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GREEN BAY, Wis. – They huddled together late Sunday afternoon in a quiet Lambeau Field locker room, the man who owns the Dallas Cowboys and his most important investment, and talked about where they were and how insanely cool it was.
This was a big moment for Tony Romo – as big of a moment that a quarterback saddled with a can't-win-the-big-one stigma can experience in September – and Jerry Jones wanted to make sure the kid who hailed from Burlington reveled in its majesty.
"Tony, do me a favor," Jones told Romo. "Enjoy this. Forget about anything that's happened before, or all the things that we're looking to do in the future, and just be here and appreciate what it is.
"Is this a big deal for you? Because, Tony, this is a big deal for me. To get to be a part of this great crowd, against the Green Bay Packers, a contending team with a budding star in Aaron Rodgers, and to be able to come in here on a Sunday night with a team like this and a quarterback like you leading us – this is what football's all about. And I wouldn't want you to waste one minute thinking of anything except how tremendous it is to be right here, right now."
Romo seized the moment, throwing for 185 second-half yards to help the Cowboys finish off the Packers 27-16. With 71,113 fans looking on at Lambeau – about 100 of whom were friends or relatives from Burlington, including proud parents Ramiro and Joan – Romo was the passer who handled the constant defensive pressure like a seasoned pro.
Romo celebrates as he walks off of Lambeau Field.
On this night, he was more like vintage Brett Favre than Rodgers was, and that was the difference in this game.
"I'll say this – I thought this game was difficult," Romo said just before heading out to the Lambeau parking lot to greet his entourage of converted Packer backers from Burlington. "I think they're a good football team, and it showed tonight. It's tough to come in here and win, and their defensive line did a great job of not letting me get comfortable. And the test for me was how I was going to handle that."
The way Romo handled it convinced Jones, the man who last October signed him to a six-year, $69-million contract extension, that he has a big-game quarterback guiding his team. The owner knows that true deliverance can't come for Romo, he of the 0-2 career playoff record, until January at the earliest. But the way Romo stayed cool and in command during his Sunday night homecoming was a development Jones regarded as a very good sign.
What the owner didn't say to his quarterback before the game, but might have felt compelled to a year ago, was something along the lines of, "Don't feel like you have to do this all by yourself." If Romo, a sixth-year player who hasn't even celebrated his second anniversary as an NFL starter, has had a weakness during his unlikely rise to stardom, it has been a tendency to have too much faith in his own abilities.
Like Favre, the Packers legend he grew up watching, there's not a throw that Romo, deep inside, doesn't believe he can make.
And if ever there was a time when Romo, coming off a 41-point outburst against the Philadelphia Eagles, would be tempted to try to do too much, Sunday night figured to be it.
Back in Wisconsin – playing in the stadium he regarded as a virtual cathedral growing up, delighting a crew of Burlingtonites who believed in him even when the former Eastern Illinois passer went undrafted and clung to his Cowboys roster spot by the thinnest of margins – Romo had every right to want to be The Man.
Throw in Michaels and Madden, and the chance to make an early-season statement that the Cowboys may be worthy of their considerable hype, and Romo's need to flex seemed as conspicuous as his girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, flaunting her assets on a Hollywood red carpet.
And yet, as the first half played out in surprising smash-mouth fashion, Romo kept it cool. He yielded the spotlight to running backs Marion Barber and Felix Jones, checked down to secondary receivers (Terrell Owens was limited to 2 catches for 17 yards) and even took some sacks when he couldn't outrun the Packers' pressure.
"Obviously there's not a throw Tony can't make, but he doesn't feel like he has to do that all the time," said Dallas tight end Jason Witten, Romo's close friend and favorite target. "I think that's really where he's grown the most – just kind of keeping us all in the game, to manage it like he does, even when things aren't wide open for him."
At halftime Romo was just 9 of 15 for 75 yards with an interception. ("That was on me," he said later of the first-quarter pass he tried to complete in the middle of the end zone to Witten, only to have it intercepted by Packers safety Nick Collins and returned 61 yards. "He was right, and I was thinking something else. They were in a defense we call Cover 4 – that means he was covered by four guys." Romo delivered that line with impeccable comic timing, too – you'll see it soon, whenever he gets that inevitable offer to host Saturday Night Live.) But the Cowboys led 13-6, and Romo wasn't sweating the numbers.
"It's not so much a testament to my maturity as it is a testament to my understanding of the game," Romo said later. "As soon as I started to get a sense of the game, I realized, 'I'm not gonna throw for 500 yards tonight. And that's OK.' So I approached it from that mindset."
Up in a luxury box high above the field, Jones might as well have been nodding his head in approval.
"What this game showed, and what I'm so proud of him for, is that he took what he got," Jones said afterward. "He played the game the way it was dealt to him. That's not the same Tony Romo that left this part of the country seven years earlier. He'd have been trying to make things happen that weren't there, instead of just doing what we needed to do to win this ballgame.
"That's not him anymore. He's got it in him, and he will make the play that others can't to keep the chains moving. But it's not a four-course meal for him anymore."
That said, a man must eat, and Romo had a few grab-the-turkey-leg-and-devour-it moments in a second half that was a testament to the Cowboys' might on both sides of the ball.
Three plays after the Packers closed to 13-9 with 5:58 left in the third quarter and facing first-and-10 from the Dallas 34-yard line, Romo hit wideout Miles Austin downfield in perfect stride – a pass so good that Collins got his legs tangled beneath him, barely recovering in time to catch the receiver at the 3 for a 63-yard gain. Two plays later Barber scored to give the Cowboys an 11-point lead.
In the fourth quarter, on third-and-7 from the Dallas 35, Romo zinged a pretty ball to Witten (seven catches, 67 yards) over the middle for an 11-yard gain.
Four plays later, on third-and-20 from his own 48, the pocket collapsed around Romo, who slid in the pocket and stepped forward to buy time. As he did, he managed to show Collins a look that compelled the safety to move to the middle of the field. Then, while being sandwiched by a pair of Packers, he released a gorgeous touch pass down the right sideline that Austin caught at the 10 in front of cornerback Tramon Williams and took to the end zone for the game-clinching score.
"It was third-and-20, wasn't it?" Romo asked rhetorically, laughing. "The safety was trying to read my eyes, and I tried to hold him and bring him across the other side as I was drifting right. Once he dipped in, I was able to let it go."
As Austin crossed the goal line, the Lambeau crowd grew so quiet, Romo could practically hear the people in his personal cheering section roaring their approval. Meanwhile, in NFL cities across the country, players and coaches watching on TV were thinking a uniform thought: Uh oh. The Cowboys ARE for real.
We won't really know if that's true until the kid from Burlington gets another chance to get it done in the postseason. But until then, the man who signs his paychecks is more certain than ever that Romo won't overextend when that challenge comes.
"If it all stopped tomorrow, and there never was another playoff game, tonight was still a great thing," Jones insisted. "Tony got to be a part of a big deal tonight, and it's something he should cherish. Even if someone slipped me a look into the future that said, 'Here, you're going to be a part of the NFC championship game,' I wouldn't even want to look ahead. I just want to enjoy this moment for what it was."
I'
This was a big moment for Tony Romo – as big of a moment that a quarterback saddled with a can't-win-the-big-one stigma can experience in September – and Jerry Jones wanted to make sure the kid who hailed from Burlington reveled in its majesty.
"Tony, do me a favor," Jones told Romo. "Enjoy this. Forget about anything that's happened before, or all the things that we're looking to do in the future, and just be here and appreciate what it is.
"Is this a big deal for you? Because, Tony, this is a big deal for me. To get to be a part of this great crowd, against the Green Bay Packers, a contending team with a budding star in Aaron Rodgers, and to be able to come in here on a Sunday night with a team like this and a quarterback like you leading us – this is what football's all about. And I wouldn't want you to waste one minute thinking of anything except how tremendous it is to be right here, right now."
Romo seized the moment, throwing for 185 second-half yards to help the Cowboys finish off the Packers 27-16. With 71,113 fans looking on at Lambeau – about 100 of whom were friends or relatives from Burlington, including proud parents Ramiro and Joan – Romo was the passer who handled the constant defensive pressure like a seasoned pro.
(Getty/Tom Huack)
On this night, he was more like vintage Brett Favre than Rodgers was, and that was the difference in this game.
"I'll say this – I thought this game was difficult," Romo said just before heading out to the Lambeau parking lot to greet his entourage of converted Packer backers from Burlington. "I think they're a good football team, and it showed tonight. It's tough to come in here and win, and their defensive line did a great job of not letting me get comfortable. And the test for me was how I was going to handle that."
The way Romo handled it convinced Jones, the man who last October signed him to a six-year, $69-million contract extension, that he has a big-game quarterback guiding his team. The owner knows that true deliverance can't come for Romo, he of the 0-2 career playoff record, until January at the earliest. But the way Romo stayed cool and in command during his Sunday night homecoming was a development Jones regarded as a very good sign.
What the owner didn't say to his quarterback before the game, but might have felt compelled to a year ago, was something along the lines of, "Don't feel like you have to do this all by yourself." If Romo, a sixth-year player who hasn't even celebrated his second anniversary as an NFL starter, has had a weakness during his unlikely rise to stardom, it has been a tendency to have too much faith in his own abilities.
Like Favre, the Packers legend he grew up watching, there's not a throw that Romo, deep inside, doesn't believe he can make.
And if ever there was a time when Romo, coming off a 41-point outburst against the Philadelphia Eagles, would be tempted to try to do too much, Sunday night figured to be it.
Back in Wisconsin – playing in the stadium he regarded as a virtual cathedral growing up, delighting a crew of Burlingtonites who believed in him even when the former Eastern Illinois passer went undrafted and clung to his Cowboys roster spot by the thinnest of margins – Romo had every right to want to be The Man.
Throw in Michaels and Madden, and the chance to make an early-season statement that the Cowboys may be worthy of their considerable hype, and Romo's need to flex seemed as conspicuous as his girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, flaunting her assets on a Hollywood red carpet.
And yet, as the first half played out in surprising smash-mouth fashion, Romo kept it cool. He yielded the spotlight to running backs Marion Barber and Felix Jones, checked down to secondary receivers (Terrell Owens was limited to 2 catches for 17 yards) and even took some sacks when he couldn't outrun the Packers' pressure.
"Obviously there's not a throw Tony can't make, but he doesn't feel like he has to do that all the time," said Dallas tight end Jason Witten, Romo's close friend and favorite target. "I think that's really where he's grown the most – just kind of keeping us all in the game, to manage it like he does, even when things aren't wide open for him."
At halftime Romo was just 9 of 15 for 75 yards with an interception. ("That was on me," he said later of the first-quarter pass he tried to complete in the middle of the end zone to Witten, only to have it intercepted by Packers safety Nick Collins and returned 61 yards. "He was right, and I was thinking something else. They were in a defense we call Cover 4 – that means he was covered by four guys." Romo delivered that line with impeccable comic timing, too – you'll see it soon, whenever he gets that inevitable offer to host Saturday Night Live.) But the Cowboys led 13-6, and Romo wasn't sweating the numbers.
"It's not so much a testament to my maturity as it is a testament to my understanding of the game," Romo said later. "As soon as I started to get a sense of the game, I realized, 'I'm not gonna throw for 500 yards tonight. And that's OK.' So I approached it from that mindset."
Up in a luxury box high above the field, Jones might as well have been nodding his head in approval.
"What this game showed, and what I'm so proud of him for, is that he took what he got," Jones said afterward. "He played the game the way it was dealt to him. That's not the same Tony Romo that left this part of the country seven years earlier. He'd have been trying to make things happen that weren't there, instead of just doing what we needed to do to win this ballgame.
"That's not him anymore. He's got it in him, and he will make the play that others can't to keep the chains moving. But it's not a four-course meal for him anymore."
That said, a man must eat, and Romo had a few grab-the-turkey-leg-and-devour-it moments in a second half that was a testament to the Cowboys' might on both sides of the ball.
Three plays after the Packers closed to 13-9 with 5:58 left in the third quarter and facing first-and-10 from the Dallas 34-yard line, Romo hit wideout Miles Austin downfield in perfect stride – a pass so good that Collins got his legs tangled beneath him, barely recovering in time to catch the receiver at the 3 for a 63-yard gain. Two plays later Barber scored to give the Cowboys an 11-point lead.
In the fourth quarter, on third-and-7 from the Dallas 35, Romo zinged a pretty ball to Witten (seven catches, 67 yards) over the middle for an 11-yard gain.
Four plays later, on third-and-20 from his own 48, the pocket collapsed around Romo, who slid in the pocket and stepped forward to buy time. As he did, he managed to show Collins a look that compelled the safety to move to the middle of the field. Then, while being sandwiched by a pair of Packers, he released a gorgeous touch pass down the right sideline that Austin caught at the 10 in front of cornerback Tramon Williams and took to the end zone for the game-clinching score.
"It was third-and-20, wasn't it?" Romo asked rhetorically, laughing. "The safety was trying to read my eyes, and I tried to hold him and bring him across the other side as I was drifting right. Once he dipped in, I was able to let it go."
As Austin crossed the goal line, the Lambeau crowd grew so quiet, Romo could practically hear the people in his personal cheering section roaring their approval. Meanwhile, in NFL cities across the country, players and coaches watching on TV were thinking a uniform thought: Uh oh. The Cowboys ARE for real.
We won't really know if that's true until the kid from Burlington gets another chance to get it done in the postseason. But until then, the man who signs his paychecks is more certain than ever that Romo won't overextend when that challenge comes.
"If it all stopped tomorrow, and there never was another playoff game, tonight was still a great thing," Jones insisted. "Tony got to be a part of a big deal tonight, and it's something he should cherish. Even if someone slipped me a look into the future that said, 'Here, you're going to be a part of the NFC championship game,' I wouldn't even want to look ahead. I just want to enjoy this moment for what it was."
I'
