@Reality, couldn't you arrange for a gift or designate Dallas east King of the Forum for a day. A post this long takes work and I am impressed.Caution: This is a loooooooooooooooong post.
"The worst thing he ever did was not bobbling the snap against Seattle. The worst thing he ever did seriously was taking that trip to Cabo." - Jean-Jacques Taylor (link)
It is fair saying Romo's critics share Taylor's assessment. The Cabo trip is applied as Romo's failure to win the divisional game against the Giants. Below are the key moments of that game, starting with negatives that can be laid in Romo's lap:
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 10:26 remaining, 2nd & 8 at the Dallas 44, Giants leading by four 21-17
A quarterback cannot surrender a sack in that situation. Period. Dallas punted two plays later.
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 6:18 remaining, 1st & 10 at the New York 47, Giants up four 21-17
Again, a quarterback cannot get sacked in that situation. Period. Same drive was extended with two crucial pass completions to Jason Witten and a Giants illegal use of hands penalty. SITUATION: 4th quarter, 4:16 remaining, 1st & 10 at New York's 41-yard line, Giants still up by four:
It was the right decision after two sacks and not seeing an open receiver but a quarterback must be aware if they are inside the tackle box first. Total brain fart. No excuse. The final two critical failed plays are put on Romo but are they only his failures?
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 21 seconds remaining, 3rd & 11 at the New York 23, Giants winning by four, 21-17
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. IF Patrick Clayton had beaten his jam immediately and ran hard, he would have met Romo's pass in the back of the endzone, which is the exact pass a quarterback must throw in that situation to give only his receiver a chance to catch the ball. Dallas advances IF Clayton caught that arguably catchable pass. Final Romo 'failure':
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 16 seconds remaining, 4th & 11 at the New York 23, four point Giants' lead, 21-17
Interception. The absolute last thing any quarterback should do in any situation. Game over. Giants cornerback R.W. McQuarters, who caught the ball, made an interesting observation of what he predicted would happen based on a Dallas false start penalty four plays earlier:
Click here to see on YouTube
Would any Giants' defensive back had been in position to pick off that pass IF Marc Colombo had committed a false start and telegraphed the play Dallas might have and did run on the final play of the game? That answer will never be known. If. Buts. Candy. Nuts.
CABO! Above is how Taylor and fellow Romo critics sum up Dallas' loss. He and others would stop reading here with the satisfaction that Cabo explains why the Cowboys season ended.
Football games are four quarters. The following is not acknowledged and ignored by Taylor and others under the Cabo explanation.
SITUATION: 1st Quarter, 12:39 remaining, 3rd & 5 at the New York 43, game tied 0-0
This was my only issue with officiating the whole game. The offside penalty kept the Giants' drive alive. Was DeMarcus Ware offside? OR. Was it one of many examples of a future Hall of Famer's speed simply being too fast for a referee to accurately track? It was a crucial penalty because
SITUATION: 1st Quarter, 12:02 remaining, 1st & 10 at the New York 48, game tied 0-0
Greg Ellis failed to tackle Toomer. Anthony Henry failed to tackle Toomer. The catch and tackle should have given the Giants a 1st and 10 at the Cowboys 40-yard line. Instead, Toomer broke both tackles and ran 52 (fifty-two) yards for the touchdown. Six points. Seven points after the extra point. Not three points if the defense held New York to a field goal. Not zero points if Ellis or Henry's sloppy tackling prevented a big splash play. For some inexplicable reason, the following is never, literally never, recited in Cabo discussions.
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 42 seconds remaining, 2nd & 10 at the New York 29, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned.
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 34 seconds remaining, 1st & 10 at the Dallas 49, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned again. He compounded having Eli Manning target him by grabbing Steve Smith's facemask, tacking on 15 more yards after the 11-yard catch
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 17 seconds remaining, 3rd & 10 at the Dallas 23, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned yet again. Reeves and the rest of the defense did not go to Cabo with Romo, Witten and Jessica Simpson. Nonetheless, the very next play was
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 11 seconds remaining, 1st & Goal at the Dallas 4, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Tie game. 71 yards. 42 seconds. Cabo? Halftime. Dallas elects to receive after the end of the half. Dallas marches down the field but settles for a Nick Folk field goal. Special teams have their Cabo/not Cabo moment after Folk kicks short of the endzone. Dallas leads 17-14
New York's Domenik Hixon returned the kickoff to midfield. 45 yards. Flips field position. Special teams did not go to Cabo. The defense stiffens and gets the Giants' offense off the field. Giants punt. Touchback. Dallas' ball. A ten yard catch by Witten negated by a Leonard Davis unnecessary roughness penalty. Two plays later
SITUATION: 3rd Quarter, 1:18 remaining, 3rd & 13 at the Dallas 17, Dallas leading 17-14
Perfect pass. Thrown under duress. Hit Clayton in stride. Open field ahead. Ball dropped. Cabo? Not Cabo? Very next play
SITUATION: 3rd Quarter, 1:08 remaining, 4th & 13. Dallas leading 17-14
Keith Davis, good angle, does not wrap up McQuarters, flat misses the tackle. McQuarters weakly jukes Tony Curtis who misses the tackle. L.P. LaDouceur pushes McQuarters out of bounds at the Dallas 37 but after field position is flipped again. Cabo? Four plays later
SITUATION: 4th Quarter, 15:00 remaining, 3rd & 6, at the Dallas 20, Dallas leading 17-14
Jacques Reeves targeted yet again. New York scored a touchdown two plays later. Seven total points. If buts candy and nuts would have been the Giants settling for a short field goal and a tie game early in the fourth quarter. Cabo caused Dallas to now trail by four points?
Romo (link) stated exactly what Cabo meant for that game:
"I don't think it had any bearing on the game. You know. I mean it's just the optics of it you know was wrong. And I think it's silly when you look back like why would you do that. But you know at the time you just don't know any better. I just living and you learn."
Cabo was a mistake. It gave Taylor and others an excuse to blame the quarterback for a team loss. Over a mini-vacation before a crucial game. Over optics. Taylor and others had 20/20 vision for what happened in Mexico but self-blinded by what happened in Texas Stadium on that January day. What else was Cabo'ed then and up to this very day?
Yeah.
Add a 20-play, ten minute drive ending in a Marion Barber touchdown.
Yeah.
A short-circuited 4th quarter drive involving pretty darn good Romo-to-Witten completions. Short-circuited by Romo on one penalty and an illegal formation penalty on another down. Half a Cabo? Not just a Romo Cabo?
Yeah.
Some last second Romo/Witten magic before the clock struck midnight?
Yeah. All Cabo.
Not really. Never was. Optics was always just that. Optics. The team did not advance to the NFC Championship because it gifted New York multiple opportunities to score up to 21 points (and did not capitalize on a game winning touchdown) on less than a handful of quarterback brain farts, stupid untimely penalties, bad tackling, poor DB coverage, a dropped pass, less than optimal route running and a really questionable flag. What was the final score again?
Exactly.
Parcells flaked out on him. Had he not done that, no telling...
Parcells knew Romo was a project and he didn’t have the patience. He was an old coach and he said Romo had warts. He knew it was going to take time developing him and the defense appeared to be a long way off. The way we lost to Seattle in the playoffs took a lot out of Parcells. He said in an interview after watching the team in 07 that he started regretting not staying around. Had he done so things might have turned out differently that season.
What a sensational postCaution: This is a loooooooooooooooong post.
"The worst thing he ever did was not bobbling the snap against Seattle. The worst thing he ever did seriously was taking that trip to Cabo." - Jean-Jacques Taylor (link)
It is fair saying Romo's critics share Taylor's assessment. The Cabo trip is applied as Romo's failure to win the divisional game against the Giants. Below are the key moments of that game, starting with negatives that can be laid in Romo's lap:
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 10:26 remaining, 2nd & 8 at the Dallas 44, Giants leading by four 21-17
A quarterback cannot surrender a sack in that situation. Period. Dallas punted two plays later.
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 6:18 remaining, 1st & 10 at the New York 47, Giants up four 21-17
Again, a quarterback cannot get sacked in that situation. Period. Same drive was extended with two crucial pass completions to Jason Witten and a Giants illegal use of hands penalty. SITUATION: 4th quarter, 4:16 remaining, 1st & 10 at New York's 41-yard line, Giants still up by four:
It was the right decision after two sacks and not seeing an open receiver but a quarterback must be aware if they are inside the tackle box first. Total brain fart. No excuse. The final two critical failed plays are put on Romo but are they only his failures?
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 21 seconds remaining, 3rd & 11 at the New York 23, Giants winning by four, 21-17
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. IF Patrick Clayton had beaten his jam immediately and ran hard, he would have met Romo's pass in the back of the endzone, which is the exact pass a quarterback must throw in that situation to give only his receiver a chance to catch the ball. Dallas advances IF Clayton caught that arguably catchable pass. Final Romo 'failure':
SITUATION: 4th quarter, 16 seconds remaining, 4th & 11 at the New York 23, four point Giants' lead, 21-17
Interception. The absolute last thing any quarterback should do in any situation. Game over. Giants cornerback R.W. McQuarters, who caught the ball, made an interesting observation of what he predicted would happen based on a Dallas false start penalty four plays earlier:
Click here to see on YouTube
Would any Giants' defensive back had been in position to pick off that pass IF Marc Colombo had committed a false start and telegraphed the play Dallas might have and did run on the final play of the game? That answer will never be known. If. Buts. Candy. Nuts.
CABO! Above is how Taylor and fellow Romo critics sum up Dallas' loss. He and others would stop reading here with the satisfaction that Cabo explains why the Cowboys season ended.
Football games are four quarters. The following is not acknowledged and ignored by Taylor and others under the Cabo explanation.
SITUATION: 1st Quarter, 12:39 remaining, 3rd & 5 at the New York 43, game tied 0-0
This was my only issue with officiating the whole game. The offside penalty kept the Giants' drive alive. Was DeMarcus Ware offside? OR. Was it one of many examples of a future Hall of Famer's speed simply being too fast for a referee to accurately track? It was a crucial penalty because
SITUATION: 1st Quarter, 12:02 remaining, 1st & 10 at the New York 48, game tied 0-0
Greg Ellis failed to tackle Toomer. Anthony Henry failed to tackle Toomer. The catch and tackle should have given the Giants a 1st and 10 at the Cowboys 40-yard line. Instead, Toomer broke both tackles and ran 52 (fifty-two) yards for the touchdown. Six points. Seven points after the extra point. Not three points if the defense held New York to a field goal. Not zero points if Ellis or Henry's sloppy tackling prevented a big splash play. For some inexplicable reason, the following is never, literally never, recited in Cabo discussions.
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 42 seconds remaining, 2nd & 10 at the New York 29, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned.
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 34 seconds remaining, 1st & 10 at the Dallas 49, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned again. He compounded having Eli Manning target him by grabbing Steve Smith's facemask, tacking on 15 more yards after the 11-yard catch
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 17 seconds remaining, 3rd & 10 at the Dallas 23, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Jacques Reeves burned yet again. Reeves and the rest of the defense did not go to Cabo with Romo, Witten and Jessica Simpson. Nonetheless, the very next play was
SITUATION: 2nd Quarter, 11 seconds remaining, 1st & Goal at the Dallas 4, Dallas leading by 7, 14-7
Tie game. 71 yards. 42 seconds. Cabo? Halftime. Dallas elects to receive after the end of the half. Dallas marches down the field but settles for a Nick Folk field goal. Special teams have their Cabo/not Cabo moment after Folk kicks short of the endzone. Dallas leads 17-14
New York's Domenik Hixon returned the kickoff to midfield. 45 yards. Flips field position. Special teams did not go to Cabo. The defense stiffens and gets the Giants' offense off the field. Giants punt. Touchback. Dallas' ball. A ten yard catch by Witten negated by a Leonard Davis unnecessary roughness penalty. Two plays later
SITUATION: 3rd Quarter, 1:18 remaining, 3rd & 13 at the Dallas 17, Dallas leading 17-14
Perfect pass. Thrown under duress. Hit Clayton in stride. Open field ahead. Ball dropped. Cabo? Not Cabo? Very next play
SITUATION: 3rd Quarter, 1:08 remaining, 4th & 13. Dallas leading 17-14
Keith Davis, good angle, does not wrap up McQuarters, flat misses the tackle. McQuarters weakly jukes Tony Curtis who misses the tackle. L.P. LaDouceur pushes McQuarters out of bounds at the Dallas 37 but after field position is flipped again. Cabo? Four plays later
SITUATION: 4th Quarter, 15:00 remaining, 3rd & 6, at the Dallas 20, Dallas leading 17-14
Jacques Reeves targeted yet again. New York scored a touchdown two plays later. Seven total points. If buts candy and nuts would have been the Giants settling for a short field goal and a tie game early in the fourth quarter. Cabo caused Dallas to now trail by four points?
Romo (link) stated exactly what Cabo meant for that game:
"I don't think it had any bearing on the game. You know. I mean it's just the optics of it you know was wrong. And I think it's silly when you look back like why would you do that. But you know at the time you just don't know any better. I just living and you learn."
Cabo was a mistake. It gave Taylor and others an excuse to blame the quarterback for a team loss. Over a mini-vacation before a crucial game. Over optics. Taylor and others had 20/20 vision for what happened in Mexico but self-blinded by what happened in Texas Stadium on that January day. What else was Cabo'ed then and up to this very day?
Yeah.
Add a 20-play, ten minute drive ending in a Marion Barber touchdown.
Yeah.
A short-circuited 4th quarter drive involving pretty darn good Romo-to-Witten completions. Short-circuited by Romo on one penalty and an illegal formation penalty on another down. Half a Cabo? Not just a Romo Cabo?
Yeah.
Some last second Romo/Witten magic before the clock struck midnight?
Yeah. All Cabo.
Not really. Never was. Optics was always just that. Optics. The team did not advance to the NFC Championship because it gifted New York multiple opportunities to score up to 21 points (and did not capitalize on a game winning touchdown) on less than a handful of quarterback brain farts, stupid untimely penalties, bad tackling, poor DB coverage, a dropped pass, less than optimal route running and a really questionable flag. What was the final score again?
Exactly.
One of the main reasons Parcells took the Dallas job was because he needed the retirement money after his divorce. He was always a really hard working coach, spending sixteen hours a day six or seven days a week, and at his age the "daily grind" got to him. I highly doubt he flaked on anyone, let alone Romo. He just couldn't take coaching anymore and he got what he needed. He didn't walk because of Romo. He appreciated him. If you check out his interviews when he speaks about him, they're always positive, and if I recall correctly, one time he said "he had no doubt in his mind" that Romo was very capable of taking a team to and winning a Super Bowl. I remember in a press conference with the Dallas media way back in 2004/2005, some of the reporters were pressing him with questions to move ahead with the young QBs instead of relying on his familiar older players like Testaverde (and eventually Bledsoe), and during those years we had young guys like Quincy Carter (who we all know got kicked off the team for pot), or Chad Hutchinson and Drew Henson who were the young QBs with the standard measurables that were from winning programs or showed potential. I don't remember the exact words of Parcells and I wish I could find a video of it on the YouTube which I have tried to look for, but he said something to the effect of 'Hey, we got another guy back there who knows how to throw the ball...' referring to Romo. He was effectively hiding him and that's why he didn't let him go with Payton to New Orleans.
Yeah, Parcells pretty much said he was worried about his physical health after another loss in the playoffs. Said he didn't want to drop dead on the sidelines from a heart attack. He did enough in the NFL and didn't have much else to prove. All on Jerry Jones going from a "No BS" culture to bringing in "Camp Cupcake".
Not unprecedented as Parcell like Landry believed in the 3 year rule (Remember Danny White had 4 years before starting).
I agree with your assessment from Parcells' pov.....as for Jerry, he needed a credible and legendary coach to head the Cowboys during his attempt to get the best deal from Arlington and Dallas for the stadium. Jerry, always the businessman. Once he got his deal, and After the Parcells experiment and Jerry holding his nose the entire time, he went back to his puppet coaches.
and dont forget JG came in with wade, as OC lol and then as OC assitant HC.
Romo could have started in 2005 ,and for sure should have started in 2006 at beg of season. He was ready,
Or throw a back breaking interception in the biggest moments.
It's too bad, but I think it was the best time to retire. The culture change didn't seem to have a much different effect than .500
