News: NFL: Five Faces of Romo (Long)

[WoodysGirl]

In a career filled with ups and downs, Tony Romo has been many things to many people. NFL Media takes a comprehensive look at five distinct sides of the polarizing Cowboys quarterback -- and Judy Battista explains why it's high time for Dallas to capitalize on a 34-year-old at the top of his game.

Early on Thanksgiving evening, after the Dallas Cowboys had been dominated on their own field by the Philadelphia Eagles, Jerry Jones huddled with Tony Romo by a golf cart.

They had plenty to talk about. The Cowboys' hold on the NFC East had slipped away, their defense had been exposed, their offensive line overwhelmed, Romo manhandled and mistake-prone. This was a turn-back-the-clocks performance, putting on full display all the weaknesses that the Cowboys thought had become strengths. It was a game that seemed to have been taken from an earlier season and dropped wholesale into this one, like a rotted limb falling from a dead tree and denting the shiny new car parked in the driveway.

Jones and Romo have surely experienced glum post-mortems before. But what makes that scene and that game so noteworthy is how much of an outlier it was. This has been the Cowboys' season of reckoning and renaissance following three straight 8-8 campaigns that were the very definition of mediocre. And Romo has been at the center of it, flourishing within a more balanced offense, reining in the impetuousness that used to get him into jams, and managing his injured back. He's emerged as a more settled, reliable quarterback who has put together, Jones said, some of the best games of his career at the age of 34.

Whether or not playing two games in five days impinged his back's recovery -- and led him to throw inaccurately and occasionally go down quickly as Eagles defenders approached -- Romo has been better this season than ever before, positioning Dallas to have a shot at avoiding what Jones said would be the biggest negative of his Cowboys ownership: never winning a Super Bowl with Romo's talent.

"You work your whole life on your technique and your craft, eventually you get to a point where it becomes so second nature, you can rely on it in very critical situations," Romo said in an interview a few weeks ago. "It allows you to trust your fundamentals, regardless of the circumstance, whether it's cold or windy, you're throwing the ball to the left or the right.

"To perfect a craft, it takes 10,000 hours. That takes time. I had a late start. I had to perfect the art. You start to slowly become that guy if you work at it. It allows you to play a lot more efficient and calmer. You don't miss throws young guys miss. You just start to calm your mind, and you understand you can play this game at a very high level."

Read the rest: http://www.nfl.com/labs/rr/fivefacesofromo/dev

 

[slick325]

Good read. Thanks.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Solid article. Captures the enigma that is Tony Romo.

 

[Alexander]

Pretty good. Battista has had good articles over the years.

 

[DallasEast]

That was an excellent article with a very good supporting materials. The latter would have been excellent as well but one of the supporting materials was the video of the totally redundant field goal mishap from the Seattle playoff game. I wish every quarterback's career was illuminated by events unrelated to the position.

 

[cowboys1981]

Nice work!

 

[Sportsbabe]

Excellent read. I saw this piece was going to be shown on NFLN last night but I didn't watch it because I thought it was going to be a "bash Romo fest". I'm just ready for the game. I'm going to be highly upset if we don't win this game.

 

[Sportsbabe]

True.
I also wish every description of that Denver game would point out that Tony threw for more yards than Peyton. First time I've heard it described in that manner.

 

[cowboys2233]

Excellent read. I saw this piece was going to be shown on NFLN last night but I didn't watch it because I thought it was going to be a "bash Romo fest". I'm just ready for the game. I'm going to be highly upset if we don't win this game.

I haven't read the full article yet but I do like this line...

"But what makes that scene and that game so noteworthy is how much of an outlier it was."

That's something that's been sticking in the back of my mind, how different the team looked on Thursday from what we've seen earlier this year. We've won some games, we've lost some games, but I haven't seen such a muted performance this year. Before this game, we were always competitive, we always fought. It's what gives me hope that maybe there is something to the whole "Thursday game after a Sunday night game" thing and that game was just an anomaly. I hope.

 

[zack]

Excellent read. I saw this piece was going to be shown on NFLN last night but I didn't watch it because I thought it was going to be a "bash Romo fest". I'm just ready for the game. I'm going to be highly upset if we don't win this game.

It was a very good article, but I didn't like the arrangement of it. To me, the goat shouldn't have been arranged at the end of the article. Should have been more a long the lines in the beginning. But, I know that unfortunately, the media and the fans want to hang on that moment, but that had zero to do with him playing the QB position.

I think that all of us would love for him to finish his career on top with a SB victory. Early this season, I thought there might be a solid chance for that, but now, I'm not so sure. It really sucks that Dallas is on the outside looking in of the playoffs with an 8-4 record. You would think at some point the law of statistics would allow Dallas to finish undefeated in the month of December.

I will say that I think that this team has the best shot then they have had over the past 3 years as they are built for more "cold" weather games and less finesse. Crossing my fingers....

 

[Crown Royal]

Using the term "5 faces" and then "Polarizing" in the same sentence would have failed me on any paper I wrote back in the college days. lol!

 

[Sportsbabe]

I haven't read the full article yet but I do like this line...

"But what makes that scene and that game so noteworthy is how much of an outlier it was."

That's something that's been sticking in the back of my mind, how different the team looked on Thursday from what we've seen earlier this year. We've won some games, we've lost some games, but I haven't seen such a muted performance this year. Before this game, we were always competitive, we always fought. It's what gives me hope that maybe there is something to the whole "Thursday game after a Sunday night game" thing and that game was just an anomaly. I hope.

Someone also agreed it was an anomaly because of the way Tony played, coinciding with him not getting the usual days to prepare his body (back) to play. I just feel real uneasy about this defense going into Chicago.

 

[Sportsbabe]

It was a very good article, but I didn't like the arrangement of it. To me, the goat shouldn't have been arranged at the end of the article. Should have been more a long the lines in the beginning. But, I know that unfortunately, the media and the fans want to hang on that moment, but that had zero to do with him playing the QB position.

I think that all of us would love for him to finish his career on top with a SB victory. Early this season, I thought there might be a solid chance for that, but now, I'm not so sure. It really sucks that Dallas is on the outside looking in of the playoffs with an 8-4 record. You would think at some point the law of statistics would allow Dallas to finish undefeated in the month of December.

I will say that I think that this team has the best shot then they have had over the past 3 years as they are built for more "cold" weather games and less finesse. Crossing my fingers....

Our D line & 2ndry is making this virtually impossible.

 

[links18]

Using the term "5 faces" and then "Polarizing" in the same sentence would have failed me on any paper I wrote back in the college days. lol!

Must have been before grade inflation.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Enjoyed the read. Thanks WG.

 

[black label]

 

[DandyDon1722]

One of the best articles about Tony ever. It was fair, both in praise and criticism. You tend to forget how much he really ran around when he was younger. I often what would've happened if Parcell's stuck around a couple more years.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

One of the best articles about Tony ever. It was fair, both in praise and criticism. You tend to forget how much he really ran around when he was younger. I often what would've happened if Parcell's stuck around a couple more years.

That's two of us. I remember all the complaining he coached not to lose. Starting to hear those same rumbles from those same people again.

 

[SuspectCorner]

Might as well have been Tebow last Thursday... I expect we'll see a much improved Tony and Cowboys effort tomorrow night.

 

[benson]

Very interesting to see fans use the words "anomaly" and "outlier" to describe the Eagles game. If you wanna talk statistics you should probably use a sample size bigger than 10 games, and if you do you realize that Seattle was the outlier. Beating up on bad teams and losses like this past one are typical.