Romo's Fault?

     For most people, October is the month filled with scary things leading up to Halloween. For Cowboys fans, that month of scary things is December. The NFL only has 16 games in the regular season, so unlike other sports, each game is a huge game. Then throw in the fact that you’re tied with a division foe for the division lead and you’re playing an inter-conference team. On top of all of that, it is December and after every game, pundits are going back to see how it affected the playoff picture. That is precisely the scenario the Cowboys faced on Monday night vs. the Chicago Bears. The Bears were without their top quarterback, cornerback, and middle linebacker. The Cowboys were getting back their stud linebacker in Sean Lee and special team ace Dwayne Harris. The Bears had nothing to lose. The pressure was all on the Cowboys.

     The outcome? A 45-28 drubbing at the hands of those Chicago Bears. This goes as another blemish on Tony Romo’s December record. What won’t be mentioned next to this “Tony Romo December loss” is that the defense allowed the Josh McCown-led Bears to score on every single offensive possession. So was it Tony Romo’s fault? Not completely but he was part of the problem. Where many Cowboys viewers go wrong is that they either label a December loss as all on Tony Romo or not on Tony Romo at all. That’s not how it goes. Tony Romo was 11-20 for 104 yards and 3 touchdowns. Romo supporters will point to the 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Romo haters will point to the 104 yards and the 55 percent completion percentage. So yes, it is partially Romo’s fault that he did not manage to lead a single scoring drive from the middle of the 2^nd quarter till late in the 4^th. No, it isn’t his fault that in that span the defense allowed the Bears to score 28 points.

     Romo supporters can’t just bring up how Romo ranks in the top 5 in a lot of major statistical categories in December. You can’t just say it isn’t his fault at all because in December he has 30 touchdowns to just 5 interceptions. The fact is, as ESPN Dallas’s Tim MacMahon wrote after the game, “Fair or not, only franchise quarterbacks and head coaches get assigned win-loss records in football. That’s just a fact.” You can’t put Romo up with the Bradys and Mannings of the world in some conversations but not others. To put in perspective, Tom Brady is 41-8 in his career over the last 4 games, the best over the last 4 games of the season since the 1970 merger. Romo right now stands at 11-16. Many times you hear from players that they will take an “ugly win” over a “pretty loss”. Even Romo earlier this season said after the Broncos game, the big numbers do not matter if you don’t win the game. In that game, the Broncos defense allowed Romo and the offense to score 48 points. The Broncos could have lost that game and blamed the lack of defense. Instead, Peyton Manning did what great quarterbacks do: Lead his team to even more points, scoring 51. When Manning lost to the Patriots in New England, people didn’t point to the defense that allowed Brady and the Patriots to climb back in the game. They said that Manning was unable to move the ball in the cold weather. Justifiably so. That is what happens when you are a big time quarterback in this league.

     My point is, Romo does not lose in December. The Dallas Cowboys do. People who say Tony Romo chokes are wrong. But people who say Romo is completely not at fault are also wrong. Romo could be doing more to prevent that from happening. Some things do not show up on the stat sheet. The offense being inept for about half of the game on Monday night is proof of that. When the Cowboys lose, it is justified to point the finger a little bit at Romo because after all, we all put his skill in the same class as Rodgers, Brady, Manning, Brees and others playing the game at a high level today. I guarantee you, if the Cowboys were to win a playoff game, everybody would be praising Romo and talking about how he overcame his late season demons. They wouldn’t be talking about the Dallas Cowboys overcoming those late season demons. That is the way the NFL is. Big time quarterbacks receive a big chunk of the credit when their team wins, but they receive a chunk of the blame when they lose. Whether it's fair or not, that is a different story.