Archer: Add Tony Romo's lefty flip to list of defining plays

Cotton

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Add Tony Romo's lefty flip to list of defining plays

Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer

MIAMI -- As the rain was pouring down and the first drive started at the 4, Tony Romo was able to find some humor in his return to the Dallas Cowboys' lineup after a two-month absence because of a broken left collarbone.

“I walked out to warm-ups. I said, ‘Well let’s see: It’s raining. We’ve got gusting winds. We’ve got rain. You’ve got a good defensive line, maybe as good as we’re going to go up against, and they come out with some great coverage stuff we hadn’t seen. They’re real simple until they played. [Ndamukong Suh] moves around, hadn’t moved spots all year.’ So they do all these things. The funny thing was you go through it all and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s why it’s the NFL. That’s why its football. You almost take it as a challenge and it almost makes it more enjoyable, if that makes sense.”

On his third play, Romo found himself nearly sacked in the end zone because of an unblocked blitzer, but he spun to his left and completed a 9-yard pass to Darren McFadden … left-handed. Two months ago he suffered six or seven fractures in his left collarbone. In his first game back, his first pass is with his left arm.

“I didn’t envision my two-month layoff coming back with a left-hander,” Romo said, ‘but I did practice that about seven or eight years ago, so I was ready for it.”


Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo prepares to throw with his left arm as he scrambles in the end zone against the Dolphins. AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Romo’s improvisation skills are legendary. He has made something from nothing so many times that the plays have run together over the years. But left-handed on his third play from scrimmage?

“The thought is, basketball that he does in the offseason, that we’ve been critical of, came in handy there,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “He made the left-handed pass. You know what he brings to the table. It’s so hard to explain. You get used to that type of guy back there and that type of competitor and leader. Unfortunately we showed we struggled a lot when he’s not in there. … Tony can make the difference in a play or two. That easily could’ve been a sack or a safety or could’ve been a lot of things.”

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones didn’t want to make too much of the lefty flip because of the time and circumstance of the game, but …

“Big men coming down hard on him, in a monsoon, trying to figure out how not to have a terrible play the first play of the game,” Jerry Jones said. “That defines him so well. He’s had many defining plays. That’s a defining play right there.”
 

dallen

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“I didn’t envision my two-month layoff coming back with a left-hander,” Romo said, ‘but I did practice that about seven or eight years ago, so I was ready for it.”
:lol I love this guy so much
 

ravidubey

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That feeble left-handed pass vs. Pittsburgh in 2008 with Roy Williams wide open in the endzone still pisses me off. Romo was laughing afterwards like points would be so easy to come by.

But this time against Miami it was just sweet. Too bad McFadden couldn't quite get the first down.
 
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