Jennifer Floyd Engel of the Star-Telegram.com writes that the media should stop giving Tony Romo a free pass and call him what he is in December: a choker.
Sunday was just about that point for Romo. The Cowboys were on the verge of what would have been a gigantic, momentum-building victory in Pittsburgh. It was not a stretch to say this could have been defining. Until they collapsed, in a 20-13 loss to Pittsburgh
And Romo has to be dropped in the grease for this.
He was responsible for four of the five Cowboys turnovers. And he is lucky the tuck rule saved him from another. The last, of course, was the worst — a pick to Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend that went for seven in the other direction. It was the game winner.
The Cowboys needed him to be his best Sunday, or at least not screw it up for the defense who was finally playing theirs. He was not … not even close. There were moments of good, but not enough. Too often, what we saw from Romo was the recklessness Big Bill had often warned about, the one play in the game that ends up negating the others.
Romo has a bit of a December problem, much like his team. He has not brought his best self in said games which often is synonymous with big games. And he is no longer young or inexperienced or all of the other things people like me say to defend him when he is being attacked.
The reality is, if this were anybody else, he’d have no defenders.
But this is Romo. So we tiptoe around the reality that he has to start showing he has what it takes to win when it counts. Or else he’ll prove something else.
This fits under the old adage that quarterbacks take too much credit when their teams when win and too much blame when they lose. Romo wasn’t very good in Pittsburgh Sunday but he also was playing without his running back due to injury and he can’t help if Jason Witten runs the wrong route. I will agree that he gets less criticism than say, Donovan McNabb, but the media needs to go on a game-by-game basis and then paint the larger picture.
Romo was bad yesterday, but the Cowboys were a completely different team without him when he was out with a pinkie injury. The Cowboys aren’t knocking on the door of a playoff berth without him and Pittsburgh’s defense can make any quarterback look silly. So let’s relax on the here-we-go-again mindset with Romo in regards to his December play and let’s see how this thing plays out.
For all the BCS supporters that say the system is set up fairly, I’d like to point out what bowl undefeated Boise State is playing in this year: The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.