Tony Romo !?

[JAG]

Can anyone recall a more memorable start to a quarterback's career than Tony Romo (as a starting quarterback)? Not necessarily good or bad, honestly a combination of both, but just memorable? The other player that comes to mind is Kurt Warner for sheer surprise, and obviously Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger had surprising and excellent starts to their careers as well, though it was a more steady sustained excellence rather than Romo's up-and-down play and sheer craziness. Here's my mini-catalog of Romo:


Game 1: Takes over at halftime for Drew Bledsoe, his first pass is an INT and he follows up with a couple more and I believe a fumble or two for good measure.

Game 2: Throws an early pick, but then leads Dallas to 35 points in a fairly surprising win over the Panthers.

Games 3-5 or so: Puts up awesome numbers (QB ratings in the 90's/100's) and achieves almost rock star-like status in Dallas.

Games 6-10 or so: His play deteriorates, he becomes a turnover machine, still manages to lead Dallas to a win over the Giants in the Meadowlands thanks to a last minute drive.

Games 11 (playoff game): The Bobble.

Games 12-15: Puts up awesome numbers (QB ratings in the 90's/100's), has a ridiculous scramble for a first down vs. the Rams after a shotgun snap went over his head and he booted the ball trying to pick it up.

Game 16: Throws 5 INT's and fumbles, but throws for 300+ yards for the 4th time this year setting a Dallas record for 300 yard games in a season after only a third of it gone by and leads Dallas to 2 scoring drives with under 2 minutes to go to pull off a miraculous win (granted the last drive was more credit to the kicker and special teams units).


I don't have the stats in front of me, but I believe Romo has not failed to lead Dallas into scoring position in every 2 minute warning situation he's been in. That doesn't necessarily mean they did score, e.g. Washington game last year where they blocked a field goal or the Seattle Bobble game, but he has moved the Cowboys from punting situation to at least field goal situation position each time he has been faced with a 2 minute drill situation.


Obviously I am a fan and as such am not only biased but remember a lot more of his play than I do Warner or Brady through their first 16 starts. Curious to hear other opinions.

[Lathum]

you forgot that he's banging Carrie Underwood.

[MJ4H]

boom goes the dynamite

[MikeVic]

Well, Big Ben did have the whole motorcycle crash thing. If Romo wins a Super Bowl this year, then I agree.

(Kidding, all in good fun).

[jeff061]

I think Warner was pretty explosive from the get go.

Brady was pretty boring, probably no one took notice but Pats fans. Even then I'll admit I wasn't sold on Brady until the Super bowl and only then because, really, what more could he do?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Tony Romo's start isn't terribly significant to me. Maybe it's because I live nowhere near Dallas and don't watch a lot of pregame shows or whatever, but to me, he's "just" a good NFL quarterback. Obviously, I'm missing something, because when I think of a recent QB's career starting memorably, I think of Rex Grossman somehow getting the Bears to a Super Bowl, or I think of David Carr getting sacked 600 times a game, or I think of Matt Leinart fighting for his job against Kurt Warner. For me, Romo's career so far is just... there.

I don't mean to say that Tony Romo isn't a talented quarterback. Obviously, he is. Besides playing for Dallas, I just don't see anything special about his career yet. I don't understand why he gets so much press. He's only started one full year's worth of games, and it's not like he won every game the way Roethlisberger did.

I acknowledge that I'm missing something here, so I'm looking to you guys to help me out. Why do so many people have a hard-on for Tony Romo?

[Greyroofoo]

Sitting on the bench for 3 years is memorable?

[Blade6119]

How is this the start to his career? Was he not the starter all last season?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

Sitting on the bench for 3 years is memorable?

Originally Posted by Blade6119

How is this the start to his career? Was he not the starter all last season?

I think these two comments kinda miss the point.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

He's only started one full year's worth of games, and it's not like he won every game the way Roethlisberger did.

I like you.

[Atocep]

Romo's career has been interesting so far. The biggest thing to point out is he's already 27 so he doesn't have a whole lot of room to develop further.

Last year Romo played very similarly to Rex Grossman, he started out hot and then had a big collapse toward the end of the year. For some reason people made a huge deal out of it with Rex, but let is slide with Romo. This year he's been up and down again. He's played excellent in weeks 1, 3, 4 and badly in weeks 2 and 5.

For whatever reason the media continues to give him a free pass. It'll be interesting to see how the year plays out for Dallas, because if they continue to play the way they are the comparisons to Rex could get even more interesting.

[WSUCougar]

I agree with ya, JAG (ya Cowpoke). Toss in there that many in the media have christened him as "a young Brett Favre" and you have something of a sensation.

[markprior22]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

I agree with ya, JAG (ya Cowpoke). Toss in there that many in the media have christened him as "a young Brett Favre" and you have something of a sensation.

I think people are making too much of the "young Brett Favre" thing (not you WSU...just using this thread to comment). He definitely reminds me of Brett Favre in two distinct ways...1) his throwing motion and 2) his willingness (not always good) to force the ball into a tight situation. While Favre hasn't thrown 5 picks in a game he definitely has thrown his share of ints and has blown some games late with his gunslinging tactics. Anyone trying to make more of it than that is reaching at this early point in Romo's career.

Having said that....GO COWBOYS!!!

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I think these two comments kinda miss the point.

Then the premise thread should be changed.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

Then the premise thread should be changed.

I propose that we pretend that the thread is about the start of his "playing career." OK, he sat on the Cowboys bench for 14 years or whatever, but I guess he's started about 16 games now, so I take it to mean that we're going to look at his career from the time he actually started participating on the field.

Frankly, that's what I inferred from the initial post, anway.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

He's 27?

Dang... I grew more hair on my face at 14!

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by markprior22

While Favre hasn't thrown 5 picks in a game

5 picks is for novices, Favre threw 6 picks in his 2001 playoff game vs. th Rams.

[Raiders Army]

Michelle Tafoya looked like she wanted to bang him last night. I shudder at the thought.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I propose that we pretend that the thread is about the start of his "playing career." OK, he sat on the Cowboys bench for 14 years or whatever, but I guess he's started about 16 games now, so I take it to mean that we're going to look at his career from the time he actually started participating on the field.

Frankly, that's what I inferred from the initial post, anway.

I tried to make clear with the first sentence that I was talking about his time as a starting quarterback, not his unremarkable years of riding the pine:

Can anyone recall a more memorable start to a quarterback's career than Tony Romo (as a starting quarterback)?

I think the comparisons with Grossman are too harsh personally. Even when Romo is committing a number of turnovers like last night, he's still making some positive plays throwing the ball. He's not having 9/27 for 80 yards, 0 TD's, and 4 INT's games.

Pumpy, when I think of a good QB as you're saying, someone like Carson Palmer comes to mind. He doesn't do anything spectacularly, but he does a lot of things very very well and efficiently (it's probably an understatement to say he's 'good', more like elite). I would say Bulger of before this year would be the same. Romo's game pales in comparison to them in certain areas, like making bad decisions at times, but his mobility and ability to evade pass rushers is pretty exceptional. Fumbled snaps that most QB's would (and probably should) fall on and accept a 4 yard loss is not a memorable play, but Romo will try to pick up and turn it into something positive. Maybe he'll connect and it'll be a memorable good play, or maybe he'll throw it up for grabs and it'll be a memorable bad play. While the sum package of Romo is equal may be equal to good QB, it's made up for some exceptionally good parts and some spectacularly bad parts. I guess to me that's why I consider his career beginning to be pretty memorable and not just the average career start for a QB.

I mentioned Warner as well because he came out of nowhere and basically turned the league on its head with the ridiculous stats and big plays he put up almost every single week.

[SFL Cat]

Romo has definitely run hot and cold, but he is exciting to watch. In some ways he reminds me of Roger Staubach as well as a young Favre.

Of course, I thought Favre was a bit of a big game choke-artist until the year the Pack finally broke through and won the Super Bowl.