The Tony Romo Cowboys Were Complete Chaos

Intro any undrafted success story in the NFL should be remembered as one the earlier you're picked the longer the leas you have to remain on the team and if you're picked in the later of the seven rounds or go undrafted entirely well then teams have all the more reason to cut you no matter how many times you screw up so outliers should be celebrated as the outliers and that is where our protagonist former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo comes in Romo's Cowboys tenure will be one that is exciting heartbreaking brilliant polarizing was and is frequently misunderstood it was also must CTV Tony Romo was a legendary college quarterback at Eastern Illinois an FCS School home to several famous NFL names he was the first Panthers player to have his jersey retired and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2021 Romo nevertheless went undrafted in 2003 but fellow Panthers alumni and coaches Mike Shanahan and Shawn Peyton expressed heavy interest in him he decided to join the Cowboys with Peyton their assistant coach and stuck around in the QB room surviving a near release from the team in 2004 when starter Quincy Carter was suddenly cut following multiple failed drug tests times were desperate for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in 2006 to find Dallas the franchise quarterback from 2000 to 2005 they had 10 different starting quarterbacks one of whom was a former third baseman for the Yankees but when Sean py now the head coach of the New Orleans Saints offered a third round pick for Romo Jones wouldn't budg from a second round exchange perhaps he knew what was coming veteran Drew bledo was the cowboy starting quarterback for the beginning 2006 of 2006 until streaky play and a three and3 start led to a benching in favor of Romo head coach Bill Parcels wasn't deterred by a three interception performance from Romo against the Giants his conscience was clear that predated number n's first career start in week eight against the Carolina Panthers a 35 and4 win where the Cowboys dominated so badly that head coach John fox actually apologized to Panthers ticket holders because of it in week nine against the Washington Redskins weal LED what was going to be a clutch game-winning drive when Mike Vander Jack's 35 yard game-winning attempt was blocked with 6 seconds left the Skins received a free kick with no time left off a face mask penalty from the same play and won on a walk-off field goal of their own but the loss was soon followed by a four-game winning streak including week 11 stunner where they knocked off the last unbeaten team in the Indianapolis Colts the following week Romo had his finest game yet throwing for over 300 yards and five touchdowns and a blowout 38-10 win over Tampa Bay the Cowboys had a little skid toward the end to finish at 9- s but it was good enough to earn a postseason spot and a pro bowl nod for Romo his fourth ranked scoring offense featured Hall of Fame receiver Terrell Owens the future Hall of Fame tight end Jason W thousand-yard receiver Terry Glenn and thousand-yard rusher Julius Jones fans had all the reason to believe this team could do something special in the playoffs and against the reigning NFC champion Seattle Seahawks they went down to the wire in they duel to remember Romo's Cowboys had a 20-3 lead with just under 7 minutes remaining with a chance to ice a game and sap some clock Romo threw a screen pass that Terry Glenn never had a proper handle of the ball was knocked out of his hands and into the end zone for both a safety and Seahawks possession one go-ahead touchdown Drive later Romo was getting the ball back down 21 to 20 with four minutes and change left on his first game winning Drive attempt in the postseason Ral converted key first downs and helped Drive Dallas to the Seattle too he set the Cowboys up in perfect position for an easy game-winning field goal one problem the Cowboys placeholder fumbled the snap and was tackled short of The End Zone in first down marker effectively giving Seattle improbable Victory quarterback Tony Romo was let down by the placeholder Tony Romo back then it was common for quarterbacks mostly backups to be placeholders on kicks and Romo had done a fine job until the absolute worst moment allegedly the ball was made too slick by the Seahawks equipment team but Romo had said that didn't matter it was the lowest he ever felt it sucked he did everything right on that last Drive except for a play that didn't even involve quarterbacking that unfortunately came to Define what was otherwise a memorable out of nowhere season from an unheralded quarterback but though Bill Parcels was done with coaching after the game Romo wasn't done at quarterback under new head coach Wade 2007 Phillips the 2007 Cowboys ascended to Greater Heights their 13 and3 record put them at the top of the NFC food chain with the conference's top seed 19 interceptions aside Romo was the first Dallas quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns he became a gun Slinger that brought a lot of risk but a whole lot more reward leading a Cowboys team that sent an NFL record 13 players to the Pro Bowl it felt like the fates offered the 2007 season as an apology to Romo for how the previous one ended in week greatest runs from a quarterback ever on the same Drive Romo called his number with a touchdown run pushing the Cowboys to a blowout win the following week Romo threw five interceptions and lost a fumble against the Buffalo Bills in a game that would be widely mocked if not for the Cowboys stealing the game 25 to 24 on a last second kick Romo became the eighth quarterback in the Super Bowl era to throw five interceptions in a game and still come away with the win a victory over the 10 in1 Green Bay Packers in week 13 allowed Dallas to collect a top seed they never relinquished so the Cowboys had no reason not to think they could make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years and had the privilege of facing a New York Giants team they swept in the regular season season up 17 to 14 with a minute 18 left in the third quarter Romo known for his time buying Wizardry made a beautiful play extension that allowed him to find Patrick Kaden on Third and forever Kaden could not find a handle on the ball and dropped it the Giants took little time to formulate a touchdown Drive taking the lead 21 to 17 from here the scoring stalled until the Cowboys defense forced the stop with less than 2 minutes remaining the Giants outstanding defense put pressure on Romo all day and certainly put pressure on him on his third and short but Romo yet again improvised with a Nifty flip pass to Jason wi for 18 yards with 21 seconds left from the Giants 23 Romo fired a deep sideline shot to Kaden that sailed over his head but replay showed Kaden inexplicably stopping his route at one point had he kept going this likely would have been a go-ahead touchdown but it wasn't on the ensuing fourth down Romo's desperation heave to the end zone was picked off allowing the Giants to move on and eventually win the Super Bowl one of the best seasons in team history ended the same way every cowboy season since 1996 had no tickets to the big dance blame went towards Romo for his play for not willing cting into running a better route for his personal life Romo entered a 2-year relationship with singer and actress Jessica Simpson in November of 2007 even vacationing with her and Cabo with a couple teammates during Dallas's playoff bye Cowboys fans called the celebrity relationship a curse and Romo to many transformed from the sympathetic Underdog in 2006 to a goofy villain everyone took seriously until the playoffs at the end of 2007 for good and bad though it was merely the beginning of his time with the Cowboys the 2008 Squad wandered into a 9-6 predicament after starting 3 and0 2008 just needing to take care of the Eagles in week 17 to clinch a wild card spot their 3-0 start was derailed by a stretch where they lost four of the next six partially due to Romo missing three games after breaking a pinky on his throwing hand against the Arizona Cardinals in week six by the way the Cowboys lost that game on a block pun touchdown the Cowboys with ROM almost returned embarked on a three-game winning streak and flew to eight and four but everything went wrong in a close loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers whose defense in 2008 is the only to allow less than four yards per play in the 21st century matters were not helped when Romo suffered a back contusion the following week but he helped guide the Cowboys to victory over the top seated Giants a win away from clinching a playoff spot they were halted by the Baltimore Ravens in week 16 then Molly W by the Eagles 44-6 in week 17 the 97 Cowboys did not see playoff football or God and Romo was further questioned for his resume in December he was 5-8 in the most important month of the regular season further more there was friction between Romo and star receiver Terrell Owens who went from emotionally defending Romo after the 20 7 playoffs to completely losing respect for his quarterback by the end of his tenure so the Cowboys cut him at their 2008 needing a quick replacement that was a little less of a hothead please welcome to the program Miles Austin Austin was Sensational reaching over, 1300 yards receiving with 11 touchdowns that would be important for Dallas in 2009 the 2009 2009 Cowboys were 8 and three before losing back-to-back December games to find themselves at 8 and5 again staring down the barrel of another late season collapse in fairness Romo's December play was pretty shoddy from 2006 to 2008 he threw 14 touchdowns to 19 interceptions and had a subpar passer rating of 71.9 If anything was going to change for the 2009 Cowboys Romo had to improve his play right here right now fortunately that's exactly what happened in December of 2009 Romo threw for seven touchdowns one interception and a pass rating of 10 4 this helped the Cowboys to win their last three games to secure the NFC East title a season saving upset over the 13-0 Saints at the super doome lit a fire under a team that had struggled to close the year and turned them into the exact opposite of that the second ranked defense led by a Hall of Fame outside linebacker Demarcus we pitched rare back-to-back shutouts to end the regular season catapulting Dallas to an 11 and5 finish Romo was also beginning to evolve as a quarterback he threw just not nine interceptions only trailing two former Packers Hall of Fame quarterbacks with a 1.6 interception percentage Romo took every snap for the Cowboys offense in 2009 not even franchise greats like Roger stabach and Troy Aman did that once he'd even gone back to placeholder in the Saints game that's how many snaps he took it was then time for Romo to check off another side quest and win his first playoff game the Cowboys clinched the NFC east in the week 17 shut out of the Philadelphia Eagles at home the exact location for next week's wild card game against their new opponent the Philadelphia Eagles in the second quarter Romo threw a pretty ugly interception in Cowboys territory but upon further review the officials saw enough evidence to overturn the call the second chance allowed the Cowboys offense to score an impossible 27 second quarter points and the Eagles never came close again Romo earned his first playoff win the team's first since 1996 what a relief for a guy that desperately needed one of those the Victorious Cowboys traveled to Minnesota to face a 12-4 Vikings team that would kill him revive him then kill him again Romo coughed off the ball three times losing two and the Vikings defense feasted on him to the tune of six sacks when the Cowboys defense didn't show up either Minnesota went on to thrash the Cowboys 34 to3 a terrific season from Romo once again was met with media Skeptics is this a guy that can lead you to the Super Bowl or is he just a guy that puts up crazy numbers until the post post season neither of those questions would be answered in 2010 Romo season ended early in week s against the Giants with a broken left clavical and Wade Phillips was canned after starting 1 and seven in a rare Jerry Jones mid-season firing in Phillips play stepped interim coach Jason Garrett the team's offensive 2010 coordinator since 2007 and assistant coach since 2008 Garrett will be a punching bag in the NFL Community for coaching reasons and an overall pretty Square personality but at this time he was a key architect of explosive Cowboys offense in his promotion as interim head coach ignited the spark the franchise had not gotten all season under Phillips after a blowout 45 to7 lost to the Packers Jason Garrett's First Response as interim coach was to uninstall the quit and the Cowboys who took on the 12.5 favorite Giants in New Jersey the following week and kicked them to the curve 33 to2 Garrett did The Impossible he took a team that started 1- seven and well obviously they didn't make the playoffs but they won five with their last eight to finish 6 and 10 putting up at least 26 points in all but the final game of that stretch which was also a win it was enough to Grant Garrett the full-time head coaching gig one he'd hang on to for the entire 2010s and as it turns out the 2011 season would unveil a new chapter and turning point for both Romo and the Cowboys franchise in a week one road opener against the New York Jets the Cowboys blew a 24 to 10 fourth quarter lead losing in the waning seconds on a 2011 walk-off field goal Romo sadly was a culprit with 9 minutes left from the Jets 2 the Cowboys had an opportunity to retake a two-score lead when Romo rushed up the middle and fumbled the football in his defense Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez did the exact same several plays later after a fumble of his own after a Cowboys three and out the Jets blocked the resulting pun returning it the opposite way for a game tying touchdown gromo gave the ball back two drives later to the jet on a Gastly interception yeah that's right I'm breaking out the dictionary that the Jets took advantage of with the aforementioned game-winning field goal you know the drill Romo was again criticized for his inability to come through in the clutch and allowed the opponent to crawl back into the game and in the adjacent week 2 game against the 49ers Romo exited with a broken rib and punctured lung perhaps this was a beginning of the end for a quarterback who was a great story and franchise quarterback for a few years and one with an unclutched narrative he could never shake off Bo looked like the death of Tony Romo turned into a complete rebirth rumo came back in with a Cowboys trailing 24 to 14 and renewed life into them a needle threading touchdown to Miles Austin was followed by a game timeing field goal drive to force overtime on Romo's very first pass after a cowboy stop he found undrafted receiver Jesse Holly a former security guard who never will score a touchdown in the NFL and gave him the opportunity of a lifetime Holly ran this rainbow 77 yards down to the San Francisco 1 overwhelmed and Overjoyed on what he had done to give the Cowboys an easy pitch and catch field goal attempt that's exactly what kicker Dan Bailey did finishing a remarkable come from behind victory that was one of many for the Tony Romo Cowboys in the years to come they wouldn't have to wait more than the week for the next one when a batter Romo prevailed against the Redskins team that applied the pressure all night a 30-yard pass play on Third and 21 to Star receiver Dez Bryant set up a go-ahead field goal the game-winning one in week four against the Detroit Lions it was a tale of two Tony Romos one struggled and threw two pick sixes while leading the game and the other played in the first half up 27 to3 in the third the Cowboys elected to keep throwing the ball resulting in the pick sixes of Consequence the lion smelled blood and came away triumphant 34 to 30 as Romo was wearing a protective vest to help heal his previous injuries he had seven interceptions through seven games but something happened in his last nine he threw 20 touchdowns to just three interceptions the rest of the way including a five-game December January stretch where he threw 10 touchdowns to one interception his pass rating here was just below 116 the fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives kept coming with back-to-back clutch wins against the Redskins and Miami Dolphins to get the Cowboys to 7 and four but although Romo was playing terrific late season football the rest of his team did not Romo led a clock trimming Drive in week 13 against the Cardinals that sa Dan Bailey kick the game-winning field goal that was after Jason Garrett uses a timeout that ice his own kicker when the special teams coach begged him to do so oops on Bailey's next try the kick came up short and the Cardinals prevailed in overtime next week against the Giants rumo threw for over 300 yards four touchdowns and no interceptions as Dallas LED 30 4 of the 22 with 541 left but the Cowboys defense gave up two free touchdowns and Dan Billy's game tying 47 y was blocked As Time expired a relatively easy win against the Buccaneers was followed by a shattering loss to the Eagles that saw Romo leave the game after two pass attempts thanks to receiving a bruise to his throwing hand preventing him from gripping the football or taking a snap but he would play the following week in the winner take all division matchup against the Giants for a quarterback who had dealt with hurt ribs a punctured lung and a bruised throwing hand he played well enough and helped keep the game close in the fourth quarter but it wasn't enough the Giants scored 10 unanswered and took the game The Division and another Super Bowl in due time Romo for his part had a fantastic season despite the injuries throwing for over 4,000 yards 31 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions with the fourth highest pass rating of any quarterback that year and he did it without individually falling off in the month of December while seemingly adding the clutch Gene to his Arsenal but that didn't matter to most people without a playoff appearance so in 2012 it was back to square one Romo went from taking exceptional care of the football in 2011 to throwing a league leading 19 interceptions in 2012 this includes a 2012 horrendous five interception performance against the Chicago Bears in week four and a less horrendous four interception performance against the Giants in week eight Romo was also on a Cowboys team that just wasn't very good and just wasn't very lucky in a week two stomping by the legion of boom Seahawks defense Romo found himself trailing 10 to nothing before even throwing his third pass attempt in week six loss to the Ravens the Cowboys failed to convert a game time two-point conversion then recovered an onside kick then missed the game-winning field goal in a week eight loss to the Giants Romo shook off his four interception performance and found Dez Bryant in the end zone for what was initially ruled a game-winning touch down on closer inspection the receiver had a hand on the out of- bounds marker in the back of the end zone in the worst overturned call of Dez Bryant's career but remember what I said about Romo finding that so-called clutch Gene in 2011 like Lincoln the master sword he found it again in 2012 after starting three and five the Cowboys won their next two games to get back to the 500 Mark crushing the Eagles in week 10 and beating the mighty 2-7 Cleveland Browns in overtime in week 133 again against the Eagles Romo broke the Cowboys touchdown pass record on what else a play extension and led a furious 21-point fourth quarter to sweep their bird Rivals two more comeback wins followed against the Bengals and Steelers that moved the Cowboys to 8 and six after nine touchdowns to 13 interceptions in his first seven games Romo calmed down and threw 13 touchdowns to three interceptions in his next seven putting the Cowboys on his back and on the brink of earning a playoff spot in week 16 against the Saints Romo deled again throwing for 416 yards four touchdowns and no picks but it was another let down game by the defense and the Cowboys lost in overtime 34 to 31 but they still had a shot to win the NFC East once again needing a week 17 divisional contest to make this happen this time their opponent was a 9 and6 Redskins team that had won six straight the turnover problems abson in Romo's last eight games came back to bite him as he threw two in the first quarter but he and the Cowboys were resilient and with under 6 minutes left his Cowboys cut the deficit to 21 to 18 on a touchdown connection and two-point conversion the Cowboys next Drive needed one more stop and one more stop they got Romo drops back on his first pass a 14 y to the ever reliable Jason wi Romo's second pass is picked off by Rob Jackson it happened again a turnover at the absolute worst time with all eyes glued to the AC ction the Redskins shut the door with one last touchdown and Dallas's season ended at 8 and8 again that was all his detractors needed Romo was handicapping the Cowboys potential and they needed to move on from him right away he was the reason they couldn't win these elimination games but in the following March the Cowboys extended Romo for 6 years in a crapload of money indicating that they thought he was the reason they were fortunate enough to be in these elimination games in the first place and they were right what's not discussed about Romo's 2012 season is he led the NFL with five fourth quarter comebacks tossing in five game-winning drives to boot goalpost would be created and moved no matter what a quarterback does short of winning the Lombardi trophy bromo rose up after taking nasty shots behind less than ideal offensive lines and halw should have been a rebuilding team and made them NFC East competitors of course with a franchise as iconic as the Dallas Cowboys that's never good enough doesn't matter how bad the team is around you you got to deliver them a Super Bowl or it's all for nothing regardless if people noticed it or not Tony Romo was playing really good football and in week five of the 2013 season he was playing first class football it was a quarterback duel for the ages Romo and the Cowboys faced off against 2013 MVP Pyon Manning and the Denver Broncos and these two combined for 920 yards nine touchdowns and two 2013 interceptions early in the first quarter Romo put together one of the signature plays of his career evading sack after sack after sack after sack after sack and converting a third down pass to Old Reliable Jason win with 3 minutes left the Broncos and cowboys combined for 12 touchdowns and 96 points someone had the win you couldn't really fault who lost except that's not what happened after going the entire game without an interception Romo threw one at the worst time with a game tied at 48 his own lineman stepped into him and as a result he couldn't step into the throw the Broncos bled out the rest of the clock and ended one of the greatest regular season games of all time with a walk-off 51 to 48 game cealing field goal it didn't matter that Romo threw for 506 yards and five touchdowns it was the one mistake at the end which was the throw he couldn't step into that people remembered but when is enough enough really 48 points is almost always enough for a win 48 points is usually a sign that you blew out a team and the 2013 Broncos ended up setting the record for points scored in the season and Romo's Cowboys were tooth and nail with them the whole way that's how I remember it someone just had to make a mistake in the end Tony Romo's 2013 season was bizarre he performed better in losses than he did in wins like an all pro even let's not get the wrong idea though four of Romo seven losses in 2013 were by three points or less so it's not like he was putting up empty stats in those games one loss against the Lions of week eight was as unlucky as luck could get you with the Cowboys set to run out some clock and Romo having tossed three touchdowns without any turnovers they let Detroit off the hook when a holding penalty on Dallas gave the timeout L Lions an unofficial one the free gift allowed the quick Lions Drive capped off by a famous fake spike touchdown from Matthew Stafford Romo did lead a series of game-winning drives and wins over the Vikings Giants and Raiders but through two fourth quarter interceptions and a brutal loss to the Packers in week 15 this leads me into the 2013 Cowboys Achilles heel its defense before Romo through those fourth quarter picks the defense already evaporated what was a 26 to3 Cowboys lead one might say this was one of the worst defenses in NFL history they were dead last in yards allowed that year and allowed the third most from any team at the time yet here the Cowboys were at 7- seven in contention for the NFC East one obstacle in the way was getting past the Redskins at DC Romo already underwent back surgery in the off season to remove assist and was forced to miss OTAs but was also playing with an undisclosed back injury by the end of the game with 3 minutes left down 23 to 17 Romo drove the Cowboys down to the Washington one on third down the normally excellent DeMarco Murray made a mistake by running backward losing nine yards to set up a fourth and goal from the 10 with a minute 16 left to decide Dallas's season Romo had a resp spawn as he took the snap this is how he responded time for robo up M touchdown it was Redemption for DeMarco Murray as well as Tony Romo the NFL was watching and they answered the Cowboys hung on 24 to 23 their NFC East hes still intact unfortunately Romo had given all he could that undisclosed back injury I pre as he mentioned ended up being a herniated disc forcing him to have season ending surgery just as he did in the prior two trials he put his team in position to clinch the division they just had to play on without him backup Kyle Orton tried his best as did the Cowboys but it was clear they missed Romo they fell short to the Eagles 24 to 22 finishing 8 for the third straight season rumors spread that Jason Garrett's job security was in danger but the Valiant week 17 effort just might have saved it one thing was clear though the Dallas Cowboys needed an offensive line to protect Tony Romo Jerry Jones had other thoughts and in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft the Cowboys pick came down to two choices they could 2014 take Zack Martin a future Hall of Fame guard with seven First Team all pro selections and a spot on the 2010s all de8 or they could take Heisman winning quarterback Johnny Manzel one of the biggest draft Buss at at the position Jerry wanted to take Manzel and have him develop under Romo but he was talked into taking Martin instead thank God they did after dropping their season opener to the 49ers the Cowboys won their next six games and looked nothing like the flawed roster that surface for 3 years after another injury to Romo caused them to drop their next two games they then won six of their last seven to finish 12 and four and secure first place in the NFC East with an offense that featured three First Team all Pros on the offensive line a first team All Pro running back in DeMarco Murray a first team All Pro wide out in Dez Bryant and pro bowler Jason wi Romo had little trouble putting together the finest season of his pro career in week five against the Texans Romo juked the defensive player of the year in JJ Watt with one freakish spin before launching a deep bomb in the end zone fished in by Terrence Williams Watts mentioned with Romo many times over the years that Cowboys fans constantly send him this clip anytime the Texans do anything in week six against the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks team with one home loss since 2012 the Cowboys shocked the nine-point favorites 30 to 23 Romo provided the play of a Lifetime on the game-winning drive when he avoided 6,000 sacks and fired a pin pointer the Terrence Williams who made a beautiful toet Tapp and grab DeMarco Murray played cleanup right after as did the Cowboys defense you might remember Giants rookie Odell Beckham Jr's all-time great one-handed touchdown in week 12 but what you may not remember is Romo led the Cowboys on another game-winning drive in that same game using some of the cleanest Pockets you'll ever see and maximizing them to perfection in December Romo played as flawlessly as a quarterback can guiding the Cowboys to a 4-0 stretch completing almost 75% of his passes tossing 12 touchdowns one interception and a passer rating of 33.7 that's the fourth highest rate in a December from any quarterback with 60 passes attempts and second highest from any QB with 100 it was a marvelous season for 2014 second Team all pro selection at quarterback leading the league and passer rating in ESPN qbr finishing third in MVP voting and jotting down his Fifth Season throwing 10 interceptions or less only six quarterbacks at that time had more and it wasn't over it was time to exact revenge on a Detroit Lions team that gave the Cowboys hell in their previous two matchups I love sounding like a broken record the Cowboys Trail a playoff game by two scores in the second half and need a desperate fourth quarter comeback to try and win it but down six against one of the best defenses in the league two consecutive sacks from the Domin Sue held the Cowboys offense to three points here's the part of the video where I sincerely apologize to Lions fans because in the modern NFL no one has gotten screwed by the officials more than this team a pass interference call on third one is somehow picked up by the officials without acknowledgement weird for some reason the Lions then took a delay of game penalty on fourth and one instead of going for it at the Dallas 46 electing to punt the ball back to Tony Romo Romo LED four game-winning drives in the regular season and if the Cowboys wanted to pull this one off he was going to have to earn number five with 6 minutes left Jason Garrett goes for it on Fourth and six which pays off on a 21 yd connection from Romo to Jason w a couple more controversial calls go Dallas's way to set up third and goal from the Lions three let's make that the line's eight with a false start on Terrence Williams Romo takes the snap he fires a strike in the back of the end zone that's caught by Terrence Williams putting the Cowboys up 24 to 20 with two and a half to go just before the two-minute warning Matthew Stafford is strip sacked by Anthony Spencer and the strip is recovered by rookie Demarcus Lawrence who is promptly stripped of the ball in a lion recovery a plays later on Fourth and short from the Dallas 42 Stafford drops back and is strip sacked by Guess Who Demarcus Lawrence this time the rookie hangs on as do the Cowboys with Romo's second playoff win with the whole NFL waiting for his downfall Romo had won a big game it wasn't the big game but it was a big game sometimes the football Gods allow the two best quarterbacks to face off in the playoffs and on January 11th 2015 Tony Romo's Cowboys got the face MVP Aaron Rogers Packers Romo threw two touchdown passes before the fourth quarter and DeMarco Murray who set the Cowboys single season rushing record in the regular season ran in another to give Dallas an 8-point third quarter lead a little Redemption for Murray after a costly fumble 7 minutes prior with his team attempting to go up two scores but the Cowboys defense a unit that was much improved from 2013 and got stops at all the right times could not contain Rogers giving up two touchdowns trailing 26 to 21 with 9 minutes left Romo was attempting to to earn game-winning Drive number six a 30-yard run from Murray put the Cowboys in great position to do that then a few plays later they faced a fourth and2 from the Green Bay 32 Dez Bryant is one of the best receivers in franchise history he set the team record for receiving touchdowns this season with 16 it couldn't be more obvious Romo was looking for him on this down but instead of advancing the ball a few yards the Cowboys wanted all the smoke Romo fires a sideline Cannon to Dez and gives him a chance to make a spectacular catch which he does the Cowboys take the ball from the one yd line and in a sequence that had Lions fans softly crying tears of joy the refs determined Dez did not entirely hold on to the ball while contacting the ground with today's nval rules it would have been a catch but on this day it wasn't happening the Packers superhuman quarterback converted two third Downs to bring an end to the Cowboy season this was a great Cowboys team perhaps it was their best shot to win at all but for Romo he exercised a few demons and brought in some good will after playing well enough to make it beyond the divisional round not much you can do when you enter a game against one of the five greatest quarterbacks of all time the Romo Dez wooden DeMarco quartet was truly fun to watch it would just now have to be a trio with Murray's signing with Philadelphia in 2015 the question was less about Romo winning big games now was was what could he do to make the Hall of Fame while in his prime in week one against the Giants we had an answer Romo pulled off another masterful fourth quarter comeback on a masterful drive and finished it off with a low snap he picked up and fired to Jason wh for the 2015 game winner the next week Romo did just enough to guide the Cowboys to another divisional win over the Eagles I say he did just enough because he broke his left collar bone on a third quarter sack the Cowboys had to go without their franchise quarterback for seven games and they lost all seven but in week 11 against the Dolphins Romo came back and his first pass attempt in his return was a 9yd left-hander Romo clearly was not 100% evident by his two picks it didn't matter his presence alone made the Cowboys a different team at 3 and seven there was optimism for them to run the table especially in a far weaker NFC East than the one in 2014 on Thanksgiving the Cowboys were actually favored against a 10-0 Carolina Panthers team I can't think of another time where this happened and let me tell you there's a reason for that the Panthers got their first win over the Tony Romo Cowboys in six tries and it was never close Romo barely threw over 100 yards for three interceptions two of which were pick sixes if he wasn't looking Rusty in Miami he clearly was now at the end of the third quarter a saak reinjured Romo's shoulder officially putting an end to his season and his teams after one win the next week the 2015 Cowboys inversed on their 2014 record at 4-12 Romo had the offensive line and reliable weapons to continue playing at a high level it was now on him to stay healthy in 2016 that lasted three preseason games before he fractured his back against the Seahawks but this time the Cowboys were prepared after Talking Jerry Jones out of selecting a first round quarterback that would start four NFL games total the 2016 Cowboys took Miss Missippi State's Dak Prescott in the fourth round much like Romo's sudden 2006 Ascent into stardom Prescott Rose into that same role and guided the Cowboys into an amazing 13 and3 season Jones promised Romo would return to his starting role once his back healed but Prescott kept playing well and Romo never started the game in 2016 it would have been easy for him to remain bitter at the team and at Prescott but he never was he knew what it was like to be that incredible story from thin air and he turned into a mentor for his rookie companion who credits Romo for helping him develop into that season's offensive Rookie of the Year Prescott's career often parallels Romos trapped in a locker room culture that's too entitled and never getting the credit he deserves for being an outlier and like how Romo was unfavorably compared to Troy Aman Prescott has been getting unfavorably compared to Romo on April 4th 2017 Tony Romo retired from the NFL but not before one last paring gift in week 17 of the 2016 season the Cowboys clinched everything they needed to so after a few drives Prescott was sent to the bench to rest in for a drive Ste Romo as he did many times in the past he led the Cowboys inside the Red Zone leaving the NFL for good when the last throw of his career resulted in a touchdown caught by Terrence Williams going out on top after all since his retirement focus on Tony Romo centers on his team's never getting to the biggest game never mind winning it even in the few seasons where he had a great team only one top 10 defense existed in his career and whenever he was fortunate enough to win a playoff Epilogue game the Cowboys simply ran into a better team both times as NFL writer Scott kmar put it Romo's problem was he was a really good quarterback that couldn't earn that public acceptance until he had a Super Bowl caliber team around him but when Romo had the good Cowboys team in 2014 he had a convincing case to win MVP that's no coincidence from 2006 to 2014 Tony Romo defied the clutch narrative no one had more fourth quarter comebacks than his 23 and no one had more game-winning drives than his 27 and his win percentage in clutch opportunities was higher than both Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers as for his performance in the fourth quarter it wasn't perfect but nowhere near as bad as its lore suggests stat head's fourth quarter data goes back all the way to 1994 and with the appropriate number of attempts Romo's fourth quarter pass rating ranked second all time for an undrafted quarterback what Romo's done is extraordinary yet many of his peers first round quarterbacks who didn't have as successful a career as he did never got the intense criticism he received it's part of the deal as a Dallas Cowboy you play the most important position on the richest sports team in the world your owner markets you to H him back and and you're scheduled for 50,000 Prime Time games every year in any other NFL Market maybe not New York a quarterback like him would have gotten the respect he deserved when former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was traded to the Rams in 2021 he went from being criticized for failing to show up in big games to winning four big games in one season including the Super Bowl it was never too late to Chang his narrative I wonder if Tony Romo's Rams were somewhere out there but despite all the slander he took for failing to win those week 17 deao playoff games Tony Romo had a winning record against all three NFC east teams for an undrafted QB to do that that's pretty special undrafted quarterbacks are supposed to have a shorter leash than the early round dogs but Romo was always far more talented than the average undrafted free agent his mobility and playmaking were invaluable to the Cowboys for many years he was a great deep passer and his 97.1 career pass rating was the fourth highest of any player at his reti 12th all time now rumo proved all his doubters wrong and became not just a capable starting quarterback but a top 10 sometimes top five starting quarterback staying at that level for about 10 years Cowboys or not something like that from an undrafted quarterback has to be celebrated and even if you never thought much of him as a franchise guy you got to admit he and his team always put on a show [Music]