Jason Garrett was quick to praise his quarterback in the aftermath of Dallas’s 38-23 win in Philadelphia. Per the Dallas Morning News, when speaking about Romo’s performance in the crucial win over the Eagles, Garrett said:
“He just has this great poise about him as an athlete where he can kind of feel what the heck’s going on, and keeps his eyes up and sees what’s going on down the field. It’s pretty unique.”
“If you ever get to a point where you’re strangling him and saying, ‘You can’t do that and you can’t do that,’ I think you’re taking away the essence of what makes him a really special player,” Garrett said. “You’re going to have some plays that you don’t like, and you have to live with those, and we’ve had a few of those. But at the same time, you have to allow for the other ones.”
I agree with Garrett. Tony Romo has always had that “it” that cannot be coached. In fact, Romo is arguably the most dangerous quarterback in the league when he is forced to improvise when a play breaks down, and that is what made Cowboys fans fall in love with him back in 2006. We all know that Romo makes his share of “Tony, NOOOO!!” plays (insert your favorite here), but Garrett is absolutely correct when he says that the Cowboys can’t react to those kind of plays by trying to micro-manage Romo and taking away the improvisation that makes Romo special. The same reasoning applied to Brett Favre, and I have said over and over again that it should apply to Michael Vick in Philadelphia. So the next time you yell “What was he THINKING!?!?” after watching Romo throw into triple coverage for a critical interception, remember that you are asking a loaded question because Romo probably wasn’t thinking at all. Instead, accept the fact that in order for the Cowboys’ offense to flourish under Romo, they are going to have to live with a few hiccups.