Sham: A Tony Romo loss to Green Bay would mean '20 years of bleak' but not with Dak

[bbgun]

Cowboys play-by-play announcer Brad Sham joined SportsDay Ballzy hosts Kevin Sherrington and Barry Horn to talk Cowboys offseason, what's next for Tony Romo and the defensive quandaries in free agency. Here are some highlights:


Does the early playoff exit hurt?

Sham: It doesn't haunt me. What haunts me, Kevin, is when they're not competitive. I had a lot harder time getting through last year. When a year is a pleasant surprise, I just think it's like a bonus.

They could have beaten Green Bay. As I think about it and even Sunday night, I thought that was a beatable team. They weren't beatable by the Cowboys on that day. But for me the overall impact is not on the game but of the season and what it felt like from Day 1 in Oxnard.

This is disappointing. I would like to be preparing for a game this week. It was a winnable game. But this is not a nightmare-inducer for me because the season was all gravy. The day Romo went down in Seattle, there's not a single person except for maybe the coaches who didn't throw up their hands and say 'ok well we've seen this movie before, let's figure out how to put a blueprint together.' Suddenly the blueprint was dropped into their laps and they did a lot with it.

I hate to say this because I really love the guy, but had it been Tony Romo, they would've gone out there with the expectation that he was going to get hurt at any minute and if he didn't get done, they're looking at another 20 years of bleak.

Instead what people felt is the same thing the players felt, which is tremendously enthused. Tyrone Crawford said [he's] "tremendously infused with energy and optimism around two guys, brand new guys."

As much as you can be comparative from a salary cap to a non-salary cap age, and free agency, which really skews the whole comparison - as much as you can do it, this year felt more like what guys have told me '75 feels like when looking at the books. And that was, a really foundation-laying, building-block-in-place year because it did lead [the Cowboys] to two Super Bowls in the next three years.

How 'bout that 2016 draft class?

Horn: What are you hearing about Jaylon Smith?

Sham: Great things. Positive things.

Horn: Is that like the Cowboys bringing in a No. 1 pick already?

Sham: I think as we went along, especially after first it became kind of apparent Elliott was going to be what we thought he was, then Prescott way more and throw in Anthony Brown as a surprise. Then I think everyone said wait a minute now. If Smith turns out to be that ... and [DE Charles] Tapper who they took above Prescott for pass-rush help?

Jaylon Smith can be a difference maker because he's a high-character reader with ridiculous ability. So now you're going to have a team that won 13 games, that theoretically could add a top-5 pick from this year - then it really cashes in and what I hear mostly from him is very, very positive. He really believes he's going to be himself in 2017. ... Jaylon's an optimistic realist.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

Hey bb, was Sham always like this? Saying the Packers "weren't beatable" that day and basically saying as long as they're competitive it's all good? Sounds very participation trophy-ish to me.

 

[bbgun]

Hey bb, was Sham always like this? Saying the Packers "weren't beatable" that day and basically saying as long as they're competitive it's all good? Sounds very participation trophy-ish to me.

I don't worship Sham like Theebs does. Like Spagnola, he's a company man who gets paid by Jerry. But yeah, had Romo lost Sunday's game, it would have (fairly or not) contributed to his "snakebit" reputation.

 

[lons]

I read it as if, when Romo went down the season was gone. The fact that we turned it around Sans Romo and ended up on a high note with the future of the organization galvanized at the QB and RB positions, the O line, well. I think most folks aren't as pissed off as they would have been if say Romo hadn't gone down in that Seattle Game and we won 13 games and we go out there and lose or Romo gets hurt and we have no idea what we have at QB going into another draft. The players are excited for next year. Sure losing the Play off game sucked. But it sucked as in there really is hope for next year instead of. Ok we'll get em next year .... Hard to explain it. I guess you could say it's morale is high instead of low going into the draft and offseason programs. We finally have something to build on instead of spending everything on Offense to make it even more protective of Romo, we can haul in some defensive picks that we didn't grab from in front of a Home Depot last week to build a patio and decide they might play football ok.

 

[dbair1967]

The 13-3 season was an amazing success all things considered, nobody expected anything like that. I doubt anyone realistically expected 12 or 13 wins had Romo been healthy all year. I think some thought a playoff berth was possible, but it was almost universal belief the season was over when Romo went down. We did find a franchise QB, we do have a ton of talent on offense. Most of the really good players on the team are either extremely young or just entering their primes. There's reason for optimism, especially if they do what Stevie said and really dedicate this offseason to upgrades on defense.

That said, falling behind as badly as they did at home against a team they had beaten by 2+ TD's earlier in the year and ultimately losing because of a couple dumb mistakes and bad defense definitely puts a damper on how things went. To not win a single playoff game (2nd time now) when you have HFA is not good at all.

 

[theoneandonly]

I don't worship Sham like Theebs does

Why would you give a shit what Theebs thinks?