Tony Romo: How His Injury Exposed the 2010 Dallas Cowboys

Tony Romo is probably the most recognized quarterback in the National Football League. He's dated Jessica Simpson and Carrie Underwood, is a scratch golfer who comes close to qualifying for the U.S. Open each year and he just so happens to quarterback America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys.

Last season Romo ranked eighth amongst the league’s best passers in quarterback rating and he was third in passing yards with 4,483. He also threw 26 touchdowns which was good enough for 10th best.

One would think that with such gaudy stats that he would be a darling with fans across the board.

Wrong.

Tony Romo has always been seen as the quarterback who is about one tool short of a full set. He bobbled the snap in Seattle which caused the Cowboys to lose the game, he threw a key interception against the Giants in the 2007 divisional round of the playoffs, and last season, he just didn’t play well enough to beat the Vikings.

Some people even go so far to say that Romo belongs on the sideline with a clipboard and has no business being a starting quarterback and Dallas could be so much better without him.

Well, thanks to the New York Football Giants, we’ll find out just how good the Cowboys are without their superstar dating quarterback.

A couple of weeks ago, Tony Romo was probably lost for the season with a broken collarbone. He took a vicious hit after one of the Giants linebackers came free when the Cowboys fullback failed to pick up the blitz. Everyone in Cowboys stadium knew at that point that Romo was seriously hurt.

The projection is that Tony would be out for about six-to-eight weeks, and if the Cowboys played well enough to get themselves into playoff contention, then maybe we would see Tony by season’s end.

Sunday night, the Cowboys traveled to legendary Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers. This would be the ‘Boys second game without Romo and America’s second chance to see how the Cowboys would play without their overrated quarterback.

Dallas was shellacked by the Packers, 45-7.

New starting quarterback Jon Kitna threw two picks, one touchdown and finished with a quarterback rating of 63.6. The Cowboys rushing attack was non-existent as the team finished with 39 total yards, and the defense didn’t bother to show at all.

Before Sunday’s game, Kitna said that its important that the Cowboys get over the Tony Romo hangover. Well, Jon, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. The Cowboys defense gave up 415 total yards and by the middle of the fourth quarter, Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers was benched because the game was so far out of reach.

After two-and-a-half games without Romo and the Cowboys being outscored 80-24, now do we see that the Cowboys are better off with Tony than without him? Better yet, doesn’t this prove that he is the leader of this football team?

The Cowboys aren’t mentally tough enough to withstand injuries to key players, hence they were beat like they tried to steal one of the Lombardi trophies.

For years I’ve been saying that Romo is the guy to take the Cowboys to the promised land, which is the Super Bowl. The defense has been a surprising disappointment this season and Dallas is one of the worst-coached teams in the entire league.

Who knows how the 2010 season would have turned out even with Romo. I believe their issues run much deeper than just missing a quarterback. But we can see that the Dallas Cowboys are nothing without their overrated leader.

Maybe now we can finally rid Tony of the overrated label.

-JH

Be sure to listen to Jason’s radio show “Monday Night Quarterback” every Monday at 8pm ET on www.blogtalkradio.com/cowboyjay

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