cowboyjoe
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Rocky Road
Spagnola: Romo's History Should Give Cowboys Hope
IRVING, Texas - This might be the most meaningful stat heading into the 2010 season:
19-8.
That is Tony Romo's record starting in regular-season road games, which for historical purposes, while not an extensive body of work, represents the second-best winning percentage among quarterbacks with at least 15 career road starts in the Super Bowl era of the NFL.
I mean, have you looked? Remind yourself lately?
This really must be some kind of NFL joke, although my guess is no one around The Ranch is laughing over the Dallas Cowboys' 2010 road schedule.
Now, of course we will not know the complete order of games for this upcoming season until the NFL releases the 2010 schedule, usually the first or second week in April. The league will send out teasers next week during the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla., (March 21-24), at least giving us the opening week's primetime television games, along with the expected Thanksgiving Day games.
But as for just who the Cowboys will be playing this coming season, we've known that since Jan. 3 when the Cowboys shut out the Philadelphia Eagles in the final game of the regular season to claim the organization's 17th NFC East Division title since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
So while we are awaiting the Cowboys to lift a finger in free agency, for the owners meetings to begin next week, then the three-day NFL draft (April 22-24) and subsequent on-field workouts to commence, let me be your trusted messenger reminding you of the Cowboys' road opponents, something probably overlooked in the midst of securing a playoff spot and then winning their first postseason game since the 1996 season.
But I'm warning you, especially those with their hearts set on the Cowboys improving on last season's 11-5 regular-season record. Do not read any further on a full stomach.
Drum roll please:
Besides the three usual suspects - Eagles, Giants and Commanders - the Cowboys will go on the road to play, in alphabetical order: Arizona, Green Bay, Houston, Indianapolis and Minnesota. Seriously, not a team coming off a season with a losing record among those five. Then, of course, add to that Philadelphia (11-5) and the Giants (8-8), and you realize that's playing six of eight opponents coming off winning seasons and seven of eight coming off non-losing seasons.
On the road.
Maybe that is why Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seems intent on turning this summer into the next Cowboys Traveling Road Show, with training camp expected to be split between San Antonio and Oxnard, Calif., plus three road preseason games when throwing in the Aug. 8 NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame game the day following Emmitt Smith's induction.
Might as well get used to being on the road sooner than later.
The Cowboys' 2010 strength of schedule has been and will continue to be well documented. If you've forgotten, it's .543, their 16 opponents in 2010 combining for a 139-117 record in 2009. That's facing the third-toughest opponents' winning percentage, behind only the .547 of Tennessee and Houston.
But when revealing these numbers, the NFL doesn't break them down to home and away - maybe because the Cowboys' task is frightening.
So other than playing the 4-12 Commanders on the road, it's the 10-6 Cardinals, 11-5 Packers, 9-7 Texans, 14-2 Colts, 12-4 Vikings, 11-5 Eagles and 8-8 Giants. Add them all up, and the Cowboys' strength of schedule on the road comes to a .617 winning percentage (79-49). This road includes playing the defending AFC champion (Colts), three division champs (Colts, Cards and Vikings), teams with a 4-5 2009 playoff record and five coming off at least a 10-victory season.
Take away the Commanders and last year's combined winning percentage of the other seven road opponents is .670. Oh my.
And this version of the NFL's Murderers' Row has more to do with the luck of the draw, the Cowboys predetermined to play the NFC North and AFC South this season, than the Cowboys winning their division, meaning they must play the first-place team from the NFC West on the road (Arizona) and the first-place team from the NFC South (New Orleans) at home, which we will get to in a moment.
That then gets us back to 19-8, Romo's record in his 27 road starts. That's a .704 winning percentage, meaning Romo is mighty consistent, home or away, when considering his home starting record is 19-9 (.679). No GPS needed.
On top of that, here is Romo's passing line in those 27 road games: 603 of 938 (64.3 percent), 7,436 yards, 42 touchdowns, 26 interceptions. And in 2009, Romo averaged 313.4 yards passing in the eight road games, second best in the NFL to only Houston's Matt Schaub. The Cowboys will need every bit of that, and likely more, to come away with at least the 5-3 regular-season road record they had in 2009.
The eight home opponents do offer some semblance of balance. Half the home opponents finished 2009 with losing records: Chicago (7-9), Detroit (2-14), Jacksonville (7-9) and Washington (4-12).
Yet the other half includes the Super Bowl champion Saints (13-3), the Eagles (11-5) and the 8-8 Giants and Titans. Now if you had your druthers, reversing this schedule would be to your liking, certainly preferring to play the presumed better teams at home and all those sub-.500 ones on a road traditionally loaded with potholes in the NFL.
Now then, when combining the home and away opponents, this means the Cowboys will be playing both conference champs from last season, four division champs and 11 opponents finishing at least .500 or better.
You've been forewarned. So let's not become hysterical in early April when we learn the Cowboys are saddled with some migraine stretch of playing the likes New Orleans, the Giants, Green Bay and Minnesota within a five-week span. Because when looking at this string of opponents, especially the ones on the road, there is no two ways around it.
In Tony Romo you must trust.
Spagnola: Romo's History Should Give Cowboys Hope
IRVING, Texas - This might be the most meaningful stat heading into the 2010 season:
19-8.
That is Tony Romo's record starting in regular-season road games, which for historical purposes, while not an extensive body of work, represents the second-best winning percentage among quarterbacks with at least 15 career road starts in the Super Bowl era of the NFL.
I mean, have you looked? Remind yourself lately?
This really must be some kind of NFL joke, although my guess is no one around The Ranch is laughing over the Dallas Cowboys' 2010 road schedule.
Now, of course we will not know the complete order of games for this upcoming season until the NFL releases the 2010 schedule, usually the first or second week in April. The league will send out teasers next week during the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, Fla., (March 21-24), at least giving us the opening week's primetime television games, along with the expected Thanksgiving Day games.
But as for just who the Cowboys will be playing this coming season, we've known that since Jan. 3 when the Cowboys shut out the Philadelphia Eagles in the final game of the regular season to claim the organization's 17th NFC East Division title since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
So while we are awaiting the Cowboys to lift a finger in free agency, for the owners meetings to begin next week, then the three-day NFL draft (April 22-24) and subsequent on-field workouts to commence, let me be your trusted messenger reminding you of the Cowboys' road opponents, something probably overlooked in the midst of securing a playoff spot and then winning their first postseason game since the 1996 season.
But I'm warning you, especially those with their hearts set on the Cowboys improving on last season's 11-5 regular-season record. Do not read any further on a full stomach.
Drum roll please:
Besides the three usual suspects - Eagles, Giants and Commanders - the Cowboys will go on the road to play, in alphabetical order: Arizona, Green Bay, Houston, Indianapolis and Minnesota. Seriously, not a team coming off a season with a losing record among those five. Then, of course, add to that Philadelphia (11-5) and the Giants (8-8), and you realize that's playing six of eight opponents coming off winning seasons and seven of eight coming off non-losing seasons.
On the road.
Maybe that is why Cowboys owner Jerry Jones seems intent on turning this summer into the next Cowboys Traveling Road Show, with training camp expected to be split between San Antonio and Oxnard, Calif., plus three road preseason games when throwing in the Aug. 8 NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame game the day following Emmitt Smith's induction.
Might as well get used to being on the road sooner than later.
The Cowboys' 2010 strength of schedule has been and will continue to be well documented. If you've forgotten, it's .543, their 16 opponents in 2010 combining for a 139-117 record in 2009. That's facing the third-toughest opponents' winning percentage, behind only the .547 of Tennessee and Houston.
But when revealing these numbers, the NFL doesn't break them down to home and away - maybe because the Cowboys' task is frightening.
So other than playing the 4-12 Commanders on the road, it's the 10-6 Cardinals, 11-5 Packers, 9-7 Texans, 14-2 Colts, 12-4 Vikings, 11-5 Eagles and 8-8 Giants. Add them all up, and the Cowboys' strength of schedule on the road comes to a .617 winning percentage (79-49). This road includes playing the defending AFC champion (Colts), three division champs (Colts, Cards and Vikings), teams with a 4-5 2009 playoff record and five coming off at least a 10-victory season.
Take away the Commanders and last year's combined winning percentage of the other seven road opponents is .670. Oh my.
And this version of the NFL's Murderers' Row has more to do with the luck of the draw, the Cowboys predetermined to play the NFC North and AFC South this season, than the Cowboys winning their division, meaning they must play the first-place team from the NFC West on the road (Arizona) and the first-place team from the NFC South (New Orleans) at home, which we will get to in a moment.
That then gets us back to 19-8, Romo's record in his 27 road starts. That's a .704 winning percentage, meaning Romo is mighty consistent, home or away, when considering his home starting record is 19-9 (.679). No GPS needed.
On top of that, here is Romo's passing line in those 27 road games: 603 of 938 (64.3 percent), 7,436 yards, 42 touchdowns, 26 interceptions. And in 2009, Romo averaged 313.4 yards passing in the eight road games, second best in the NFL to only Houston's Matt Schaub. The Cowboys will need every bit of that, and likely more, to come away with at least the 5-3 regular-season road record they had in 2009.
The eight home opponents do offer some semblance of balance. Half the home opponents finished 2009 with losing records: Chicago (7-9), Detroit (2-14), Jacksonville (7-9) and Washington (4-12).
Yet the other half includes the Super Bowl champion Saints (13-3), the Eagles (11-5) and the 8-8 Giants and Titans. Now if you had your druthers, reversing this schedule would be to your liking, certainly preferring to play the presumed better teams at home and all those sub-.500 ones on a road traditionally loaded with potholes in the NFL.
Now then, when combining the home and away opponents, this means the Cowboys will be playing both conference champs from last season, four division champs and 11 opponents finishing at least .500 or better.
You've been forewarned. So let's not become hysterical in early April when we learn the Cowboys are saddled with some migraine stretch of playing the likes New Orleans, the Giants, Green Bay and Minnesota within a five-week span. Because when looking at this string of opponents, especially the ones on the road, there is no two ways around it.
In Tony Romo you must trust.
