DMN Blog: Tony Romo by the numbers

[Gryphon]

Tony Romo by the numbers
10:04 AM Thu, Jun 12, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Albert Breer

In today's paper, Todd Archer has a look at Tony Romo finding ways to improve after posting the greatest statistical season a Cowboy quarterback has ever had.

And I think most people would agree that Romo was better in 2007 than '06 ... But was he really??? I thought it'd be interesting to take a look.

Romo's completion percentage and yards-per-attempt average both dropped in 2007. Also, Romo averaged 278.8 yards in his 10 starts in 2006, and 263.2 yards in his 16 starts in 2007 (Although it's 275 if you eliminate the season-finale mail-in in D.C.) TD-INT ratio is the one area where he did improve -- going from having a 1.46 (19-13) ratio in 2006 to 1.89 in 2007 (36-19).

On the flip side, Romo was more consistent in 2007, at least until December. He posted seven 300-yard games in '07 to just three the year prior. In both seasons, there was boom-or-bust potential: He had seven games with a 60-plus completion rate in 10 starts in 2006, and two where he completed less than half his passes; And he had 12 games of 60 percent passing in 2007, and three of sub-50 percent passing.

Conclusions? Well, this guy's a real good quarterback, and has been for more than a year-and-a-half. And as is the case with the entire team, he needs play better down the stretch and into the playoffs.

 

[Disturbed]

Thanks for sharing the information on Romo. He seems to be well grounded, and he continues to work toward getting better. I would expect the game to continue to slow down for him over the next two years and this should translate into better game management, decisions, and stats.

I am glad we have him under a long term contract. He is by far the most important (key) player on this team. With the talent on this team, and his continued improvement, the future really does look bright for the cowboys...

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I think the statistical difference is related to the fact that teams have had opportunity to break him down a bit. I would also point to the fact that while our offense was very succesful last year, in 2006 we had the benifit of Glenn and TO, along with Witten. Last year, we were very succesful early but later in the year, once teams figured out how to defense TO, we were not nearly as succesful in our passing game so that probably impacted those numbers as well.