It is finally over. The 2010 season has come to a dramatic close, with the final game at Cowboys Stadium launching the off-season that we've been anticipating since about Week 8. With Green Bay's victory over Pittsburgh, the NFC has won two consecutive championships and three of the last four. The Packers are a young team, average age of 26 entering the season. With a franchise quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, the NFC is going to be tough sledding for the Cowboys to maneuver through.
Tony Romo appeared on Espn Radio this past Friday as part of the widespread Super Bowl coverage. He had a few things to say that I wanted to make sure BTB caught wind of. Here's some of the recap.[cowboysblog.dallasnews.com]
On how things will change under Jason Garrett heading into his first full season as head coach:
"Jason's got a great vision. He's got great understanding of what he's trying to convey, what kind of message, whether it's to the team or to the media. And I think he does a great job with that. You want to follow a guy like that. And he's been there and done a lot of things, and been a part of a lot of good football teams. So he kind of knows, I think, what it takes."
On if the criticism he has received from the national media has been fair:
"I think it's all warranted. I think it's all about winning at this position. Yeah the stats and all that are fun for people to talk about, but it's really not about that. It's about winning. It's about getting better and playing at your best when it counts. I think we all understand that. I'm no different. ... I know that you have to win, you have to win the Super Bowl and you have to win big games. And that's just what matters to people that are watching. And I'm the same way when I watch a different sport."
Follow the jump for more.
Lost amidst all of the Cowboys Stadium Super Bowl talk was this story on Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. Montana, winner of four Super Bowls himself, where he was asked his thoughts on Dallas quarterback Tony Romo. [sportsdaydfw.com]
"I think he does a lot of things well. I think he just needs to be more consistent. And I think that's what hurts him the most. You're going to have good and bad games, but you really can't have too many bad games. You can't sway too much either way on that needle. And I think that's what really keeps him from getting into the postseason and having success..
When it comes down to that time, it's really on your shoulders and you've got to play consistent. You don't have to be great, but if you're consistent, you give your team a better opportunity..
[snip]"I think they played the way their quarterback played," Montana said. "When you look at it, it was just too up and down. They just didn't make enough plays when it counted, whether it was offense or defense. And that's pretty typical of what your record shows..
There's a lot of teams throughout the league that do the same thing. The ones that continue to get better and stay at playing at that high level, they don't have those kind of swings."
I guess now is as good a time as any to start the discussion about Tony Romo's play, pre-injury. It's been lost amidst the overall disappointment, but Tony Romo was the quarterback for the 1-4 start. While most of the blame was placed at the feet of Wade Phillips, it's generally thought that the team has two leaders in the head coach and the quarterback. Tony Romo has to bear some of the responsibility for any lack of discipline the team showed, any quit that they displayed. Now, obviously, the quarterback isn't the last man to be answered to, so that does alleviate some of the finger-pointing. How much though is open for interpretation.
I went to check to see how Romo performed in limited duty as compared to the previous seasons. I was surprised to see that profootballfocus.com has Romo listed as an average quarterback each of the last two seasons, and a below average quarterback in 2008. That can't be. I watch the ball games and am an avid Romo supporter, yet the advanced stats are saying something totally different.
He led the league in completion percentage, was top 10 in yards per attempt and quarterback rating and was only sacked 7 times in 5 games. You want to discount the rankings, but when you read the names ahead of Romo, there are only a few that you'd argue would be picked after Romo. That's the case with most statistical rankings, a few anomolies but most often they are good representatives of performance.
As it's the first official day of the NFL off-season, what better way to celebrate it than having a discussion on the position of Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Is Tony going to be able to lead us to where Aaron Rodgers took the Packers?