Wanted to post this yesterday in response to some posts/comments I’ve been reading on the blog about Romo “choking” and the turnovers he had against Minnesota being “all his fault”, or “typical Romo” and other ridiculous notions. Unfortunately once you join “Blogging the Boys” they make you wait a full day to post. So this is a day late and probably a dollar short, but hey, what can ya do?

Concerning Romo… first, I don’t see how anybody can argue that the fumbles were Romo’s fault. Edwards made Marc Columbo look like a broken turnstile on the first one (and throughout the day). Should Doug Free have been in there instead? That’s debatable. And that would be a coaching decision, not a decision made by Romo. On the second fumble, the protection called by either Jason Garrett or the offensive line coach directly resulted in Jason Witten blocking Jared Allen one-on-one. That is the epitome of a mismatch. Tony Romo had absolutely no chance on either play. Those turnovers were not Romo’s fault, unless you’re arguing that Romo needed to pull out one of his patented “whirling dervish” moves to avoid the pressure. And if that’s your argument, there’s really no hope for you.

Now to the interception. Most people think Romo just boneheadedly, stubbornly threw it to Leber because Romo sucks. That is ridiculous. So here’s what I saw, based on the limited replays I saw during the broadcast, and feel free to argue with me rationally if you can.

The Cowboys sent three receivers out on patterns. Each of them ran curls. What that means is the receiver runs to the first down line (or near it) and turns around to catch the ball. The play is designed so that the second the receiver turns around, the one with the most space between him and his defender (in this case Crayton) should have the ball thrown to him immediately. It is a timing play. It really only works as a timing play because the receiver runs a route that forces him to turn around and wait for the ball to come. As soon as Crayton turned around, the ball should have been there.

And it would have worked. Crayton was open. If the ball had been there right away it would have been a first down. Romo wanted to throw it right away too. He did. I know this because he attempted to do it. But Romo was forced to move in the pocket because of the initial pressure he was under (offensive line failure), and where he moved was right in front of a defensive lineman that jumped in the air when Romo first attempted his throw. This forced Romo to double-clutch. This allowed the defender covering Crayton to close the gap, negating the timing of the curl route. This also allowed Ben Leber, who was nearby and saw Romo’s first attempt, to move into position between Romo and Crayton. When the defensive lineman came down from his jump, Romo immediately threw the ball (so he wouldn’t be sacked), hoping Crayton would be able to shield his defender and make the first down catch anyway. Romo never saw Leber because the defensive lineman’s jump shielded Leber’s movement. The throw was rushed (again, Romo was under TREMENDOUS pressure), which forced it to be inaccurate. Even if Leber wasn’t there, the throw would have been at Crayton’s feet, making it an extremely difficult catch. Instead the ball hit Leber in the gut and it was “another horrible play by that idiot quarterback. How did he NOT see Leber!”

Well I just told you how. Argue it if you can.