Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tony Romo Is Still the Same Guy We Once Knew


The other night, while it was supposed to end as one of the remarkable classics for Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys, wasn’t a breakthrough night but a nightmare in hell. And who can ever forget that he’s known for making poor decisions, known for his stupidity and dumbfounded mind with possession of the football?

There’s a new season, but the same results for arguably the most careless and clumsy quarterback to ever start for the Cowboys. That said, he never had the potential to become one of the game’s finest quarterbacks and he continues to engage in mental lapses and those silly damn mistakes he pulls each season.

We’ve no longer have sympathy after giving Romo the benefit of the doubt, honestly judging that he could adjust and bypass the blunders by his mobility, mental ingenuity and physical abilities. But he can’t. He doesn’t have the intangibles and has no potential to be the Cowboys star quarterback, unless he can lead Dallas to a victory without a collapse but he stumbles too much in huge moments of huge ramifications.

That’s just Romo. It should come as no surprise that he found ways to make a boo-boo and relapse in the final quarter when he almost reached a point in his shaky career in capping his biggest fulfillment. His Sunday night turned into Horror night, of course, as if he was cursed on the turf or either faltered in the final moment of the most crucial point of the game when a star-studded performance mattered and determined the outcome.

So here we thought his ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson, a famous starlet with too much baggage, was a distraction and had affected Romo causing the Cowboys to lose practically every game. The fact he even dated her, upon hearing that she created unnecessary drama, was a disaster waiting to happen but he kissed and stayed in a relationship with a diva focused more on his Mexico vacations, a romantic Valentine’s dinner and a birthday party that publicly featured on the front page of tabloids.

We can’t blame Simpson.

This is not what we envisioned right now after the egomaniacal owner Jerry Jones parted ways with his controversial receiver Terrell Owens to end a destroyed marriage. It might have slightly been a problem, a factor of lacking chemistry and harmony in the Cowboys’ locker room when Owens was unsatisfied and cried that he wasn’t getting enough touches.

But we can’t blame Terrible Owens.

He was also shrinking and weakening under the Wade Phillips regime. The simplest measure was to chastise Phillips, a low-keyed, nitwitted head coach who definitely coached poorly and never motivated his players. There was no shortage of knowledge to describe Phillips as being soft and passive.

But we can’t blame Phillips, either.

It would be absurd to not directly point fingers at Romo, a major figure in America when he is precisely a celebrity bust and verified as an unpredictable and overhyped quarterback, leading a much-scrutinized franchise in Dallas. There is, of course, much gossip surrounding the quarterback as if he’s in the latest version of a motion picture after Sunday night at MetLife Stadium turned into a movie.

He blows huge games regularly and duplicates a poor performance again and again. The pressure often never bothered Romo and the Cowboys, but eventually he stumbled, he blew it and smeared a promising season-opener. This time, he was sharper and passed for 342 yards with two touchdowns, finishing the night with a 101.9 passer rating, but he was anything but flawless in the end and turned into a travesty, a comedic celebrity with no sense of awareness or no experience at the hardest position in the team sport.

We could be senseless and laugh and ridicule Romo. It’s classy of Romo to blame himself and accept the liability for the loss, but he is the scapegoat every time the Cowboys fail to gallop to the finish and be victorious. Sadly enough, he has the talent but he’s overshadowed by the immense expectations and national attention given all to one franchise and blinded for making silly mistakes with the ball.

We’ve seen this before, over and over again, season after season and we are still flabbergasted. Why? When he makes his mistakes, he normally trots near the sideline in despair, wearing frustrated and depressing facial expressions in a game that he had blown by his poor decisions and awful passes that quickly shifted the complexion of the game.

Because of his late interception that dropped into Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis’ arms, New York won 27-24 as the game was lost by Romo. Had he not fumbled with Dallas leading 24-17 midway in the fourth, he wouldn’t be catching heat in the aftermath of his foolish errors. Late in the game, the Cowboys had the ball at their own 41 with 59 seconds left, enough time to drive into field goal range for potentially the game-winner, but as usual he muffed and forced a pass to Dez Bryant that Revis picked off.

He’s not learning from his mistakes but he seems to be getting worse, becoming the weakest link in the Cowboys offense and never was a consistent or dependable quarterback and instead a wannabe celebrity seen on TMZ with his ex-starlet. Even though he’s been selected to multiple Pro Bowls, even though he’s in his fifth season as the Cowboys starter, it doesn’t mean he’s superior or adequate – just 1-7 in his past eight games as a starter and has only accounted for one playoff win.

Romo is at fault. Nobody else. He threw the ball. He made the decision. He poorly executed an awful play and, after all, he’s still not a sound quarterback. He does what he does best. Make mistakes and act like he’s a celebrity.

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