Goes to show...you teach an old dog new tricks (pun intended)

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

Manning. Old. Neck injury and surgery (call it "upper back" if you will)
Manning. Exclusively Coryell his whole career. Dictated own offense. Impossible to run Mannings offense without being Manning.
Manning. Smart, competitive player. Takes chances.
Manning. Gets Coach who brings in zone blocking and WCO
Manning. New coach synthesizes Mannings strengths into WCO.
Manning. Overthrows wide open players.
Manning. Somehow has WRs who are wide open.
Manning. Runs 8 yards for a first down.
Manning. Did anyone catch that the WRs were wide open?
Manning. Old dog.
Manning. New tricks.
Manning. Super Bowl.

Romo. Told that at 4-12 there will be no major changes.

Romo's a gutless loser and shouldn't be compared to Manning.

But the lack of changes here is more to do with Jerry's comfort and not wanting to pay out to get rid of the idiot clapper.

The point was that there has been talk that the system shouldn't change because Romo has been in it for so long. Romo made the Garrett rehearsed comment that "all systems are the same" which is not true unless you only really know one system and are led to believe that there is no system more effective than Jason's half of a passing game (the other half being the short passing game with crossing patterns, rubs, picks and mismatches designed for red zone and short first downs). But Manning had been in the same system for the entire time in the league and even went to the Super Bowl twice, winning once. It would have more weight for Manning not to change but even in his later NFL years he adapted to a new scheme fine - demonstrating that Romo could also adapt to a new scheme. It's just imperative that the scheme change. Once Air Coryell gets enough game film and starts repeating, all Coryell OCs end their tenure the same way: very few TDs, too much passing, interceptions, sacks and sideline arguments with the skill position players. Chad Johnson, Torry Holt, Ray Rice, T.O., etc.

Romo needs a new playbook and system.

Where Romo and Garrett have it right is all systems are the same if they don't ever change. Duh.

Meh. Manning was like 20% responsible for the win yesterday.

paralysis from analysis

Denver won the game because they played superior defense, not because of anything Manning did

Omega's right on his point that Romo could switch systems and still flourish, though. It's not true that you're somehow forced to stay the same just because we're this late in Tony's career. I always said he'd kill it in the Shanahan/Kubiak system. In fact, look at how old Elway was when he changed to that very system, and it got him a couple of rings.

Sort of OT but I used to think Jerry knew Jason wasn't that great but didn't care because he wanted someone he was comfortable with. Now more and more I'm starting to think Jerry the snake oil salesman has been sold a huge wagon load of snake oil himself by Jason the huckster. Maybe Jerry genuinely bought all the Princeton/process/well-spoken/creepy grin act as great coaching just like a bunch of gullible media people and message boarders, and wasn't/isn't football-smart enough to know better.

Tie-in is that Jason probably sold Jerry that you couldn't change offenses now, and Jerry bought it.

TE - exactly! The Bronco defense, led by Wade, won that game but I saw Manning miss Sanders twice and Damaryous Thomas once for TDs. They were open against a disciplined Patriot scheme. That's my only point: Romo should gave the opportunity, even later in career, to have a scheme that might match him better (he grew up emulating Favre who was WCO).

This draft will be the most telling about whether Jason has Jerry snowed. If they avoid picking a great talent at QB who falls into their lap and instead whiff or reach with the 4th pick with some absolutely stupid logic about "we liked the value", that will tell us a lot about snake oil and snow.

Romo, over the last 4 years or so has evolved into a sort of cerebral QB, moreso than one who relies on his athletic ability.

No question that he could run a different offense and be great at it. I'd put his ability to diagnose a defense pre snap up against anyone not named Peyton Manning.

bbgun said:

Meh. Manning was like 20% responsible for the win yesterday.

Keep reading...

Maybe, but they won more than one game this year to get to the Super Bowl.

ROMO COULD learn a new offense; that really is not a question. But we have no one to come up with such.

Going back a few decades, as I remember it, Aikman didn't have a great transition to the new offense brought in by Gailey.

Maybe this influences Jerry's thinking somewhat.

ZeroClub said:

Going back a few decades, as I remember it, Aikman didn't have a great transition to the new offense brought in by Gailey.

Maybe this influences Jerry's thinking somewhat.

Keep reading...

Yeah Aikman hated it, but so did a lot of the other veteran players. They thought he ignored the middle of the field (he did) and eliminated a lot of the intermediate routes that Aikman was so good at throwing.

By the end of Gailey's 2nd season it was obvious the offense was pretty much a joke. Hell that first year Cards defensive players and coaches made fun of it in that embarassing playoff loss.