Tony Romo: What We Need to See in Preseason Week 3

Antonio Ramiro Romo showed on Sunday night that he still has a penchant for making bone headed mistakes.

Against the Chargers, Romo tried to squeeze a ball into the hands of wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, and the NFL’s highest paid safety, Eric Weddle, picked him off.

Cowboys nation took a collective “sigh” and wondered if Romo would still make some of the same careless mistakes he’s made in the past.

Tony had a decent game in the contest versus San Diego. He completed eight passes for 58 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

Nothing special about his performance and nothing that raised enough red flags to make fans nervous. But that interception showed that maybe Romo still has some maturing he needs to do.

Here are three things Romo has to do to qualm any fears that he’s not ready to lead the Cowboys to a Super Bowl.

Limiting Turnovers

Sounds simple enough, right? The knock on Romo is that he to often makes bad decisions that places the Cowboys in awkward situations. Romo’s decision to force the ball into Ogletree may have been due to the fact that it was a preseason game.

If the pass is completed, Romo is lauded, and if it’s picked off, then well, you see what happens next.

Romo is a great quarterback, and if he can cut down on the forced errors, the Cowboys will be just fine.

What’s interesting about the Cowboys offense is that Dallas throws the ball 57 percent of the time with Jason Garrett on the sideline. He’s not interested in a run oriented offense, and Cowboys fans will never see an emphasis on the running game like they did when Emmitt Smith was in the backfield.

I still believe Garrett needs to lean more on Jones, and the rest of the running backs, but that will not happen under his direction.

Which brings me to my next point.

More of Felix Jones

I know that Romo can’t necessarily control how head coach Jason Garrett calls the game, but if Garrett decides to feed the ball to running back Felix Jones more, that spells triumph for Romo.

Dallas has a great backfield with Jones, rookie DeMarco Murray and Tashard Choice. As long as Garrett utilizes each back consistently and balances his playcalling, Tony should have a great season.

If he decides to let Tony throw the ball over 580 times this season, then I believe Dallas is in trouble. Control the running game, and the team controls the clock. It also cuts down on the amount of potential mistakes the offense may make.

The Old Tony Romo 

What Cowboys fans need to see from Romo most of all is that he’s same quarterback who threw for over 4,000 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2010. Fans enjoy the gunslinger mentality that he has, but not if the gunslinger gets beat.

Back in 2009, Romo only threw nine interceptions and led the Cowboys to their first playoff victory since 1996.

Less mistakes equals more success, and if the Cowboys see a return of the “G,” the gangster in the words of my favorite hip-hop group Outkast, Romo can take the Cowboys pretty far.

Romo isn’t a project quarterback, and one of the few flaws in his game is that he can sometimes make a bad decision that leads to a turnover.

The Cowboys best chance at winning a Super Bowl is with Tony Romo under center but even if that’s the case Romo needs to limit his turnover.