Maybe it's Romo?

[TheDude]

Anyone who thinks Tony Romo is the problem in Dallas doesn't know anything about football and should not be taken seriously.

Anyone who takes ANYTHING you say seriously should not be taken seriously

 

[TheDude]

Recently it was said that if you keep Romo in the pocket he struggles. He's more dangerous out of the pocket improvising, it was said.

I had said something similar to this back in 2010 and that's kind of what persuaded me to post this thread.

Love your Sig

 

[Idgit]

Romo obviously wasn't the problem. The problem was the team doing the things on ST that get you beat, and those things playing *right* into the hands of what SEA does best, at home. There's too much parity in the league to overcome TOs and early special teams mistakes right at the outset of a game. It makes every possession too important from there out and eliminates the margins for error. Against those odds, mistakes like multiple drops or missing run-fits are too much to overcome. It's not the game plan, it's not necessarily the QB. If you want to blame the coach, blame him for not having the team prepared after a ten-day layoff in the first place, but it's hard to fault him for scraping the plan and passing to win once you get in the hole.

All that said, it's possible this loss was an aberration mostly related to the mistakes on the first two possessions. There's no doubt we executed much better in NY, and it's early in the season yet to say which team we're going to see more off this season. Even good teams have stinker games every now and then, and that adversity can be what pulls the team together eventually.

 

[Everlastingxxx]

Sorry Tupper, i do not agree with your assessment of Romo. He is not the problem nor part of the problem, he is the solution. I don’t know how anyone can blame a QB that is creating houdini acts on every play to teammates that are dropping passes. There is no running game. Trailing from the start of the game in one of the hostile places to play in the NFL against a pretty good ****ing defense.

Yea...let’s blame Romo.

Some one shoot me.

It’s one game.

 

[tupperware]

Sorry Tupper, i do not agree with your assessment of Romo. He is not the problem nor part of the problem, he is the solution. I don’t know how anyone can blame a QB that is creating houdini acts on every play to teammates that are dropping passes. There is no running game. Trailing from the start of the game in one of the hostile places to play in the NFL against a pretty good ****ing defense.

Yea...let’s blame Romo.

Some one shoot me.

It’s one game.

Team has plenty of problems, yeah, I get that part of it. I realize Romo is the least of our worries. I still don't think that should absolve him from any blame.

He just doesn't seem like a pocket passer to me. That's the eye test though. At any moment Adam could come in here with the stats/facts and completely prove that observation as a false one.

But... others have said it, even actual NFL players. I even felt this way 2 years ago, so there could be something to it.

You can still be a rollout & improvising passer and post good statistics and numbers. I feel Romo may be that kind of passer.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Romo obviously wasn't the problem. The problem was the team doing the things on ST that get you beat, and those things playing *right* into the hands of what SEA does best, at home. There's too much parity in the league to overcome TOs and early special teams mistakes right at the outset of a game. It makes every possession too important from there out and eliminates the margins for error. Against those odds, mistakes like multiple drops or missing run-fits are too much to overcome. It's not the game plan, it's not necessarily the QB. If you want to blame the coach, blame him for not having the team prepared after a ten-day layoff in the first place, but it's hard to fault him for scraping the plan and passing to win once you get in the hole.

All that said, it's possible this loss was an aberration mostly related to the mistakes on the first two possessions. There's no doubt we executed much better in NY, and it's early in the season yet to say which team we're going to see more off this season. Even good teams have stinker games every now and then, and that adversity can be what pulls the team together eventually.

Tell that to the Eagles, who committed 5 TO's against the Ravens and still found a way to win. Or Peyton Manning, who threw 3 picks and had his team committ 4 TO's in the first quarter alone against the Falcons and almost came back to win at the end.

Our team, on the other hand, just laid down. We never got close to challanging for the game. 7 points is embarassing with the talent on this offense against any team. And you can sit there and talk about the tough environment, the long flight, the great defense in Seattle, etc, etc.. but when it comes down to it there is something wrong with this offense.. and it starts with your head coach, and then your QB. We need to get everybody on the same page and if we play even average football, with the talent we have at the skill positions, there's no way people should be able to hold us to 7 points. Part of that has to be the QB play. I feel like Romo has tunnel vision at times and instead of just scanning the field for the open man, he locks in to one of his targets that he thinks will be open. I know he has guys he trusts more than others but to move the offense as we should, he needs to just start reading and reacting and finding whatever guy is open.

 

[Ken]

"News Flash" we beat the defending SB champs on the road last week and turned in a pathetic effort this week.

FYI....it is called the "NFL".

Generally speaking, it is difficult to come off a big win, on the road, against a rival, who is defending super bowl champs and then go on the road against a solid, desperate Seattle team (never want to go 0-2) in a hostile environment and match their intensity.

This is how it works if you have not figured it out by now.

We will crush the Bucs this week....you will feel good again until we lose again.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

FYI....it is called the "NFL".

Generally speaking, it is difficult to come off a big win, on the road, against a rival, who is defending super bowl champs and then go on the road against a solid, desperate Seattle team (never want to go 0-2) in a hostile environment and match their intensity.

This is how it works if you have not figured it out by now.

We will crush the Bucs this week....you will feel good again until we lose again.

FYI.. generally speaking.. these are all excuses.

This is NOT "how it works" when you are a good football team.

 

[ufcrules1]

Team has plenty of problems, yeah, I get that part of it. I realize Romo is the least of our worries. I still don't think that should absolve him from any blame.

He just doesn't seem like a pocket passer to me. That's the eye test though. At any moment Adam could come in here with the stats/facts and completely prove that observation as a false one.

But... others have said it, even actual NFL players. I even felt this way 2 years ago, so there could be something to it.

You can still be a rollout & improvising passer and post good statistics and numbers. I feel Romo may be that kind of passer.

A homer turning into a practical realist... I love it.

 

[CowboyWay]

If you were to list the top 10 things wrong with this team, Romo would not be one of them. Not even close.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

1. We're stuck with Romo any way we slice it, particularly since there are talks of extending his contract. I get the gut feeling that we'll keep him around as the starter when he gets to the point where he simply cannot perform to a quality level anymore. I think Jerry made up his mind a long time ago that because Romo didn't play his first 3 seasons, that he's 'younger' than his age says. Personally, I think that is idiotic thinking. You perform to a certain level or you don't. If you can't play at 27 years old or you can play at 37 years old, that's all that really matters.


2. We are overreacting a bit to 1 loss. To his credit, Romo had several key dropped passes on him. One was a play where Witten was WIDE open for a big gain. Hit Witten right in the face mask and the throw was a softball. Another was on a bomb where Witten had 1 on 1 with a slow LB and again, hit him in the facemask. Then there were the key Dez drops. For whatever reason, Dez and Witten were not in the game.


3. Getting down 10-0 after only having 1 series of offense (thanks Felix and Connor), completely throws everything out of whack for the offense. Particularly when you can't get the run game going. This team needs to keep it close in the first half and as much as I hate to say 'establish the run' in the first half. I don't see this as a good running team in the 1st half of games, but if they can keep it going, I think they'll close out a lot of games with Murray running the ball.

We got down a lot of points early on and couldn't get the running game going and the defense was collapsing as the game went along.


4. Good lord can we run a flee flicker or a big trick play on offense once to get the team back in the game? Dez has a cannon for an arm and is left handed, why not fake a reverse and have him throw one?


5. I will say that I tend to think that in the long run, we may be better if we can one day separate Romo and Witten on offense. You can almost always tell when Romo's game is off kilter when he starts looking for Witten all of the time, regardless if Witten is covered or not.









YR

 

[RoyTheHammer]

2. We are overreacting a bit to 1 loss. To his credit, Romo had several key dropped passes on him. One was a play where Witten was WIDE open for a big gain. Hit Witten right in the face mask and the throw was a softball. Another was on a bomb where Witten had 1 on 1 with a slow LB and again, hit him in the facemask. Then there were the key Dez drops. For whatever reason, Dez and Witten were not in the game.

While i agree with most of your points made here, with special emphasis on number 5, i don't quite agree with this statement. I don't think the reaction is simply over this "one loss" but the overall incosistency that this team continues to show year after year. We have the ability to be a very good team, yet we continue to come out and lay eggs like this every few weeks and its completely inexcusable.

 

[visionary]

romo is a very talented QB who needs a hard *** coach to keep him in line

that is just the fact

he is a leader in the sense that he is very talented, will do his job well, and ASK others to do the same

ware and witten are the same way

he is not a charismatic leader like ray lewis or brady or even peyton who will hold others accountable and get in their faces

teams often need someone like that in a violent sport to get over the top, it is not always going to work (nothing does), but it is an ingredient that makes it more likely to work

because of this, on the current cowboys team the HC needs to be that sort of person or i am beginning to have doubts if it will work out with the current bunch

i think garrett is smart but he is not that sort of leader, he is more like tony and ware.... talented, attention to detail, do your job, etc

i think if you put harbaugh or jeff fisher on this team, you will see a different team

JMO

 

[ufcrules1]

1. We're stuck with Romo any way we slice it, particularly since there are talks of extending his contract. I get the gut feeling that we'll keep him around as the starter when he gets to the point where he simply cannot perform to a quality level anymore. I think Jerry made up his mind a long time ago that because Romo didn't play his first 3 seasons, that he's 'younger' than his age says. Personally, I think that is idiotic thinking. You perform to a certain level or you don't. If you can't play at 27 years old or you can play at 37 years old, that's all that really matters.


2. We are overreacting a bit to 1 loss. To his credit, Romo had several key dropped passes on him. One was a play where Witten was WIDE open for a big gain. Hit Witten right in the face mask and the throw was a softball. Another was on a bomb where Witten had 1 on 1 with a slow LB and again, hit him in the facemask. Then there were the key Dez drops. For whatever reason, Dez and Witten were not in the game.


3. Getting down 10-0 after only having 1 series of offense (thanks Felix and Connor), completely throws everything out of whack for the offense. Particularly when you can't get the run game going. This team needs to keep it close in the first half and as much as I hate to say 'establish the run' in the first half. I don't see this as a good running team in the 1st half of games, but if they can keep it going, I think they'll close out a lot of games with Murray running the ball.

We got down a lot of points early on and couldn't get the running game going and the defense was collapsing as the game went along.


4. Good lord can we run a flee flicker or a big trick play on offense once to get the team back in the game? Dez has a cannon for an arm and is left handed, why not fake a reverse and have him throw one?


5. I will say that I tend to think that in the long run, we may be better if we can one day separate Romo and Witten on offense. You can almost always tell when Romo's game is off kilter when he starts looking for Witten all of the time, regardless if Witten is covered or not.

I don't believe the original posters intentions were to discuss this last game only. Rather, he was trying to figure out what some of the constants are here over the last several years that seem to keep us away from being a playoff caliber team.

Our last to Seattle last week was due to a lot of players playing bad... Felix Jones fumbling, Dez and Witten forgetting how to catch, Romo throwing a dumb interception when we were in the red zone, Connor not covering the TE, special teams playing bad, etc. Just about everyone played a role in it.

It wasn't like the Lions last year where Romo literally threw away the game by himself.

 

[Everson24]

I'm not a stat guy but I did have the impression that Bryant had his best games w/o Romo and that concerns me a bit.

Having said that I'm more concerned about win/loss than Bryant's stats so I think the primary problem (this year anyway) is OL, followed closely by the DL. I think we are either strong or good everywhere else at the moment.


eta: It's been over a decade IMO that the Cowboys had a good OL.

I re-watched the game again this morning on the all 22 coaches film and I did notice that Dez did not get much separation on his routes. For whatever reason,Tony Romo has a hard time throwing the ball up for grabs to him like Jon Kitna did. It may have something to do with all the criticism he gets for any INT he throws or it just may be that he still doesn't trust Dez to be where he should be. Either way I think Tony would rather have the smaller, quicker type WRs like Terry Glenn that get separation more that a guy like Dez or Fitzgerald. Maybe Cole Beasly is better suited for our offense than Dez is.

 

[Ken]

FYI.. generally speaking.. these are all excuses.

This is NOT "how it works" when you are a good football team.

Oh...so you mean like last year when the Super Bowl Champion Giants beat us in dramatic fashion in week 14 only to turn around the next week a lose to the hapless Skins 23-10?

I understand now...

 

[Everlastingxxx]

Team has plenty of problems, yeah, I get that part of it. I realize Romo is the least of our worries. I still don't think that should absolve him from any blame.

He just doesn't seem like a pocket passer to me. That's the eye test though. At any moment Adam could come in here with the stats/facts and completely prove that observation as a false one.

But... others have said it, even actual NFL players. I even felt this way 2 years ago, so there could be something to it.

You can still be a rollout & improvising passer and post good statistics and numbers. I feel Romo may be that kind of passer.

I don’t think Romo is one of those timing QBs like Aikman was. He is more, throw it to the guy that is open vs throwing it before the guy has made his cut. I don’t think he trust his offensive line right now. Romo looks more athletic to me this season. I think he knew he would be running for his life so worked on his agility in the off season.

My only wish is that he would not over think everything. That play to Miles last week, he threw it into double coverage and Austin made a great play on the ball. Trust your guys to make a play. Last weekend on the INT, he changed the play to run slants (think Seattle was waiting for that?). Then he tried to throw the slant to John Philips (who was covered) when Dez was wide open. Trust your play makers a little more. That’s my only grip.

 

[CxC1993]

It amazes me the way Romo gets scrutinized for his team's shortcomings. This is a UDFA who plays like a first rounder. We are very fortunate to have someone with his talent, but he needs help from his team; he can't do it on his own. Roger Staubach sees it, so does Troy Aikman, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner...

RE: Leadership

A few months ago Sean Lee was in town to sign autographs so of course I went. He also happened to be interviewed by our local radio station and he had nothing but praise for Romo and even said something along the lines of Romo being a great leader.
Even when he shook my hand, the first thing he said was, "I love your jersey, Romo's the man."
You can just tell he has the utmost respect for Romo and I'm sure he isn't the only Cowboy who feels that way. And I'm also sure Sean Lee knows more about what goes on in the locker room and who are the leaders than any of us do.

Romo isn't a problem. As Staubach said, he's a solution.

 

[jblaze2004]

hmmm when john kitna was starting dez was alot more involved in the offense. I think romo has too much trust in witten. If you watch romo he will throw to witten even if covered by 2 people. Dez could be singled and open but romo will not throw it to him. I think our offense is relying on the TE too much, especially with witten playing injuried. We need to get our playmakers the ball. Look how teams like houston and philly get there playmakers the ball. Dez should be lighting other teams up. But instead it just looks like he is a decoy out there. We need to force our hand on other teams and not let other teams dictate what we do. We out smart ourselfs too much.

In saying this I rather keep romo but its the OC job to create plays to get a specific player open. We just don't have good plays. We are vanilla on offense.:laugh2: Man I wish we could of kept sean payton some way and some how. talk about a oc.

 

[SportsGuru80]

The problem with Romo is he looks for his BFF a little to much... I think they need to get the ball to the WR's more downfield.