Red Zone Performance

[CoCo]

Romo has not been blessed with a receiving core comparable to the other elite teams. He has not been blessed with a conventional line built to the team's strengths. I don't see Romo scrambling or improvising when he has time to throw, or blocking to protect.

Well they've rarely all been together this year, Miles makes some drops, and Dez is still short of his potential. But with Miles, Dez, Robinson and Witten on the field together I think its hard to make a coherent argument that Tony is short of receiving options.

There is certainly room for improvement on the O-line and I still prefer a workhorse back like Murray to Felix even while Felix has been explosive the last two weeks.

 

[Trajan]

Romo makes Garrett look decent. A lot of good QB's will do this for there OC.

 

[jazzcat22]

It is hard to get better than 13 for 16. The other team has paid professionals that are trying to stop us from scoring.

I do agree that we were very bad early in the year.

I think it has helped that the running game is more of a threat. Now that Romo has his mobility back he has been able to buy some time to find his receivers in the end zone. Romo and Robinson in particular have been clicking down there. I think it is very hard for any defense to guard all 4 of our large receivers down there (Witten, Robinson, Miles and Dez all go from 6-2 to 6-5).

I was being facetious, or trying to be.

 

[benson]

My response was not to denigrate Romo. He's one of the best there is. I'm fully in his corner and have been throughout his maturation process.

Garrett, on the other hand, is quite possibly over his head. For those trumpeting we're headed in the right direction thanks to coaching, I counter that Romo's great play is the reason we're headed in the right direction. He bails out RHJ to a great degree and that one drive against Miami was 100% him, and not the great genius on the sidelines saving up time outs for a rainy day.

Romo's ability to make something out of nothing is one of the biggest reasons we've got a winning record despite one of the easiest schedules in the NFL, not because of stellar coaching from Garrett.

I agree. People who watch Cowboys games analytically will also note a certain predictability to Garrett's playcalling. First down is usually the only wild card, but is it just me that knows 2nd down is a run and 3rd is a pass, regardless of distance?

To top it all off, most of Romo's mistakes/sacks come from looking for routes to develop 20 yards downfield when there is 5-6 defenders in his face. Last night we did a good job of using Austin in the slot to beat the blitz. Garrett had me impressed, we were making them pay for blitzing. I hope he got the hang of it because here comes thats exactly how to play our next two opponents.

 

[sbark]

Fiametta in on how many of those?........

 

[dalexa1824]

It's been a marked improvement. It was something that's haunted us for a couple seasons now. And if you look at a lot of the TDs, they're from Romo breaking the pocket and making a TD on the run. In other words, they're not DESIGNED plays, but rather Romo making things happen on his own. It would be nice if we could get TDs based on a designed play, without having to rely on Romo so much.

Romo "buying time" is unreliable. We need to score with well executed plays.Romo fumbled last night "buying time" It is exciting when it works but risky!

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Romo is a great player but he is not a conventional player. You have to accept the good (those improv TDs) with the bad (will regularly miss open WRs when throwing in the pocket that most other top QBs wouldn't and will commit the odd TO on those improv plays). It is a part of his game that we have to accept. Starting in 2009 he made a concerted effort to try and manage those risks a bit better and I think he has been stellar since then. He is truly a great talent and we are very lucky to have him. However, we need to build a team that better suits his strengths which means a more mobile OL and I think we are halfway through that transition now. You have to remember when Garrett came here he inherited this lumbering OL full of unathletic maulers - Flo, Colombo, Gurode and Bigg. That OL was built for Bledsoe but did not suit Romo.

Pssh... The best year Romo ever had was 2007 with those exact guys on the line.

I think much of this "mobile" vs "mauler" talk is meaningless. What's more important is how good the OL player is overall. Smaller guys aren't necessarily better pass blockers than big guys -- the difference there is more in run schemes.

And I also totally disagree that Romo regularly misses WRs from the pocket. When he has time, he's about as good as anyone. Maybe he's one tiny tick behind a Brady or Rodgers -- maybe -- but those are HOFers, and being a tiny tick behind them is still better than practically every other team in the league.

It seems like the hard core Garrett fans always have to try to discredit our talent in some way, as if he's having to make the best of a bad situation. The truth is, he's been incredibly blessed to have the talent he's had on offense since he got here. That's nothing against him, it's just a fact.

 

[JD_KaPow]

You have to remember when Garrett came here he inherited this lumbering OL full of unathletic maulers - Flo, Colombo, Gurode and Bigg.

And went 13-3 with them in 2007. There was no problem with the kind of blockers we had. The problems only came when they all got old and ineffective at the same time.

 

[Eskimo]

And went 13-3 with them in 2007. There was no problem with the kind of blockers we had. The problems only came when they all got old and ineffective at the same time.

Yes, they were good in 2007 but then fell off of a cliff one by one with Flo going first.

I guess my point is that I don't think such an OL is ideal for Romo or Garrett. It is just what they inherited from BP who was building that OL for Bledsoe.

Once they started to decline they were all locked into long-term deals so it was hard to do anything to upgrade. All we ended up doing is spending lots of mid round picks on mediocre prospects and kept striking out.

Right now Holland is the guy who doesn't match the others well. I do think Garrett wants OL who are lighter, agile and can make blocks on the move and in open space.

 

[Eskimo]

Pssh... The best year Romo ever had was 2007 with those exact guys on the line.

I think much of this "mobile" vs "mauler" talk is meaningless. What's more important is how good the OL player is overall. Smaller guys aren't necessarily better pass blockers than big guys -- the difference there is more in run schemes.

And I also totally disagree that Romo regularly misses WRs from the pocket. When he has time, he's about as good as anyone. Maybe he's one tiny tick behind a Brady or Rodgers -- maybe -- but those are HOFers, and being a tiny tick behind them is still better than practically every other team in the league.

It seems like the hard core Garrett fans always have to try to discredit our talent in some way, as if he's having to make the best of a bad situation. The truth is, he's been incredibly blessed to have the talent he's had on offense since he got here. That's nothing against him, it's just a fact.

I disagree that Romo is as accurate as Brees and Rodgers from the pocket. He is better than most of the league but he is not as good as those guys. He regularly misses throws high especially early in the game. He is special when he is on the move as he can make those throws and the defense is put under incredible stress to deal with all the angles he is creating to make throws. He is just on another level doing that and we ideally should build an OL that allows him to take advantage of a skill that no other QB in the league has. He is good as a pocket passer with a clean pocket but this is not where he is truly special.

I do agree about the quality vs. style aspect of the OL. The OL was good in 2007 so we had success but those guys all started to fall apart and we were stuck about what could be done to upgrade the talent as all those guys were locked in to long-term deals. I see us making a move in a different direction now that we are removed from that burden and will go more the direction of our Landry roots rather than our Jimmy Johnson roots. This means athletic and mobile OL. Such an OL will fit Romo better and will also fit Murray and Felix better as well.

I also disagree a great deal about the talent at the skill positions. Look back at the WR core in 2007: TO, Crayton and Hurd - that is anything but a special group of WRs. The #1 guy was good but the others were well below average. Look at the RBs on that team: Barber was good but Julius was a JAG. Of course, Witten was a great TE. I really don't think that was a particularly special group of skill players. Now the 2006 team was much better in that regard with a healthy Terry Glenn. I also think the WR groups in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were not that good.

The group in 2011 now is very good overall but Miles has been injured much of the year and he is by far our most complete WR. Now that he is back and the OL is playing average we have put up 32.5 points the last two games. If you exclude the second half of yesterday's game when we were just trying to run out the clock we put up 62 points in 1.5 games which is pretty darn impressive. I think we are about to unleash a great offense on the rest of the league for the rest of the year and then the next two years. I think we just need one upgrade to the interior OL.

About the core Garrett fans I don't really consider myself in that group although I do think he has done a good job as OC. I also think he has done a good job at HC but he should give up the OC role so he can concentrate more on the HC duties. I think he has spread himself too thin and I think the offense has suffered somewhat this year as a result. He definitely needs himself some sort of chief offensive assistant to help the offense flow better and decrease confusion in his personnel. It is just too big of a job for anyone to do properly and his ego is getting in the way of the team's success. I really believe that if he concentrated fully as HC and had himself a full-time OC we would be 10-4 right now (we likely win the Arizona game and the Detroit game).

 

[Eskimo]

And went 13-3 with them in 2007. There was no problem with the kind of blockers we had. The problems only came when they all got old and ineffective at the same time.

Yes, but they quickly fell off a cliff and couldn't be replaced because of their contracts.

I don't think an offense of big maulers suits Romo's skills best. They suited Bledsoe, the human statue. A more mobile OL could let Romo get out on the move more where he is truly special and puts an incredible amount of the stress on the defense.

A mobile OL would let us run some more stretches and bootlegs where I think Romo could be deadly.

 

[Fletch]

Impossible. I've read it right here that we're headed in the right direction and that's all due to the coaching change last year. That one drive against Miami where Romo improvised multiple plays and threw up passes as he was being brought down was all moving in the right direction and by design, part of the process.

Romo's doing nothing, it's all because of RHJ.

Man, nothing makes anyone happy around here. If it's not Romo's fault then it's Garrett's fault. If it's not Garrett's fault then it's Romo's fault. Let's not forget to blame Jerry while we're at it. And let's discredit everybody just in case I missed something.

WE WON!