Tony Romo Is A Magic Man
Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo has found himself a profession after life in the National Football League. After watching him play Wednesday night against the New York Giants I am a firm believer Romo could easily be a magician when he can no longer suit up. Romo must have some sort of other-worldly powers to be able to get through last night’s game intact and holding a 1-0 record going into week 2. There can be no other explanation for everything that happened opening night.
Sep 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) rolls out during the first half against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O
How many times have you seen a game where the winning team had 14 total penalties, a completely new offensive line, and a unproven player at more than one position on the offensive side of the ball? I can’t think of a time when so many things were working against a team, like they were against the Cowboys, and yet they come out on top. And even though all these things were against the Cowboys, they still found a way to beat the defending Super Bowl champions. How could that be?
The Cowboys had a completely revamped offensive line. Both tackles were starting in a spot they were not playing last season, both guards are brand new to the system, and the starting center went out after three plays. With a defensive line as potent as the Giants have you would think Romo would have been sacked far more than he was… or possibly even have been placed on injured reserved as of this morning. But the Cowboys had an escape artist starting at quarterback, and that trumps a lot of adversity. Romo was escaping blitzes and missed blocks all night, and threw for 307 yards on 22-29 passing including three touchdowns and only one interception.
There is no logical explanation for the outcome. None whatsoever. Think about the other things that were playing against Romo and it makes it almost of another world. Jason Witten, who is Romo’s security blanket, was less than effective to say the least. Nobody knew what to expect out of the receivers considering Miles Austin has an eternal hamstring problem and Dez Bryant was coming off of a knee tendinitis issue. Not to mention Kevin Ogletree was the starting third receiver, and has been non existent before Wednesday night. It takes a really special quarterback to get through a situation like that alive, let alone come out victorious.
Romo wasn’t perfect last night, but he came pretty close. There’s still some gunslinger in him. This is something that will never go away so we might as well get use to it. The one interception he threw was a bad one. He was trying to fit the ball in with a sledgehammer and it went the other way. The optimistic thing that came from that turnover was the emergence of an actual defense. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s crew came on the field and knocked the Giants off the ball. After New York was held to a field goal Romo got some serious fire in him and the end product showed.
One of the most impressive plays was a 34-yard touchdown pass Romo threw to Austin down the left sideline on a first and 30. When you saw a first and long last season you could almost guarantee a punt and defensive failure. Romo was going to have none of it.
This was only the first game of the season so let’s not crown anyone just yet. There were more bright spots than just Romo as well Wednesday night, but when a quarterback does what he did it seems to trump everything else.
The NFL season is a long one that is going to require all of the top performers from Wednesday night to continue to produce, as well as a better performance out of the offensive line. But we can always be sure that Romo will be out there giving it his all and escaping things pocket-passing quarterbacks can only dream of.
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