More Romo is not good

[sportsman]

The cowboys must maintain the thought of run first then pass. That can't change with Murray gone. Romo had his best season because of the running game. If we go back to Romo pass pass pass. We will be 8-8 again.

 

[foofighters]

*searching for that Captain Obvious meme...

 

[DFWJC]

Of course.
We now have the line that should allow us to run and work play-action. Except on a few occasions, I wouldn't expect us to be throwing it 40-50 times in a game.
Nobody wants that.

Those 8-8 season were really 5-11 teams without Romo, btw.

 

[SDCowboy]

This thread is doing a ridiculous disservice to Romo. The run game of course was a big help, but Romo had a such a great season largely because he finally had a line that gave him time to throw. We of course need to stick with a strong run game, but I hope we don't force the run as much as we did last season if it's not working.

 

[dupree89]

I would agree with this. And it's not a bash against Romo. Pretty much all QBs raise their production when they have a great running game. I believe Dallas will continue to run the ball. We probably just won't have a guy crank out any 150-175 yard games. A 150 yard rushing day may have 3 guys getting something like:
70 yards
50 yards
30 yards

 

[Bane]

We just need to maintain balance to keep the defenses honest. Plus I don't really want Tony Romo with a bad back slinging it 40-50 times a game and opening himself to more hits.

 

[Future]

The run game was great, especially early, b/c teams keyed on Romo.

In the second half of the season, when teams stacked against the run game, Romo was deadly.

Like it or not, Romo, and to a lesser extent Dez, are the reasons this offense works. Take either guy out of the equation and both the pass and run game take a serious hit.

 

[egn22]

So we need 1,800 rushing yards every year in order for us to have success and protect us from Romo???

We lost Murray, but we aren't just going to abandon everything that made us successful last year.

 

[SDCowboy]

The run game was great, especially early, b/c teams keyed on Romo.

In the second half of the season, when teams stacked against the run game, Romo was deadly.

Like it or not, Romo, and to a lesser extent Dez, are the reasons this offense works. Take either guy out of the equation and both the pass and run game take a serious hit.

This. Bottom line is Romo is what makes this offense run, and it was no different last season.

 

[zack]

The run game was great, especially early, b/c teams keyed on Romo.

In the second half of the season, when teams stacked against the run game, Romo was deadly.

Like it or not, Romo, and to a lesser extent Dez, are the reasons this offense works. Take either guy out of the equation and both the pass and run game take a serious hit.

How much of Murray's success was because of Romo? If you look at the past 3 seasons, it wasn't like Romo was chopped liver. This is what bothers me. I can already see it next year.....how will Romo do without Murray? But, I agree that we need to stick with the current philosophy on how we call plays. It worked really well last season.

 

[sweetness0986]

I think the camp in Dallas knows that it's all about preserving Romo at this point in his career. They don't want to do something stupid and take what could be 3-4 years left and make it only 1-2. There is no backup plan in sight for when he's done.

Now if only we could get the refs on the same page.

 

[Future]

How much of Murray's success was because of Romo? If you look at the past 3 seasons, it wasn't like Romo was chopped liver. This is what bothers me. I can already see it next year.....how will Romo do without Murray? But, I agree that we need to stick with the current philosophy on how we call plays. It worked really well last season.

I'm not sure if you're being rhetorical or not...

But I think you could pretty easily make the argument that, without Romo, there is no Murray. You can't go the other way.

In the same way you can talk about building an offense to be QB friendly, especially when you draft one, this offense is as RB friendly as it gets. You've got an elite QB, the best OL in the game and a coaching staff committed to balance. It really doesn't get any better for a RB.

 

[SDCowboy]

How much of Murray's success was because of Romo? If you look at the past 3 seasons, it wasn't like Romo was chopped liver. This is what bothers me. I can already see it next year.....how will Romo do without Murray? But, I agree that we need to stick with the current philosophy on how we call plays. It worked really well last season.

The real question is how will Murray do without an Elite QB that defenses have to account for and the best line in football.

 

[Super_Kazuya]

The cowboys must maintain the thought of run first then pass. That can't change with Murray gone. Romo had his best season because of the running game. If we go back to Romo pass pass pass. We will be 8-8 again.

Romo has been fantastic every year he's been in the league, not just last year. The reason they were 8-8 was because of historically awful defenses, not Romo. Get a clue.

Do I want to go back to 2012, where he had nearly 5000 yards passing? No, that was ridiculous. But I think they actually should be trying to pass a little bit more, not less. When you have a passing offense like the Cowboys do, last year's 29 attempts per game were too few.

 

[DandyDon1722]

This. Bottom line is Romo is what makes this offense run, and it was no different last season.

That's absolutely true SD but but it was different last season. You can't discount how much the threat of the run helped open things up in the passing game and made play action so much more effective.

But make no mistake - Romo is the straw that stirs the Cowboy's drink.

 

[SDCowboy]

That's absolutely true SD but but it was different last season. You can't discount how much the threat of the run helped open things up in the passing game and made play action so much more effective.

But make no mistake - Romo is the straw that stirs the Cowboy's drink.

I'm not discounting the importance of the run. I talked about how important it was in my first post. But as you know Romo is what makes the offense roll. And the same goes for any team with an elite franchise QB.

 

[Idgit]

What we actually need to do is keep improving on defense.

 

[percyhoward]

Romo had his best season because of the running game.

Romo had his best season because the entire team improved -- better defense, better running game, better offensive coordinator.

 

[Outlaw Heroes]

What we actually need to do is keep improving on defense.

Correct. Continued balance on offense -- we don't have to run more than we pass like we did in 2014 but we have to run enough to force defenses to play both run and pass -- and a defense that continues to improve at getting itself off the field and handing the ball over to the dominant offense.

 

[percyhoward]

What we actually need to do is keep improving on defense.

Correct. Continued balance on offense and a defense that continues to improve at getting itself off the field and handing the ball over to the dominant offense.

These.

The defense was even more responsible for improving at getting itself off the field than because of anything the offense did. On a per-drive basis, the Cowboys' scoring went up 14.1% over the year before, but the defense allowed 18.2% fewer points than the year before. Since that's "per drive," the improvement had nothing to do with the defense being kept off the field and facing fewer drives. That's just better defense.

Which allows your offense to run more and pass less.