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| Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo at the conclusion of the game against the Detroit Lions, whom the Cowboys lost to 34-30 after leading 27-3. Photo credit to Dallas Morning News. FAIR USE: This photo is not being used for profit purposes, this photo is being used for educational purposes only as it relates to the subject of this blog post. |
I'll start by saying that the fans of the Dallas Cowboys have been longing a quarterback hero since Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman's umpteenth concussion ended his career a decade ago. And who could blame the Cowboys fan base? Before I go any further, let me detail the anguish of the Dallas Cowboys fan since Aikman's last start:
2000: Aikman would suffer numerous concussions throughout the season, would be platooned by head coach Dave Campo under center with Randall Cunningham and Anthony Wright. This began a streak of 3 straight 5-11 seasons under the Campo era.
2001: I've lost track as to how many quarterback started this season. I only really remember Quincy Carter and Ryan "I Took My Money And Ran And Now I'm Somewhere In Vancouver" Leaf. It's good that Leaf has a prosperous second life in British Columbia.
2002: Chad Hutchinson was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, did extremely shitty (24.75 ERA and a 3.75 WHIP in 4 innings in relief), effectively ended his baseball career and went back to football. He battled for the starting job with Carter. It didn't really matter. The offense was horrid (only the expansion Houston Texans scored fewer points - four - than the Cowboys did), the defense ran in the middle of the pack, and the Cowboys still only won 5 games.
2003: It seemed to be a year where a phoenix rose. Quincy Carter flourished (I somewhat use that term loosely) under new head coach Bill Parcells and offensive coordinator Sean Payton and the Cowboys rebounded to a 10-6 record, their first winning season in 5 years. However, the quarterback controversy soon boiled up again in the offseason: Carter reportedly failed an illegal (by collective bargaining agreement standards) drug test administered by the Cowboys and was released before the 2004 season.
2004: So enter Vinny Testaverde from Parcells' days with the Jets and former New York Yankees baseball prospect Drew Henson. Testaverde started the season 2-1 before the bye and then afterwards things went straight to hell. Testaverde, nor, Henson in the 5 games he played, were able to generate much offense to compliment a defense that tied with the New Orleans Saints for being dead last in the NFC. Dallas regressed to a 6-10 record.
2005: Drew Bledsoe, yet another Parcells disciple, this time from Parcells' days as coach of the New England Patriots, comes in and leads Dallas to a 9-7 record. The Bledsoe-led Cowboys started out strong with a 7-3 record but faltered late, losing 4 of 6. Bledsoe threw his fair share of interceptions, but more people are going to remember how many games kicker Billy Cundiff would blow over the course of the season.
2006: Bledsoe could not stop throwing interceptions nor get away from being sacked Parcells would pass the job to fourth year back up quarterback Tony Romo, who only managed to stay on the team since 2003 because the Cowboys got rid of Carter before the 2004 season. Romo started his career at a 5-1 clip, but got cold later in the season (something he'll become notorious for) when the Cowboys lost 3 of their last 4 games with Romo throwing 6 interceptions against 6 touchdowns with two lost fumbles. Romo would botch a late snap on a field goal attempt in the NFC Wildcard game against the Seattle Seahawks, which resulted in a 21-20 victory for Seattle.
2007: The Dallas Cowboys fan base would begin their manic depressive love affair with Romo, who led the Cowboys to a 13-3 record, good for best overall in the NFC. Yet, the 2007 season will be remembered by how it ended -- Romo was not able to get it going against the New York Giants, whom he led the Cowboys to victory against twice in the regular season, only had one scoring drive in the second half (which resulted in a field goal) and the Cowboys lost their then-NFL record 6th consecutive playoff game. Maybe someone put a Jessica Simpson mask on, who knows.
2008: Romo would start 4-2, but was injured in the game against the Arizona Cardinals. For the next three games he would be replaced by Brad Johnson, a quarterback long past his prime. Dallas went 1-2, only score 41 points over the three games started by Johnson, and the only win, in Johnson's second start which was against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, only occurred because the Cowboys were able to limit the Bucs to nine points. Romo would return and the manic depressive love affair began once again. Romo led the Cowboys to three consecutive victories, however, the ides of December came along and it was not pretty. The Cowboys lost three of their final four games, including getting creamed 44-6 to the Philadelphia Eagles. The loss cost Dallas a trip the playoffs.
2009: Romo, now Jessica Simpson-less after dumping her one day before her birthday, reaches respectability again, going 11-5 including winning three in a row to close out the season. Romo would further endear himself to the Dallas fan base by leading the Cowboys to a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wildcard game (the first playoff win since 1996) and setting up a match up in the divisional round against the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings. Romo and Cowboy haters would throw a party, though -- America's Team only mustered 3 points against the victorious Vikings.
2010: Dallas would spend most of the 2010 with their heads in their ass and Romo missed 10 games because of injury. Journeyman and current back up quarterback Jon Kitna played decent in place of Romo, playing in 10 games with 9 starts, going 4-5 in those starts, completing 65.7% of his passes, racking up 2,365 yards, and throwing 16 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
2011: I'll still call it a manic depressive relationship with Romo, because fans were calling for Romo's head after blowing the opener against the Jets, then called him the second coming of Aikman after inspiring wins against the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins, and now are ready to shit on him again after losing to the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
Romo would commit three turnovers in the second half, including two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, including one that was thrown with 4:13 remaining. It turned a 27-3 Cowboys lead into a 34-30 loss. Bear in mind, however, the Lions have generally played better defensively in the second half of each game (all resulting in victories) so Dallas getting fits against the Detroit defense should not have been too much of surprise. Not to mention, safety Gerald Sensabaugh departed the game with the concussion, opening things up for quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who along with Andre Johnson (no relation), is the best wide out in the NFL.
Romo's late game debacles have overshadowed the fact that Romo does indeed have 11 game winning 4th quarter drives in his career with Dallas. That's something that should not be shrugged off, but in a league and a sport world that will look at what one has done lately while they're playing, that often gets lost in the shuffle.
It actually befuddles me as a fan to see Romo play poorly because when Romo fucks up, I mean, he really fucks up. It's bad throws, its untimely interceptions, its lost fumbles. It's drives that late in games that instead of scoring touchdowns to put the foot on the other teams throat, it's scoring drives that end in field goals that allow for the other team to lounge around.
Yet, at least for this season, there's a few cases that could be made in Romo's defense -- the receiving core is young and Miles Austin is out; Dez Byrant has conditioning issues that has him burned out physically after one half and that's one less weapon Romo has late in games; the offensive line is mediocre at best and that leaves Romo vulnerable to bone crushing hits; and finally the Cowboys defense, as decent as they have been playing, are prone to mental lapses later in games and they are not known for playing shutdown 4th quarter football.
The reality is that this team is still a 9 win football team. Even though the breathtaking, brave play of Romo for the second and third games of the season might have raised expectations for the Cowboys (I'll admit, it even got me thinking about 12 wins and a high seed in the playoffs because the Dream Team Eagles are giving the city of Philadelphia nightmares and the NFC East is weak), Dallas still needs improvements on the offensive line and a bit stronger secondary. As NFL is predominantly a passing league this season, good passing teams such as the Patriots (their next opponents) can create an ugly situation for the secondary. Teams with bruising defensive lines can easily overwhelm the offensive line and force Romo to make poor decisions that his career is becoming illustrious for.
But, back to Romo. It is true that two of his turnovers this season (one against the Jets and one against the Lions, both late) are major catalysts as to why the Cowboys are not undefeated at 4-0. However, at the same time, the Cowboys could be easily 0-4. The real difference here is that if the Cowboys kept their head-up-the-ass mentality that they played with through the first half of 2010, then the Cowboys would have lost both games against San Francisco and Washington, and the talk amongst pundits and fans would be whether or not Dallas would look to replace Romo with Andrew Luck.
Yet, that's the reality of having a manic depressive relationship with your team's quarterback; a quarterback of a team that still does not know how to shut it down in the fourth quarter. Let's face it -- if the Cowboys knew how to close games out in the fourth quarter then I would have never wrote this column and fans wouldn't be calling for his head across Texas.
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