Will the REAL Tony Romo Please Stand Up?

Funny how this QB thing works. If you've got a great one, your team is generally going to see success on offense, put people in the seats and give fans a kind of undying hope that teams with lesser QB's just cant muster up.

At one point early on, I thought Dallas had found Troy (great QB) Aikman's  heir apparent. Now I'm not so sure. There are a myriad of ways to look at this, both positive and negative, so let's play around a bit;

Romo - The good, the bad and the ugly...

Romo possesses the tremendous natural playmaking ability in that he can elude pressure, buy time and find receivers anywhere on the field. He has, at times shown superior accuracy, putting the ball squarely in the hands of receivers regardless of the amount of zip, arc, touch or lead that was needed to complete the pass. And one more point that should be made, He HAS indeed shown the ability to lead his team on the field and be the guy everyone rallies around. Will anyone forget the Bills game as long as they live? Did he not do everything in his power to put them in position to win the Seahawk playoff game despite Tuna's stubborness around offensive play calling? That's all good..very, very good.

Romo also has shown a penchant for doing too much and putting the team in positions of weakness. Rather than check down to an open back, he often tries to take what isn't there. He's shown a lack of mental toughness at times and allowed broken protections to play right into opposing defensive coordinators' hands by turning the ball over in critical situations. His demonstrated inability to protect the football under duress has become so much of a weakness that opposing defenses will leave receivers wide open in favor of getting pressure on Romo and forcing costly mistakes. Bad, just bad.

Then there is the public personna of Romo. The star-studded nightlife with an entourage of hangers-on, the questions about his work ethic and leadership, the locker room madness with Witten and a certain Bills WR  and the blonde bombshell girlfriend who makes more headlines for for how she tips the scales than Herman Johnson of LSU.

Just for fun: Step away from the buffet line with your hands where I can see them!

Romo has become a big, big star, without having won anything of consequence. That is, by definition, the Ugly.

Romo by the numbers

It's hard to get a bead on Tony Romo just using stats (I hate it when people use stats to try and tell me who the better players are when they know it's only part of the story). 65.3, 64.4 and 61.3; those are his completion percentages over the last 3 years. 8.6, 8.1 and 7.7 show his declining yards per attempt. 9, 10, 13 shows an alarming trend around the number of fumbles per year.

I'm not sure what this tells us other than the fact that some of his stats are schizophrenic. It might make more sense to compare some of his stats with some of the rushing stats (I'll leave that to someone like BishopWest or someone from BTB to tackle). Either way, he's not showing franchise QB-like improvement from a statistical standpoint.

The case for 2009 as Romo's defining moment

It's a Romo-friendly offense and locker room. He headlines an offensive roster chock full of skill players who have proven that they can win the battles on the field. Let's be real here...trouble left Romo the day Dick Jauron said "yeah, I think he could help us". The running game is set for a breakout performance and should take the pressure off. It's his fourth year in this offense and he and Garrett should now be in lockstep.

He's heard the criticism. He knows he hasn't generated a single playoff win, despite all of the hype and the hope. He knows that the team doesn't need him to get them into the playoffs by throwing 40 TD's, but rather lead them there by limiting mistakes, and elevating the team's overall play through displays of mental toughness. If he cannot do these things, it's likely Dallas will renew it's search for the next great Cowboys QB.

And so...

Now is the time for Tony Romo...the REAL Tony Romo, to stand up and show all of the football world who he is. All of the excuses have run out. He's young by football experience standards but not so by his age (he'll be 29 this month). Is he an over-hyped kid from Wisconsin that has fallen into the trap of believing his own press clippings or is he the one to lead Dallas back to its rightful place on the NFL throne? Is he Anna Kournikova or Maria Sharapova? Is he Bradshaw or  Brad Pitt? 

I believe he is, indeed, going to take that next step and become the QB we all desperately want him to be. I think he is going to decrease his turnovers. I think he will mature and make better off-field decisions to lay low. I think he will absolutely learn that the best plays are sometimes the bad plays you made sure never occur. I think he will rally this team to the single unifying cause of winning and get them to the promised land. I believe...but I am nonetheless anxious and concerned.

Whatever happens, 2009 promises to be a memorable year.

GO COWBOYS!