Last night I made the mistake of having hope that Dallas could beat the very tough New York Jets in New York on 9/11/11. You've got to give it up to the Jets defense, they are extremely tough. Still for the first three quarters of the game, Dallas's offense responded relatively well. I thought the Cowboys had the game in the bag and even posted on my Facebook page my excitement about that. Later I was forced to add a couple of comments to my original comment.
After a very impressive solid 51 minutes of play Tony Romo pulled a Romo. It was yet another colossal meltdown. The Cowboys collapse was the final bad game in a bad sports weekend for me. After the Red Sox and Braves got swept, the Utes and Cougars lost I was hoping for a Cowboys win. Not only did they not win, it was the worst kind of loss. For the first 51 minutes of the game Dallas had the game in hand and were even dominating. But then just like that the Cowboys were able to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Romo had just hit Jason Witten with a 60 yard plus pass that put the ball at the Jets 3 yard line. At that point Dallas was leading 24-17 and about to go up by 14 points, or at least 10 points. Romo was scrambling as he couldn't find a receiver. Then in a play that reminded me of his choke against the Seahawks in the playoffs a few years ago, Romo ran towards the goal line. He fumbled the ball at the 1 yard line. Earlier in the game the always excellent Chris Collinsworth said that Romo threw away the ball and lived to fight another day. I really thought we had seen a turning point for Romo.
But no he again choked, fumbled the ball which the Jets recovered. For the record that was the former Ute Sione Pouha that recovered the ball for the Jets. The worst case scenario in that situation is the Cowboys should have attempted a field goal. While the Cowboys kicking game is suspect, it had been good enough on Sunday night. The Cowboys would have probably went up by 10 points. That also probably would have changed everything that came after that. Coulda, woulda, shoulda! No Romo fumbled the ball. And from that point the game went downhill quickly. Dallas's patch up defense performed better than expected in Rob Ryan's extremely aggressive scheme. On the next Jets offensive possession the Cowboys defense was able to prevent the Jets from scoring. Dallas got the ball back and another ineffective stretch for the Cowboys offense. That was the possession when they got the punt blocked and returned for a touchdown. Dallas again had the ball and were forced to punt. The Jets were then also forced to punt after a 6 play drive.
Dallas got the ball back with 59 seconds left. Again there's no reason to be aggressive, just take what the Jets defense gives you. If you don't score, live and fight another day, and go to overtime. Then it's a good news, bad news situation. Tony Romo threw a perfect pass, unfortunately he threw it right to Darrelle Revis. The so-called Revis island because no one dares to throw in his direction as he's so good. Well almost no one except for Tony Romo of course. Then in ironies of ironies former Cowboy Nick Folk trots on the field and kicks a 50 yard field goal. The Cowboys foolishly cut him a few years ago and now have a horrendously bad kicking tandem.
Ultimately the defense didn't lose the game and in fact gave the Cowboys a solid chance to win. The Cowboys unfortunately had a huge special teams failure, which was very romoesque. Then Romo had another one of his trademark games as the Cowboys lost. Romo was 23 of 36 for 342 yards and a 101.9 quarterback rating. He also had two touchdown passes, an interception and a fumble. It's that first line of stats that makes many non-Cowboys think that Romo is so good. Unfortunately it's the next line that make long-time Cowboys fans remember why Romo is so over rated. From watching football for so many years, I've noticed if you don't have that x factor early you never gain it later in your career. Dallas it's time to cut your losses and end the Tony Romo era.
The other thing I noticed about the Cowboys in this game is how thin the Cowboys are. Again Terrance Newman was too injured to play, like Romo its time for him to be traded. Being constantly injured is a Newton trademark. Orlando Scandrick will be out for 4 weeks with an injury. Dez Bryant and Mike Jenkins battled injuries most of the game. Bryant has a huge upside but I've noticed how fragile he is. The Cowboys seemed to just not have much depth when these players were injured.
I know this sounds outlandish. But if I was the Cowboys I would trade Tony Romo right now. Maybe trade him for another corner back or a third receiver. The Cowboys will get back a missing piece or two back and probably save money on the cap. Then throw Stephen McGee into the fire and see if he has any future as a starting quarterback in the NFL. I highly doubt that he does and they would probably lose most of their games. Not that Romo guarantees any wins for the Cowboys either. They are 1-7 in his last 8 games as a starting quarterback. (Thanks to Jean-Jacques Taylor.) But that's okay if you lose you might as well pay as little to do so. It would also put the Cowboys in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. Immediately the Cowboys would have better Luck :) Then the Cowboys could finally have a decent quarterback. Instead of waiting on Romo to finally reach his "potential", they'd have a quarterback that really has potential.
Now the Cowboys travel to play the 1-0 49ers. It looks like it could be yet another "rebuilding" year.
thedisgustedmusicaddict
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