo has completed 109-of-154 passes for 1,229 yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions and whopping quarterback rating of 111.4.
Cowboys vice-president Stephen Jones said "there's no question" Romo has benefited having the burden lifted off him by a dominant running game.
“Tony’s been successful when we hadn’t had a running game," Jones said. Certainly not in the win/loss column, as much as we’re having right now, but that’s the beauty of Tony. We know he can go for 400 and 500 yards. He’s certainly benefiting from this and he’s certainly not getting exposed in terms of the hits that he’s taking. There’s no question, no question, no question. You can see it in the number of times that he’s throwing it and his passing yards. But he’s still very efficient."
That Romo is still very efficient and very important has also been key to the Cowboys success. The Cowboys have removed the maximum burden off of him but he is still the quarterback and is still needed to make key plays to extend drives, especially on third down.
Romo made three signature plays that played key roles in victories over the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks the past two weeks.
Romo played Houdini and spun out of a sack from Texans defensive end J.J. Watt to toss a 43-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Williams against the Texans. He also beat the blitz with a 37-yard pass to Dez Bryant that led to a field goal and an overtime victory in that game.
And then there was the 3rd-and-20 from the Dallas 31 in the fourth quarter against the Seahawks. Romo spun away from the pass rush and bought some time before hitting Williams for a 23-yard gain on a drive that led to the Cowboys' go-ahead touchdown.
Romo appreciates the help of a running game but takes issue at the suggestion that his load has been lightened and he has less of a burden.
“I wouldn’t use those terms," Romo said. "It’s never easy. I think playing quarterback is always a fun grind that you continually know when you let up, you can be exposed. I don’t think that’s the term I would use, but I do think anytime you have a running game, it’s going to benefit everybody. My job is to get us into good plays and get the ball to DeMarco when we’re running the ball, get us into the right looks, and then when it’s time to throw on third you’ve got to go out and execute. I think we’re doing that right now, we’re doing a lot of good things right now, and we’ve just got to keep getting better and better. I think you’ve seen us continue to run the ball well and keep doing the things we’re doing."
If the Cowboys keep running the ball and keep doing the things they are doing, Romo might finally get appreciated for all of his great accomplishments. He owns all the Cowboys passing records but doesn't get the universal respect as one of the team's all-time greats because of his lack of playoff success.
Romo has one playoff win as quarterback of a Cowboys franchise that holds Hall of Famers and Super Bowl champions Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman as the ultimate standard bearers.
Ironically, the formula the Cowboys are using for success in 2014 is the same one that helped Aikman quarterback the Cowboys to Super Bowl titles in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Aikman never led the league in passing as the Cowboys were led by a strong running game behind NFL all-time rushing king Emmitt Smith.
Aikman was known more for his efficiency and coming through with big plays in the passing game when it mattered most, on third down and in the fourth quarter.
Jones certainly remembers and hopes the result ends up the same for Romo.
"I think that’s the beauty of having a consistent running game, which we have right now," Jones said. “It all starts up front with the five guys. We’re able to run the ball and then when we do throw it, they’re doing just as good a job protecting him. It’s a great formula for us in the ‘90s. We’re starting to touch on it. We’re a long ways from that, but we’re off to a good start."
When less is more, more means greater efficiency.
For the Cowboys, this is resulting in a most effective Romo who could possibly end up "super" and finally be appreciated more than ever.
All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
Continue reading...
It could also mean when we narrow our focus we have a greater impact.
When it comes to the Cowboys' formerly pass-happy approach behind quarterback Tony Romo, less is more has resulted in him being more efficient, more mistake free and more effective.
In the end, it could result in Romo, America's favorite whipping boy for hollow stats and big-game failures, finally having some playoff success and him being appreciated more than ever.
It's all possible now for Romo and a Cowboys team that has gone from pass-happy to run-oriented, led by league-leading rusher DeMarco Murray and the team's massive offensive line.
Romo has gone from having to do everything to a complementary piece in the Cowboys' 5-1 start and the first five-game winning streak since 2007.
"I think the best thing that we've done as an organization is we've very purposefully tried to take the burden off our quarterback," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "At different times in Tony's career, he's had a lot of burden on him—we haven't played great defense, we haven't been great on the offensive line, we haven't run the ball very well—and all of a sudden the way we're going to move the ball and the way we're going to score points is by throwing it. We've made a very conscious effort as an organization to say, 'OK, let's get better on defense. Let's get better up front. Let's spread this burden around.' The best teams in this league, the best teams in any sport, have a burden that is spread around. It's rare that one guy can carry a team. It's really important for everyone to understand that they have a role, and the more that we can spread the responsibilities around throughout your football team, the better you're going to be as a team."
No longer are all the expectations and all the blame placed on Romo having to work miracles while making up for a poor offensive line, a suspect defense and inefficient running game as has been the case for the majority of his career.
The Cowboys are on pace to run it more than they have passed for the first time since Romo took over as starting quarterback in 2006.
Romo remains one of the league's top quarterbacks. He ranks fifth in the NFL through six games, completing 131-of-191 passes for 1,510 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions and a quarterback rating of 100.5.
He is on pace for the best completion percentage of his career. He is currently at an efficient 68.6, good for fourth best in the NFL.
Take away the three-interception meltdown in the season-opening loss against the San Francisco 49ers and Romo's less-is-more numbers are even more impressive.
Over the last five games, all Cowboys wins, Romo has completed 109-of-154 passes for 1,229 yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions and whopping quarterback rating of 111.4.
Cowboys vice-president Stephen Jones said "there's no question" Romo has benefited having the burden lifted off him by a dominant running game.
“Tony’s been successful when we hadn’t had a running game," Jones said. Certainly not in the win/loss column, as much as we’re having right now, but that’s the beauty of Tony. We know he can go for 400 and 500 yards. He’s certainly benefiting from this and he’s certainly not getting exposed in terms of the hits that he’s taking. There’s no question, no question, no question. You can see it in the number of times that he’s throwing it and his passing yards. But he’s still very efficient."
That Romo is still very efficient and very important has also been key to the Cowboys success. The Cowboys have removed the maximum burden off of him but he is still the quarterback and is still needed to make key plays to extend drives, especially on third down.
Romo made three signature plays that played key roles in victories over the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks the past two weeks.
Romo played Houdini and spun out of a sack from Texans defensive end J.J. Watt to toss a 43-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Williams against the Texans. He also beat the blitz with a 37-yard pass to Dez Bryant that led to a field goal and an overtime victory in that game.
And then there was the 3rd-and-20 from the Dallas 31 in the fourth quarter against the Seahawks. Romo spun away from the pass rush and bought some time before hitting Williams for a 23-yard gain on a drive that led to the Cowboys' go-ahead touchdown.
Romo appreciates the help of a running game but takes issue at the suggestion that his load has been lightened and he has less of a burden.
“I wouldn’t use those terms," Romo said. "It’s never easy. I think playing quarterback is always a fun grind that you continually know when you let up, you can be exposed. I don’t think that’s the term I would use, but I do think anytime you have a running game, it’s going to benefit everybody. My job is to get us into good plays and get the ball to DeMarco when we’re running the ball, get us into the right looks, and then when it’s time to throw on third you’ve got to go out and execute. I think we’re doing that right now, we’re doing a lot of good things right now, and we’ve just got to keep getting better and better. I think you’ve seen us continue to run the ball well and keep doing the things we’re doing."
If the Cowboys keep running the ball and keep doing the things they are doing, Romo might finally get appreciated for all of his great accomplishments. He owns all the Cowboys passing records but doesn't get the universal respect as one of the team's all-time greats because of his lack of playoff success.
Romo has one playoff win as quarterback of a Cowboys franchise that holds Hall of Famers and Super Bowl champions Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman as the ultimate standard bearers.
Ironically, the formula the Cowboys are using for success in 2014 is the same one that helped Aikman quarterback the Cowboys to Super Bowl titles in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Aikman never led the league in passing as the Cowboys were led by a strong running game behind NFL all-time rushing king Emmitt Smith.
Aikman was known more for his efficiency and coming through with big plays in the passing game when it mattered most, on third down and in the fourth quarter.
Jones certainly remembers and hopes the result ends up the same for Romo.
"I think that’s the beauty of having a consistent running game, which we have right now," Jones said. “It all starts up front with the five guys. We’re able to run the ball and then when we do throw it, they’re doing just as good a job protecting him. It’s a great formula for us in the ‘90s. We’re starting to touch on it. We’re a long ways from that, but we’re off to a good start."
When less is more, more means greater efficiency.
For the Cowboys, this is resulting in a most effective Romo who could possibly end up "super" and finally be appreciated more than ever.
All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
Continue reading...