What you see is exactly what Romo is: an aging, but talented QB still playing sandlot football, because in his mind, football is just a game, after all; there are more important things in life, like family and friends. Which is partly true. But there's another unspoken truth, which Romo doesn't seem to have grasped, and that is that playing QB for the Cowboys is not a game, it's a high-paying job. JJ isn't paying Romo to play sandlot football. He's paying Romo to take the Cowboys to the Super Bowl and win it. So, Romo, imo, has yet to understand that life is also all about doing your job to the best of your ability, and not treating it like it's only a game that grownups play on Sundays. And when you don't do your job well in football you're gonna get benched, just like if you don't do your job in real life you're gonna get fired!
I've always thought that Romo lacked the elite QB's passion and respect for the game of football. Say what you will about Rodgers, Eli, Ben, Brady et.al, they all play the game to win, and they fight to the last moment to do so. Romo seems to give up quickly after he struggles, or the team struggles. You can see it in his body language. To make everything worse, a lot of people(fans, coaches and JJ) make excuses for his poor play by blaming the OL, blaming his receivers, or blaming JG for the poor play calling. Even the defense gets blamed for not bailing him out. Only certain media members seemed to be demanding accountability, which is why I thought Galloway's article was spot on for once, and not extreme or prejudicial.
Listen, if you lack that fire-in-the-belly for your job, innate talent will only take you only so far. In Romo's case, his stats scream how talented he is, but when the hot-air stat balloon bursts with adversity, and push comes to win, Romo panics, starts yelling at everybody, then sits on the bench with his head bowed so low it's practically in his lap. Then Romo gets back on the field and tries to play superman, and ends up telegraphing every play, leading to umpteen turnovers because opposing defenses can read our QB like a book.
JG better light a fire under Romo by holding him more accountable, or his job is in jeopardy. And you better believe he knows it. I think Monday showed that when he benched Romo and the receivers. I know some believe it was because JG didn't want to get them killed, but 34-10 is not a total blow-out. Certainly, I've seen other qb's bring their team back from that. Make no mistake, that was a benching and deservedly so.
Our HC is, no doubt, experiencing a painful learning curve, but JG has the makings of a good leader and HC. I saw that with Kitna under center and playing with the same OL that got Romo injured and the same play-calling that Romo can't seem to execute if his life depended on it.
Really?
