When the Dallas Cowboys knocked off the Detroit Lions this past weekend (with some help from the refs), they did more than just send the Lions packing. They also managed to swipe away the popular and loud narrative that the Cowboys — and quarterback Tony Romo — are unable to win the big game.
(Sorry Matthew Stafford, you’re next in line.)
Rooting for the Cowboys here. Narratives must be corrected in order, so no line jumping here, Matthew.
— Football Perspective (@fbgchase) January 4, 2015
That narrative — that Tony Romo has some sort of anti-clutch gene — is, of course, not really fair to Romo and the Cowboys. Sure, he’s had some especially memorable losses…..
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…..but he’s also one of the league’s best quarterbacks. This year, he led the league in passing rating, QBR, yards per attempt, and completion percentage. Throughout his career, he’s also been a pretty clutch quarterback, despite his memorable moments of failure. According to Scott Kacsmar, Romo has piled up 24 fourth quarter comebacks and 28 game-winning drives since 2006.
So why has the narrative persisted for so long? I’m guessing it has more to do with the audience than the player. When Romo has failed to complete a comeback, more often than not it’s been on national television. The casual NFL fan probably isn’t watching the Cowboys play 16 times a year. He/She is probably watching Romo and the Cowboys play on Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football. Or, he/she is watching them play in a pivotal matchup with playoff implications. Unfortunately, Romo hasn’t always succeeded in those situations, but that doesn’t make him a bad quarterback.
The idea that Tony Romo isn’t good enough to win a Super Bowl is absurd and is based on five or six games in which he has played poorly or made one bad throw. Instead, if we use the complete sample — 145 games — we can see Romo is more than capable of quarterbacking a Super Bowl team. It’s the primary reason why I was actually rooting for the Cowboys for maybe the first time in my life. Okay, I was rooting for Romo because, unfortunately, it doesn’t appear he’ll ever gain the respect he deserves until he wins a Super Bowl. It’s not fair, but it seems to ring true for most quarterbacks. I’m hoping Romo finally just does it so we can at last stop with the “Tony Romo Isn’t Clutch” narrative.
That being said, there’s still plenty more chances for Romo to blow it and fulfill the narrative. I know there are fans out there who want nothing more than a Romo pick-6 in overtime against the Packers this weekend. If you’re one of those fans — I can’t deny it, I’d laugh if that actually happened — you might like some of these other narratives that still have a chance of materializing this postseason.
[Photo via USA Today]
