Galloway- Romo and Cowboys do what they do best: FAIL

dbair1967

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Romo, Cowboys do what they do best ... fail

Posted Monday, Dec. 31, 2012

by Randy Galloway

rgalloway@star-telegram.com

LANDOVER, Md. -- Bring it on. Bring on the Romo hate.

But that's what Tony does. That's what Tony did again Sunday night. He brings down the hate on himself.

Let another season end for the Dallas Cowboys. Also let another loud round of Romo howls begin after a win-to-get-in situation came to a disastrous conclusion on a cold evening down the road from old D.C.

Between a gimpy but game RG3 and his rookie sidekick, Alfred Morris, the Washington Redskins didn't exactly need much help in storming into the playoffs, via a 28-18 decision before 82,000-plus rejuvenated and giddy Skin-ettes.

Romo, however, was also a Redskins ally.

One. Two. Three. Interceptions.

And the third one? Oh, gawd. The third one.

With plenty of clock time remaining, and even a little momentum on his side, Tony put the finishing touches on the Washington victory by attempting to feather a fourth-quarter sideline throw to running back DeMarco Murray.

But it was more feathers than arm involved.

The coverage matchup was excellent for the Cowboys, with linebacker Rob Jackson on Murray, who was in the left flat near the sideline. Except with the slight underthrow, Jackson got to the ball, fell to the ground, and held on for the pick of the year in Washington.

What had been a slim 21-18 lead for the Redskins, and a bit of a stadium sweat suddenly prevalent at Fed-ExField, well...

The celebration was on again after the Jackson play. And again after his interception resulted in a short-field clinching touchdown for RG3 and the offense.

With Robert Griffin and with Morris, the Redskins are a franchise on the move up, and by winning their last seven games to close the regular season, they shockingly moved all the way up to an NFC East title and right into next week's playoffs. From 3-6 to 10-6. That's big-time.

Meanwhile...

The Cowboys continue to do what they do.

What they do is fail.

They fail, and fail, and fail.

The Cowboys are a franchise going nowhere.

They've been failing since 1996. The history of failure is well-documented. One playoff win, and still counting in 16 years.

On this night, they failed mainly because the quarterback made two stupid mistakes resulting in interceptions, and the other one was some kind of mixup between the quarterback and receiver Kevin Ogletree, killing at least a prime field-goal opportunity.

You know the story by now. Players and coaches come and go. Jerry Jones is the only constant in this sad, sad tale of woe. And, of course, Jerry is going nowhere. Same as his team. They go nowhere together, linked in failure.

The only ongoing debate of note is can the Cowboys win again -- win consistently enough to make the playoffs, and be a postseason threat -- with Romo at quarterback.

I always say ... yes.

But nights like this tell us -- actually, they scream at us -- no-no-no.

Nights like this, the no-no-no voices strongly prevailed.

But Romo, the same as Jerry, is going nowhere, at least until the Cowboys become realistic about making a true effort to draft and begin developing a young quarterback. And this NFL season, of all NFL seasons, tells us teams are winning and going to the playoffs with rookie QBs or young, developing QBs.

Coach Jason Garrett is also going nowhere, even with another 8-8 season on his ledger, because Jerry is convinced Garrett is the head coach who will someday soon make a difference.

Based on what was heard and said over the past month, these are supposed to be the good times at Valley Ranch, good times because Jerry thinks he has the head coach and the quarterback and the overall talent to bring the franchise back from the depths of mediocrity.

It's laughable, but true.

Yes, Mr. Jones was flashing some postgame locker-room anger on Sunday night, but, believe me, he'll get over it. By this morning, I'd bet, he'll be over it, despite Jerry stating up front after the game that he would not talk about the coaching situation.

But if Jerry is now remotely thinking about firing Red J, which he isn't, then the heavy lifting should have come in this area when a Sean Payton was still on the street, unsigned by the Saints. As of this past weekend, however, Payton re-upped with the Saints, apparently sensing that Jones was not interested in changing head coaches.

Obviously, the Cowboys' loss here shocked no one. This was not a real playoff team or a real divisional winner. Real divisional winners and real playoff teams don't lose last week at home to a down-and-out New Orleans outfit.

But the numbers and the tiebreakers told us that Sunday night was a showdown situation for the divisional title and a playoff berth.

One. Two. Three.

Those, however, were the only numbers that mattered in this loss. Three interceptions charged to the quarterback were the lowest of the lowlight moments for the Cowboys' offense.

It wasn't exactly a secret the Cowboys needed around 30 points to win here. Credit goes to the Redskins' defense for snuffing that goal, but that doesn't take the blame off the two guys most responsible for offensive production.

Of course, that's Romo, and that's the play-caller, Garrett.

But the Cowboys did what they do best.

They failed. They always fail, at least going on two decades, and counting.

The poster child for this particular failure is Romo.

Let the haters be heard.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/31/4515227/romo-cowboys-do-what-they-do-best.html#storylink=cpy
 
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I'm hesitant to place much blame on Romo.

He's stuck with a truly abysmal OL. The OL is unable to run block, to execute screens, or to reliably pass block.

It is the GM's responsibility to gather the pieces that can be assembled into an effective, cohesive whole. The GM has clearly failed in this regard.

Romo is a victim of the GM's failure.
 

dbair1967

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I'm hesitant to place much blame on Romo.

He's stuck with a truly abysmal OL. The OL is unable to run block, to execute screens, or to reliably pass block.

It is the GM's responsibility to gather the pieces that can be assembled into an effective, cohesive whole. The GM has clearly failed in this regard.

Romo is a victim of the GM's failure.

If his mistakes were the result of that bad play or because he was getting creamed, I'd agree.

But the vast majority of his "mistakes" come with no pressure on him. The OL wasnt an issue last night. It wasnt great in any sense, but he had ample time on alot of those plays. he made poor throws or poor decisions (or both). he also made some other not so obvious mistakes. He had half the football field to run through on one play and ignored it, and we ended up punting two plays later. On at least two other occassions he passed up chance to run with the ball for easy first downs and threw incomplete passes that had no chance instead. He ignored trying to get Dez Bryant the ball for almost half a game total.

He isnt a victim. He is part of the problem.
 
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My take on last night - Romo was playing hurt and unable to execute at his typical standard.
 

TunaTaco

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Has there ever been a bigger prime time screwup than Tony Romo? Romo has a proven track record of turning the ball over in big games at the most crucial of times. It is uncanny...

I honestly think he did not throw the ball downfield on the last drive just so he would not end up with 4 INTs.
 

bbgun

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Tony's the guy we stick with for "excitement" until a young stud comes along. Kinda like what the Packers did with Majkowski and Favre.
 

LAZARUS_LOGAN

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Tony's the guy we stick with for "excitement" until a young stud comes along. Kinda like what the Packers did with Majkowski and Favre.


Doesn't make sense. Majkowski was anything but exciting, now Favre on the other hand...

Maybe what you meant to say is: Tony's the guy we stick with for "excitement" until a young stud comes along. Kinda like what the Packers did with Favre and Rodgers.[/QUOTE]
 
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Most QBs lack Romo's ecapability.

Imagine the sacks a less mobile QB would have taken behind that miserable OL.
 

dbair1967

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Most QBs lack Romo's ecapability.

Imagine the sacks a less mobile QB would have taken behind that miserable OL.

Maybe, but there's also something to be said for making quick decisions and getting rid of the football on time. Guys like Aikman, Marino, Manning and Brady arnt overly elusive, but they were difficult to sack because they got rid of the football so quickly. Before Aikman's knee and back issues starting wearing him down, nobody got the C to passing point drop as far as he did as fast as he did, and it definitely helped avoid sacks.
 
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IMO, the players you just mentioned would not have survived behind this year's OL in Dallas. Even at his youngest, Aikman got absolutely clobbered behind his inferior line. The abuse the rookie Aikman took is now legendary. This year would have been no different.
 

dbair1967

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IMO, the players you just mentioned would not have survived behind this year's OL in Dallas. Even at his youngest, Aikman got absolutely clobbered behind his inferior line. The abuse the rookie Aikman took is now legendary. This year would have been no different.

Aikman was only sacked 19 times as a rookie. He was sacked 39 times in 1990. Those two years were with Dave Shula as OC, and he was arguably the worst assistant coach this franchise has ever had. The "abuse" Aikman took was more because defenders could do alot more in terms of contact with a QB. Players are protected vastly more today, and Aikman would never take some of those hits because of it.

Besides, Aikman himself was a tremendous athlete when he came in the league. In fact he had far more mobility and speed than Romo has. People only remember the Aikman of 99 and 00, but the Aikman from 89-95 was in fact a great athlete.
 
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My memory of Ailman is intact.

If you want to believe that Romo is the problem and that many if not most QBs would succeed behind that OL, go for it.
 

dbair1967

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My memory of Ailman is intact.

If you want to believe that Romo is the problem and that many if not most QBs would succeed behind that OL, go for it.

I dont know what your term "succeed" means. Is this OL good? Nope. But the OL has been good in the past, and Romo made the same mistakes we saw last night then.

He's part of the problem. He isnt the only problem or even the main problem, but he is certainly part of it.
 

dbair1967

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How are the 90's teams relevant in thus discussion ?

If you recall when watching our 2006-1007-2008 teams, even into 2009, most football "experts" always mentioned our OL as among the very best in football at the time. I remember numerous references to it in 2007 alone.
 
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