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While the talk of the town is the Cowboys' run game against the Giants' defense, it may be Romo who leads the way in Week 12.
Let's begin by pointing out that DeMarco Murray absolutely shredded the New York Giants in the meeting between these teams back in Week 7. He rushed 28 times for 128 yards with one touchdown, and simply put, the Giants had no answer for the NFL's leading rusher. It's safe to say that the Giants are going to be locked and loaded on finding a way to slow down Murray this weekend, but he may not end up being their biggest problem.
The man who could seriously cause disaster for the home team this weekend is none other than Tony Romo.
While we're on the topic of the last time the Cowboys and Giants met, let's not forget that Romo went 17/23 for 279 yards and three touchdowns. Romo's QBR in Week 7? 98. This makes for one of the top-10 best games for a quarterback of the 2014 season. In case you were curious, Romo also has the sixth best single-game QBR, thanks to a Week 3 performance against the St. Louis Rams, in which he posted a 99.1 QBR.
Romo has basically done the same thing all year (with the lone exception being Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers). Murray does his thing, defenses start to stack the box, and Romo takes full advantage of it. It's just the way it's going thus far.
There's no arguing that Murray is going to get plenty of touches, and will likely have a big game against the Giants. Heck, their defense ranks 32nd in the NFL against the run, giving up 145 yards per game. With that being said, though, the G-Men also rank 22nd in the league in passing yards per game allowed, with 252.7. The gist of all this? The Cowboys' offense should be lighting up the scoreboard like a Christmas tree on Sunday night.
When looking at the numbers, everything should point to Murray having the huge game, with Romo simply doing what he's done all season, right? Right. The only difference is that Romo "doing what he's done all season" consists of ridiculously strong play.
To this point in 2014, Romo has completed 185/269 (68.7%) for 2,244 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. That includes the absolutely brutal Week 1 game against the 49ers, where Romo was obviously dealing not only with rust, but also the fact that he wasn't 100%. So, let's just take that game out for argument's sake, and look at what the numbers tell us?
It tells us that Romo's numbers look like those of an MVP candidate. It would make Romo's stat line for 2014 -- 162/232 (69.8%) for 1,963 yards, 17 touchdowns and three interceptions. For a man who everyone seems to ride and criticize about turning the ball over, throwing three interceptions and losing one fumble in his last nine games, tells us a completely different story.
It's amazing what having a run game can do for your passing game, isn't it?
Now, here's where it gets fun. When looking at Romo's numbers against the Giants specifically since 2011 (a seven game span), he's thrown for an average of 304.2 yards per game, with 17 passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and nine interceptions. While the nine interceptions make you cringe a bit, it's worth noting that four of them came in one single game where Romo threw the ball 62 times.
Romo has had plenty of big games against the Giants, and while the G-Men will likely stack the box against Murray and the Cowboys' powerful run game, we could see a lot of the Romo to Dez Bryant connection that we all love so much. Let the Giants focus in on Murray, because this weekend we could be watching the Romo show, and he may end up having one of his best games of the year.
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