I don't think he considered Romo a 'safe bet' because he didn't re-new his contract until we were near the middle of the regular season. He had Garrett, probably thought he could help assist Romo.
The defense takes some flack and it should to a degree, but quite frankly it's much better than it was back in '06 and '04 (last year we ran the 4-3). I think the biggest problem is the safety play. We're not very fast on defense overall and Bradie isn't the greatest cover guy. So you need good covering safeties to help out and we don't have it. I think that compounds the issue at corner.
Whomever we get as the next head coach, we need to take the steps to find quality coverage in our safeties. If that calls for new HC, drafting safeties earlier in the draft, moving Newman to FS and drafting another corner, firing scouts, hiring a different defensive backs coach, they need to do it.
YAKUZA