Here's the thing. Peyton manning never misses the playoffs and has gone deep into the play-offs numerous times. He's been to more than one superbowl, even winning one. Romo has been to the play-offs twice and won one game. I think there's a huge gulf, and even with that said, Manning still gets the label of choker.
Nobody 'hates' Romo. We're just getting tired of this rhetoric that he's 'carrying' the team, which insinuates that essentially he's the only real talent on this team. If we were constantly in the play-offs, I could understand using the term 'carry', but there is no such thing as 'carrying' the team after continuous 8 and 8 seasons. We've done everything to make this team "Romo-friendly", but yet we still get the same results. We made Garrett back up off play-calling and gave Callahan a crack at it. We let Romo have more freedom calling plays. 3 of the 4 first rounders were spent on offense, and even many second rounders. We said if Romo just had an O-line, that would be what we needed. We gave him the O-line. Exact same results. Romo has Tyron Smith, one of the best linemen in the game. Frederick was very solid. Waters, before he went out was very solid. Hall of Fame Tight End in Jason Witten. Top 5 receiver in Dez Bryant. One of the best returnmen in Devin Harris... Just on offense ALONE we should have been in the play-offs, especially when you invest as much as you do in the offense.
I hope Dwayne Harris doesn't read your quote, he would be awfully upset.
Compare the teams we both have had, and you will understand why Peyton was able to get into the playoffs those years.
His teams have always been the top of the league, even when he couldn't win the big game. He was also known as the choke artist for a long time, unable to get the monkey off his back.
Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark were all pro bowlers on a fairly consistent basis during his tenure there. He had VERY good players, and 2 amazing kickers at the time for him as well.
He had one of the best coaches he could have, in Tony Dungy as well.
He had a solid defense, that had playmakers on it as well.
He did not have an underperforming group by any means, but was still unable to win the big game until LATE in his career. That is why the Romo comparisons get made.
Romo had to deal with an inconsistent team every year who commits penalties very often. A very undisciplined team at that for the most of his career. Once Parcells left, the discipline during the Wade era was awful. Garrett has turned that around in some respects, but also hinders Romo's performance by putting the team in horrible game managing situations. Also, Romo has had a pretty subpar offensive line for the majority of his career, it says something about the team when we NOW finally have the best OL in recent memory... near the end of Romo's career. Care to disagree on that point?
Now that we have a good OL finally, we still have a historically bad defense.
Romo never wins, whenever he gets something good going for him, he has at least 2 areas of weakness on the team. Matter of fact, whenever we have 1 strength on the team we GENERALLY have multiple areas that are glaring weaknesses.
So yes, Romo carries us to victories. If you don't believe me watch our games when the defense gives up double digit leads in most of our losses. The proof is in that pudding.
