Monday
Opinion, Top PostsInside Slants: Tony Romo wins over one hater
ADRIAN BRIJBASSI
NFLPosts.com Editor
I don’t like Tony Romo. I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan and I want to see my team win another Super Bowl and I don’t believe Romo is capable of making the plays necessary to do it. That said, he’s gotten a bad rap from a lot of us.
He started the season with a wide receiver who clearly doesn’t get it and offensive linemen who continue to draw penalties as if they believe the officials’ flags contained Halloween candy and a coaching staff that’s more often than not second-best in the stadium every single Sunday. After Dallas started 2-2, Romo got stuck on the bottom of a pile that included fans, the usual media critics and, perplexingly, Cowboys alumni.
Tony Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, Daryl Johnston and Troy Aikman all chimed in, questioning why Romo had been put on a pedestal alongside the best quarterbacks in the game and in the team’s history. While those questions may be valid, raising them in public is hardly a way of showing support, unless the goal was to orchestrate a massive shakeup.
Yet, Romo’s managed to face down adversity, something he hasn’t done much of during his career. He’s won four of five games, helped turn former backup receiver Miles Austin into a star and saved Wade Phillips’ job. He’s thrown eight touchdowns and zero interceptions during the Cowboys’ three-game winning streak. That’s the longest stretch of interception-free games in his career and he’s already had five such games this year, matching his career-best for a season.
In Sunday’s 38-17 win over Seattle he completed passes to 10 different receivers and even connected with the often-lost Roy Williams on one of three TD throws. He hasn’t passed for less than 255 yards in 2009 and already has four 300-yard games; only Peyton Manning (six) has more.
Romo even has a statistical answer for those who wonder why he was anointed as one of the NFL’s best current QBs. He recently attempted his 1,500th career pass, qualifying him to be ranked among all-time quarterbacks in passer rating. His 95.0 average stands third overall, behind Steve Young (96.8) and Manning (95.4).
“I’m just seeing things. It’s as simple as that. I’m not just throwing it hoping or things of that nature,” Romo said on Sunday, offering a reason for his success as well as a tacit admission to what many of us had suspected: That he would force the ball into tight spaces the way a poker player with no chance tosses money chasing a river card. He saw a slight possibility of the odds breaking his way and he went for it. He did it because somewhere in his past – in high school or at Eastern Illinois or in the preseason – he remembers taking a similar gamble that worked. It’s alpha-male competitiveness: always thinking you can make it happen and if you don’t, you forget it fast and move on. For Romo, the days of being allowed to forget are over.
My criticisms of Romo are the same as everyone else’s. He isn’t a leader. He’s got NFL talent but his work ethic prior to this season was arena league and based on his decisions on and off the field you have to think his IQ and golf handicap are about the same. Even after the botched snap in the playoff game in Seattle and all the fumbles during the last four years, he is still careless with the ball, as he was when he lost it inside his 10 against the Seahawks on Sunday. But he does show glimmers of maturity.
After another late-season collapse last year, he heard the clattering for change and listened to the fedupwithitness in Big D. To his credit, he’s smartened up.
The Cowboys, a month ago thought of as the third-string unit in the NFC East, will own first place all alone if they defeat division rival Philadelphia on Sunday night (8:20 p.m., NBC). The two teams are 5-2 and a half-game ahead of the Giants (5-3). Last year, the Eagles humiliated Dallas in the season-finale, winning 44-6.
“I don’t think it will make or break our season,” Romo said of the upcoming game at Lincoln Financial Field. “But it’s important for us to go up there and play as a group and get better.”
The Eagles are a step up in class from what the Cowboys have recently faced. How Romo performs this week will be a true indicator of how far he’s evolved.
ERIC MANGINI CAN’T COACH
If the Cleveland Browns haven’t quit on their coach, they’ve certainly tuned him out. The Browns (1-7) have scored less than 10 points in five games this season, including Sunday’s 30-6 loss to Chicago. Even the 2008 Detroit Lions hit double digits in 14 of 16 games.
The Browns’ only win was a fluke, a 6-3 debacle of an outcome in Buffalo. The turnovers are piling up, the discontent in the locker room is spilling into the public and upper management is feeling the heat for hiring a bum whose tough-guy approach wore thin fast with the Jets. Mangini is meeting similar resistance on a less-talented Cleveland team.
“Where are we trying to go and what are we trying to accomplish?” running back Jamal Lewis asked after the loss to the Bears. Those questions are what everyone in the Cleveland organization is pondering this week. The answers may not be clear; what’s certain is eight games into the season Mangini has oversight of the worst team in the NFL and that has to change.
FOUR AND OUT
Proof of disorder in the universe: JaMarcus Russell. NFL starting quarterback. Still. What is this guy, Dracula? Break out the garlic and get rid of him already.
You know you’re an evil Republican if…: You’re an idiot. And you’re such an idiot you put a tagline on your Fox News show that proudly declares you’re “Not White House Approved”. You know who else is not White House approved?: Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, the Taliban, drug lords from Mexico, Sarah Palin. Good company you keep, Sean Hannity.
iPhone app you’ll never be able to live without: CBS Radio network (free). There are many great radio networks available for no cost. This one includes Radio Woodstock (WDST) – the best commercial radio station in America.
Coolest song of the week: Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughn (last week: Fix It by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals).
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