A Long December

For many of us, December is an exciting time of year. There’s the obvious holidays and seasonal cheer. College football prepares for bowl season and the NBA is now giving us a great Christmas present. And of course, the NFL playoff picture is rounding into shape. Maybe your team clinches a playoff spot. Maybe your team clinches home field advantage. December always gives us something. For Tony Romo however, December is something else.

Let’s just put it out there, Tony Romo’s career statistics are very good. I’ll also say this; Tony Romo has a good win-loss record. He is very athletic, can extend plays and has the pressure of playing in a city that demands their quarterback be a star and also perform like one. Tony Romo has a career record of 46-27, including a strong 19-2 record in the month of November and a career QB rating of 95.8. With Sunday’s loss to the lowly Arizona Cardinals, his career record in the month of December/January is now 8-11. If you include the 2008 regular season finale vs Philadelphia, which was a “win and you’re in” game, his playoff record is 1-4. He has completed less than 60% of his passes in his playoff games and his QB rating is a pedestrian 80.8. Does Tony Romo deserve all the blame? No. I think we all can give some of the blame to former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones deserves some heat as well. But in a league that protects its stars and adjusts rules to protect its quarterbacks, Tony Romo has to be held accountable for his winter shortcomings. In looking back to last Sunday’s loss at Arizona, Romo put up solid numbers: 28-for-42 in completions, 299 yards passing, one TD with no interceptions. But most people watching probably wondered what Romo was thinking or wasn’t thinking on what should have been the game winning drive. Romo completed a pass to WR Dez Bryant with 25 seconds to go and two timeouts. Tick tick tick tick tick; all the way down to seven seconds before they spike the ball and settle for a 49 yard field goal attempt. How many Cowboys fans around the country were yelling at the TV, “Take a timeout! You have two timeouts.” Why didn’t Romo take a timeout, save about ten seconds and run one or two more plays to get his kicker a closer field goal attempt?

It is plays like that, and like his botched hold on a winning field goal attempt in the playoffs against Seattle, that always leave you scratching your head when it comes to Tony Romo in the clutch. Or at the very least it causes you to question his leadership.

Are we just nit picking here or do we demand more from the “so called” stars of the NFL? We love Tom Brady, not just because he is married to a supermodel, but because he wins when it matters (34-4 record in the month of December). Now if we compared most quarterbacks to Tom Brady, they would fall short. But the Dallas Cowboys franchise is an organization that can say they have had Don Meredith, Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman at quarterback. Romo is supposed to be next in line. He is no longer a kid. This is his seventh season as a starting quarterback in the NFL and the time should be now. Lucky for him, Romo and his Cowboys control their own destiny this season. Win enough games and the NFC East is his for the taking. But if we look at the past, Romo and the Cowboys are far from a lock to make the playoffs. Tony Romo is a very good quarterback. Just not when it matters most.