Tony Romo Silencing Critics With MVP-Like Season
By Stephen Igoe
One of the more criticized quarterbacks in recent NFL history, Tony Romo is proving his worth with his best professional season ever.
Perhaps no player in the NFL has been more scrutinized over the last decade than Tony Romo, but the Dallas Cowboys quarterback is proving his detractors wrong in the midst of his best professional season ever.
Romo may not come to mind when the best quarterbacks in the NFL are mentioned, but he’s certainly making a case for himself this year. The 34-year-old has led the Cowboys to their first NFC East division title since 2009 and he’s being mentioned as a potential MVP candidate along with his teammate and star running back DeMarco Murray.
Quite frankly, the numbers prove Romo deserves to be up for the discussion. He’s led a Cowboys team that wasn’t expected to do much of anything this season to tremendous success by winning on the road and beating some of the league’s top teams along the way.
The Cowboys – who enter their season finale at Washington 11-4 and winners of three in a row – have knocked off upper-echelon teams such as the Seahawks, Eagles and Colts in impressive fashion.
For those that say Romo isn’t clutch, the gunslinger was nearly spotless in those three games – all of which were on national TV in front of a large audience with playoff implications. Romo’s combined stat line over those three season-changing wins? He went 61-of-83 for 733 yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions. That’s pretty impressive for a quarterback who’s not considered elite by many.
Others have said Romo can’t play in December when the pressure rises. His play over the last three weeks suggests otherwise. Romo has completed 79.2 percent of his attempts for 688 yards, 10 touchdowns and no picks over that span.
As for his overall numbers, Romo ranks among the league’s top signal-callers across the NFL. He’s been efficient, completing a league-best 70.3 percent (282-of-401) of his passes, and he leads the NFL in touchdowns and first downs per pass attempt.
In terms of passer rating, Romo ranks at the top of the NFL (114.4), ahead of the likes of Aaron Rodgers (111.0), Ben Roethlisberger (103.8), Peyton Manning (102.9) and Drew Brees (99.2).
The often-criticized Romo has also performed better than any other quarterback in the league in crunch time. According to ESPN’s total quarterback rating, he’s compiled an 84.4 mark in the fourth quarter, more than 15 points ahead of Rodgers and Manning. His 4-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (32 touchdowns to 8 interceptions) is second in the NFL, trailing only Rodgers.
Others have said Romo can’t play in December when the pressure rises. His play over the last three weeks suggests otherwise. Romo has completed 79.2 percent of his attempts for 688 yards, 10 touchdowns and no picks over that span.
But Romo’s been doing this for far more than just this season.
Coming into this year, Romo had orchestrated 11 fourth-quarter comebacks from 2011-2013, and posted a league-best 99.5 passer rating with 20 touchdowns in one-score games entering the fourth quarter. His career passer rating in the final period was an astronomical 101.1 entering the year, and he’s done nothing to hurt those numbers in 2014.
Those previous statistics were posted with a team that provided him little to no help. Romo was often leading Dallas from behind, and his detractors will say he still choked in many of those situations. But no quarterback can single-handedly win the majority of games when the defense is giving up 30-plus points on a regular basis and there’s not much of a running game to boot.
Yes, there have been bad throws at bad times, like in 2013 during a last-second 51-48 loss to the Denver Broncos, but the Cowboys wouldn’t have been even remotely in that game if it wasn’t for Romo’s performance leading up to that point (he finished the game 25-of-36 for 506 yards, five touchdowns and the one interception).
This season is obviously a different story. With the emergence of a stellar running game led by a commitment to Murray, who leads the NFL in rushing with 1,745 yards, and a defense that’s been respectable (Dallas is 16th in total defense), the Cowboys are a much different team than in past years.
If Romo had enjoyed this type of production around him over the early part of his career, there likely wouldn’t be many naysayers of his out there. Instead, there still are plenty, and still will be until the quarterback of America’s Team brings home a Lombardi Trophy back to Dallas.
He will have as good a chance as ever this postseason. As the only team in the NFL that’s unbeaten on the road this year, the Cowboys have shown they have the experience and moxie to get it done with their backs against the wall. Their style of play – led by an explosive running attack – is also built nicely for a strong playoff run.
Romo has silenced many of his doubters with his 2014 campaign, and he can finish off the rest of them by closing out a playoff run as he’s played the entire season – like the best quarterback in the NFL.