I think the note on TR's 'best career season' on the FP put this in perspective for me.

The proverbial 'eye test' tells us the DAL Oline is middling to below average - our Sacks Surrendered total bears this out - Cowboys rank 14 in the league(higher ranking the better).

Conversely, DAL ranks in the Top 10 for sacks, somewhat belying the 'eyeball test' and conventional wisdom the Cowboys don't generate nearly enough pressure.

Disclaimer - this is very high level, does not include, Hurries, Knock Downs, Pressures, etc. However, it should be at least indicative at a high level.

So, here's my dilemma - if our OL is so poor, how can Tony Romo be so good? If you make the case for his escapability limiting sacks, I contend that only reinforces the point - Sack total would indicate the pressure is even greater - would 5-10 more sacks really impact his results that much?

And where is the correlation between our Top 10 Sack Total and Bottom 10 Pass D? I did a rudimentary analysis of Passer Rating for all Defenses against Sacks and the relationship is not conclusive. Agree a full analysis - assigning a relative point value to Pressures, Hurries and Knock Downs with Sacks into an overall 'Pressure' stat would be more comprehensive and should be over several seasons, but I simply don't know where those stats exist, nor really have the time to do it in any short order.

Many posters are insisting that fixing the Pass D requires an upgrade to the Pass Rush - this is intuitive and completely logical. Many Defenses are built, successfully around this concept. For the most part, Wade's successful D's for all their vaunted pressure, were inconsistent for opposing Passer rating(2009 - 7th in Sacks, 20th in OPR; 2007 - 3rd/5th) .

In the final analysis, with such a demonstrably sub-par OLine, how did Tony Romo have his best statistical year ? Granted, I could be reading this all wrong.