In The People Vs. Tony Romo, the Defense Rests

(Photo by Joe Kohen/Getty Images for Iconix Brand Group, Inc)

To the Dallas Cowboys' brass, and everyone else who hates my man No. 9, sit down, shut-up, and listen. 

It's time to put to bed this "Romo is garbage" stuff once and for all. 

Everyone is spoiled and has forgotten how bad we had it just a few short years ago.  Drew Hensen, Ryan Leaf, Quincy Carter, Drew Bledsoe ... any of those guys win playoff games?  I'll take your silence as a no.

The problem here is the design, not the field general.  Romo has been squeezed by the pocket-passer cookie cutter.  This obviously isn't working, I know of square pegs that fit better into round holes. 

Pocket passers help their offensive lines, they make less mistakes, blah, blah, blah.  I'm not buying it. 

Why try and make Tony something that he isn't?  You never saw Tony Dungy tell Peyton Manning to scramble more, or "The Sweatshirt" tell Tom Brady to stop throwing down the field.  It sounds absurd, but it's the same thing.

So let's please, please, pah-lease, take the handcuffs off Romo, and let him play the way that got him here.  I think of the old cliche, "Dance with the one that brought ya." 

Tony became a Pro Bowl QB by running all over the place and extending plays.  So why change what works?

I'm just going to sit back and let the numbers do the talking for me.  You see, the funny thing about numbers, they don't lie. 

Tony Romo is 29-14 as a starter, counting the Denver fiasco.  That means he wins two of every three games for all the mathematically challenged folks out there.  Now project that over a 16-game season, and that gives you 10 wins a year.  Not bad, right?

Next up: Romo has a 93.3 career passer rating.  Since 2006, when he started playing, that puts him in the top five.  That really shows you how terrible he has been, top five in passer rating? 

Yikes.

Oh yeah, Romo has also set a few Cowboys' passing records:

- Passing yards in a season: 4211.  He's the only Cowboy to break 4000.  Ever.

- Most Touchdowns in a season: 36.  Danny White is second with 29.

- Most 300 yd games in a season: seven.  Romo had six the following year.

- Most total 300 yd games: 17.  This breaks Aikman's record, and Romo has only been around four years. 

Tony is also a two-time Pro-Bowler.

But this season, Romo hasn't been anywhere close to those kind of numbers. 

The reason?  He's a statue in the pocket. 

He isn't making guys miss, or giving his guys extra time to get open in the secondary.  One of the very few times he was able to do this was against Denver on Sunday.  He scrambled around and made a perfect pass to Sam Hurd that kept the game alive.

That is the Romo that got the Cowboys to 13-1 in 2007.  That one loss? Some team from the northeast that just happened to go undefeated that year.

One more thing: in 2006 Sean Payton, who was just hired in New Orleans, wanted to trade for Romo.  How is that coach doing right now?   That's right, his team is undefeated. 

If Tony is good enough for Sean Payton, not to mention future Hall of Famer Bill Parcells, he's good enough for all of us. 

In closing, set Romo free, turn him loose, unleash the beast.  However you phrase it, just make it happen.  I prefer my quarterback to be smiling like above, and the way to do that is to let him play. 

Tony can win, but he has to be allowed to play his way. 

The defense rests, no further questions.

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