Did "Air Force vs. Navy" mindset turn Dak into a timid quarterback?

[Zekeats]

Romo was riding the pine in his 3rd year.

Another fool that thinks sacks are the fault of the QB and not the Oline. LOL

So why in 2016 did Dak only get sacked 32 times all year? I guess he was great with less experience?

You sound like you’re ten years old and the only fool here is the one who either doesn’t watch the games and comments or watches the games and comments that the majority of sack aren’t Daks fault

 

[percyhoward]

We also miss those 300+ yard games. With Romo we had 46 regular season 300+ yard games. With Dak, just 4. He would need to play 40 more years to match Romo.

Romo didn't throw for 300 yards in 4 quarters of any game in 2014, which was his best season. During his career, Dallas actually had a better winning percentage when Romo passed for under 300 yards (.641) than when he had 300+ yards (.630).

In Romo's 20 highest-yardage games, the Cowboys were just 10-10. In his 20 highest passer rating games, Dallas was 18-2.

In Prescott's 20 highest-yardage games, Dallas is 17-3. In his 20 highest passer rating games, the Cowboys are 19-1.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

So Romo took risks and turned the ball over and Dak doesn't and turns the ball over. Don't know what the point is. The offense with Romo was a lot better and easier to watch. Dak's offense is basically unwatchable. In the end both offenses frustrated me.

 

[CowboyRoy]

You sound like you’re ten years old and the only fool here is the one who either doesn’t watch the games and comments or watches the games and comments that the majority of sack aren’t Daks fault

So I am the idiot because you think sacks are a QB stat? "sacks allowed" you think that term relates to the QB? LOL

So I guess in 2016 and 2017 Dak was GREAT at NOT allowing sacks? Another petty troll that doesn't understand the game.

Poor guy, Dak will be here for a long time. I guess he needs to learn how to block now?

 

[CowboyRoy]

So Romo took risks and turned the ball over and Dak doesn't and turns the ball over. Don't know what the point is. The offense with Romo was a lot better and easier to watch. Dak's offense is basically unwatchable. In the end both offenses frustrated me.

So you didn't like watching the offense the first 24 games of Daks career when we were averaging 27 points a game?

 

[Philmonroe]

Decent theory, but I don't think 'timid' is the right word. Cautious, conservative, okay. I don't think he's 'afraid' of anything....cowards don't play NFL football.

I think he excels in 4th quarter situations for the reasons you describe, to wit: he stops getting in his own way and starts getting things done. He stops thinking about negative outcomes. I think that will spill over to quarters 1-3 sooner rather than later.

I like your positive style but the truth is most times after a few years starting players are by and large what they are going to be period. Dak isn't some awesome qb as a passer and never will be. He is who he always has been an avg qb and even avg qbs can have a hit streak like 2016.

 

[America's Cowboy]

We also miss those 300+ yard games. With Romo we had 46 regular season 300+ yard games. With Dak, just 4. He would need to play 40 more years to match Romo.

Actually, it's 5 games (2016 playoff game included) that Dak has passed for 300+ yards in a game.

Since you were so glad to bring up Romo's 46 300+ yard passing games, how many times did Romo pass for 300+ yards in the 8 playoff games he played in? Also, how many times did Romo pass for 3 TDs or more in a playoff game?

An fyi, Dak passed for 308 yards and 3 TDs in his first and only playoff game so far, plus he brought the team back halfway through the 2nd quarter from being down 18 points to tying the game at 31 all with 39 seconds left in regulation. Not bad for such a boring passer who has only passed for 300+ yards 5 times in his 3 year career, huh?

Can't say the same for Romo. Ouch. But...but...but he was the regular season 300+ yards per game passing champ!

 

[America's Cowboy]

You sound like you’re ten years old and the only fool here is the one who either doesn’t watch the games and comments or watches the games and comments that the majority of sack aren’t Daks fault

They are not.

How's that?

 

[Keithfansince5]

Romo didn't throw for 300 yards in 4 quarters of any game in 2014, which was his best season. During his career, Dallas actually had a better winning percentage when Romo passed for under 300 yards (.641) than when he had 300+ yards (.630).

In Romo's 20 highest-yardage games, the Cowboys were just 10-10. In his 20 highest passer rating games, Dallas was 18-2.

In Prescott's 20 highest-yardage games, Dallas is 17-3. In his 20 highest passer rating games, the Cowboys are 19-1.

Nice try. In Daks highest passing yardage games. What the 455 fluke game? Since Dak has so few high passing games to choose from, it is a lame comparison. Any stat can be shown to support any viewpoint. At least my stat was not twisted to show a bias.

 

[Keithfansince5]

Actually, it's 5 games (2016 playoff game included) that Dak has passed for 300+ yards in a game.

Since you were so glad to bring up Romo's 46 300+ yard passing games, how many times did Romo pass for 300+ yards in the 8 playoff games he played in? Also, how many times did Romo pass for 3 TDs or more in a playoff game?

An fyi, Dak passed for 308 yards and 3 TDs in his first and only playoff game so far, plus he brought the team back halfway through the 2nd quarter from being down 18 points to tying the game at 31 all with 39 seconds left in regulation. Not bad for such a boring passer who has only passed for 300+ yards 5 times in his 3 year career, huh?

Can't say the same for Romo. Ouch. But...but...but he was the regular season 300+ yards per game passing champ!

Haha. Yeah, you are right Dak is better than Romo. It is clear that Linehan is holding Dak back. Dak is just a great OC away from being the GOAT.

 

[KMY_Amber]

Romo had one of the quickest releases in NFL history.

And STILL took too many sacks, holding the ball too long. In the end, it cost him his career.

Dak will get decidedly better when the o-line gets better, and the play calling and schemes improve.

Until then, he has to develop better trust and chemistry with each receiver, so he can develop some pure timing routes, throwing to a spot...throwing them open. He can do it, but it takes a lot of reps.

Then, once the play calling improves and the o-line gets healthy and better, the passing offense will be consistently crisp.

 

[America's Cowboy]

Haha. Yeah, you are right Dak is better than Romo. It is clear that Linehan is holding Dak back. Dak is just a great OC away from being the GOAT.

If Dak is able to lead these Cowboys to at least an NFC Playoffs Championship Game, that's going to totally destroy your Romo defense.

 

[percyhoward]

Nice try. In Daks highest passing yardage games. What the 455 fluke game? Since Dak has so few high passing games to choose from, it is a lame comparison. Any stat can be shown to support any viewpoint. At least my stat was not twisted to show a bias.

Yeah, you're gonna have to tell me what the heck you're talking about.

 

[starcity214]

If Dak is able to lead these Cowboys to at least an NFC Playoffs Championship Game, that's going to totally destroy your Romo defense.

He better do it this year because if he can't, he never will...

I mean , how many times is Dak going to have a top 5 defense and number 1 rushing attack while the rest of the division sucks in his career?

Just look at the Seahawks before and after Rusell Wilson got paid. Dak is nowhere near as good as Wilson is.


Byron Jones, DLaw, Jaylon Smith, and David Irving will look to get paid within the next couple of years... How would our defense do without them?

Draft replacements you say? Well where are those "elite" tight end and offensive linemen Dak needs going to come from?

This is the whole issue with Dak going forward and why he will never win anything if he doesn't do it now that the team is as "stacked" as it will ever be with him as the QB..

After he gets paid, the team will only get worse around him.

 

[aria]

No, he became timid after the Atlanta game over a year ago

 

[CT Dal Fan]

Don't beat me up for this, but I see qualities of every past "major" Cowboys quarterbacks in Dak, good and bad.

Prescott has Don Meredith's toughness, Troy Aikman's leadership, Roger Staubach's mobility, Danny White's second-guessers, and Tony Romo's penchant for crucial turnovers.

 

[CowboysRule]

And STILL took too many sacks, holding the ball too long. In the end, it cost him his career

Romo was running for his life most of his career behind terrible lines. Not all, most.

Holding the ball too long was never a complaint I had with Romo, nor do I remember anyone else mentioning it.

 

[beware_d-ware]

That's a pretty good breakdown.

Dak honestly seems terrified of making mistakes, you can literally watch him sit and double-clutch some throws which often leads to him eating a sack. People have said over and over how the team winning the turnover margin usually wins the game, but you're not going to win a ton of games throwing 3 yards to Zeke on 3rd and 10 either.

 

[America's Cowboy]

He better do it this year because if he can't, he never will...

I mean , how many times is Dak going to have a top 5 defense and number 1 rushing attack while the rest of the division sucks in his career?

Just look at the Seahawks before and after Rusell Wilson got paid. Dak is nowhere near as good as Wilson is.


Byron Jones, DLaw, Jaylon Smith, and David Irving will look to get paid within the next couple of years... How would our defense do without them?

Draft replacements you say? Well where are those "elite" tight end and offensive linemen Dak needs going to come from?

This is the whole issue with Dak going forward and why he will never win anything if he doesn't do it now that the team is as "stacked" as it will ever be with him as the QB..

After he gets paid, the team will only get worse around him.

Very good points. Totally agree. If anything, Dak would also have next year where most of this team will stay intact. After 2019, I'm afraid several key players will be seeking more money elsewhere. But you are right, that window of opportunity of seriously reaching a playoff championship game is closing fast.

 

[Melonfeud]

Disclaimer: I've never served in the military. Neither have Romo or Dak, of course. But there is a stereotype that the Air Force is known to be a very strict organization in which "you are not allowed to do anything unless the book says you may," whereas the Navy is more easygoing and says "you are allowed to do things unless the book expressly forbids you from doing them."

Romo was a "Navy type," Dak was an "Air Force type." Romo was willing to take risks, Dak isn't.

During the Romo era, football fans applied a hyper-strict standard to Tony: It didn't matter how many great plays Romo made, all they focused on were the errors. Turnovers led to crucifixion. The game against the Peyton-led Broncos is a classic example. It didn't matter that Romo threw for 500 yards and 5 TDs in that game; all people cared about was the ONE interception he threw near the end. It didn't matter if Romo did things 99% right; all people could focus on was the 1% wrong.

Dak himself knows that all too well - he was one of Romo's fans turned critics. In December 2012, Dak went into a Twitter meltdown after the Cowboys' season-ending loss to the Commanders, blasting that he was done defending Romo. Dak was still in college at the time, a freshman.

I think Dak very much took the "Romo lesson" to heart once he became Cowboys QB himself and decided that he ought to be the "anti-Romo" - that Cowboys fans would be OK with him being excessively cautious, always playing it safe, always taking sacks, always doing everything conservatively and timidly - as long as he didn't commit the "high-profile" errors such as interceptions. And for a while, Dallas fans and the media did indeed praise Dak's "better safe than sorry" approach. They lavished praise on him for going five consecutive games without an interception.

But before long, Cowboys fans learned the bitter truth: A quarterback who is excessively timid and risk-averse can kill his team's playoff hopes just as surely as a gunslinger who plays too aggressively. It's just that the death takes a subtler, different, form.

Dak became a QB terrified of taking risks. So much so that he'd rather throw a dinky three-yard checkdown on 4th and 13 that's guaranteed to fail, than a deeper pass beyond the sticks that might be picked off. Because Dak learned from the Romo experience that fans didn't mind losing so much as they minded losing a bad way. "Failure to convert on 4th down" didn't elicit the same foaming-at-the-mouth rage from fans as "game-sealing interception", even though both led to defeats all the same. Dak would rather take a sack than throw the ball away..........because throwing the ball away might lead to it being picked. He would rather dink and dunk than throw the ball deep, because throwing deep is.........risky. No matter what, he had to be the anti-Romo.

The hyper-criticism of Romo turned Dak into a timid and fearful QB. He would rather be anything than Romo.....even if it meant losing. Cowboys fans got what they wished for - a QB the opposite of Romo - and they got what they got.

Mighty fine "feed" of a THREAD there O.P.


* YA,KNOW #4'S MOTHER ONCE TOLD HIM ,AFTER THROWING A HALF FISTFUL OF INTERCEPTIONS IN PRACTICE ONCE,,, THAT ,,,ER,,, THAT'S NOT WHAT HE'S SUPPOSED To be PRACTICING,,, MOMMA'S KNOW!