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Cowboys season is officially over
Column by JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News | jjtaylor@dallasnews.com
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ARLINGTON – At 8:35 p.m. Monday night, Giants’ linebacker Michael Boley burst untouched through the left side of the Cowboys’ offensive line, hit Tony Romo and drove him into the ground.
Romo instantly grabbed his left shoulder.
As Boley stood up, Romo lay on the ground writhing. Forty one minutes later, X-Rays revealed Romo broke his left collarbone.
Season over.
Romo spent the second half with his arm in a sling, a navy blue jacket around his shoulders and an earpiece in his ear, so he could listen to the play selection when Dallas had the ball.
By the time he’s ready to return, whenever that is, the Cowboys will have been eliminated from the playoff chase, so there won’t be any reason for him to return.
The way the game was going, the Cowboys probably weren’t going to beat the New York Giants, despite getting three turnovers and a punt return for a touchdown in the first half. Without Romo it was a fait accompli.
New York 41, Dallas 35.
And it could’ve been worse. Much worse.
The Giants seemed to get bored in the second half and started turning it over after the Cowboys’ defense laid it down in the third quarter.
Thank God.
Sometimes, you never know what you had until it’s gone. Usually, that’s a conversation reserved for relationships that went ad, but in this case, we’re talking about quarterback play.
Well, you’re about to find out that life without Romo taking snaps is awful. And you’re going to find out that life with Jon Kitna at quarterback is even worse.
Kitna will be better, as you would suspect, against Jacksonville on Sunday with a week of practicing with the first team and getting all of the practice repetitions. At his best, though, he’s just a guy.
Sure, Wade Phillips said the 38-year-old could start for a lot of NFL teams, but he said that in training camp, when everyone is full of optimism. Now, that we’re in the midst of a horrendous season does anyone really believe Kitna is going to take the Cowboys where Romo couldn’t?
A few weeks from now, if the Cowboys are smart – that’s a huge if – then you’ll find out that life with Stephen McGee at quarterback is maddening. Once the Cowboys lose their eighth game, essentially eliminating them from the playoffs, then McGee should take over.
At worst, at the end of the season, we should know whether McGee is good enough to be Romo’s backup next season.
As for Kitna, the game moves a lot faster on Sundays than it does when he’s been running the scout team, and his limited mobility will be exposed by the Cowboys’ struggling offensive line.
Romo hid a lot of their flaws; Kitna won’t.
Each week my inbox gets filled up with e-mails from folks criticizing Romo for wearing his cap backwards on the sideline.
They criticize his love of golf. The way he smiles. His leadership. They say he piles up gaudy stats, but doesn’t deliver when it counts.
Some of the criticism about his stats and failure to perform in big games is legitimate. Despite all the numbers, he has just one playoff win to go with a pair of NFC East titles.
The other stuff? That’s a joke.
The reality is that Romo is among the best quarterbacks in the league.
He’s not Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees – at least before this season – but he’s certainly on the next level with Aaron Rodgers and Philip Rivers.
You’re about to be reminded of that.
Some of you have forgotten about the five seasons, the Cowboys spent in the abyss with quarterbacks named Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright , Ryan Leaf , Clint Stoerner, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde , Drew Henson and Drew Bledsoe.
Most of them were busters.
Bledsoe’s passer rating of 83.7 was the best of the bunch. Testaverde was next with a 73.7 rating.
None of them ever came close to going to the Pro Bowl.
Romo has never had a passer rating of less than 91.7 since becoming a starter in 2006.
More important, with Romo, the Cowboys always had a chance to win whether they actually did it or not.
Without him, they have no chance.
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