Hi guys,
I noticed you posted my article when I googled my name (is that narcissistic?), and wanted to clear up a few things.
First, I founded DallasCowboysTimes.com....while I do post some stuff on Bleacher Report, it is only to get traffic to my site.
Secondly, there were quite a few more "kill" calls than three. There were 75, in fact, throughout the season (75 of the 79 total checks).
Third, a "kill" call would not be a dummy call because faking it would lead to no strategic advantage. Romo frequently calls two plays in the huddle, and "kill" simply means disregard the first play and run the second. Because it is the same term every time, the defense would gain no advantage in hearing it, as they have no idea what the play calls were.
The other four audibles, which were true checks in which Romo changed the play at the line, could be dummy calls, but with so few it is unlikely. Further, such a small sample size would not skew our results much.
Fourth, "Omaha" is actually a snap count indicator. When Romo makes an Omaha call in the huddle, it simply means the snap count is not live until after that call. They do not do this all of the time because it would then provide no advantage. The reason they do employ it often is to force the defense to show their hand.
If Romo called "on Omaha 2nd color," for example, he would go through a regular snap count, no one would move, he would yell "Omaha," then the ball would be snapped on the 2nd color in the cadence.
Lastly, I obtain my game film directly from a source within the organization.
Jonathan Bales
DallasCowboysTimes.com
to The Zone.