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Jason Garrett, Tony Romo get evasive when talking about quarterback's poor game
DAVID MOORE Staff Writer
dmoore@dallasnews.com
IRVING — As Jason Garrett was pressed on the health of his quarterback, the reliability of his decisions and the thinking behind a certain second-and-1 call, here’s what the Cowboys head coach divulged:
Like all of us, Tony Romo is human. He’s given the latitude to change plays at the line of scrimmage, and people should assess his body of work rather than focus on one play that took place seven minutes into Sunday’s game.
Garrett concedes that Romo wasn’t perfect in the 28-17 loss to San Francisco to open the season, but there were some good throws. He’ll learn from what happened and move forward.
What? You were expecting rare insight?
Garrett was more evasive than enlightening during his Monday afternoon news conference. It began with the ill-fated call on second-and-1 from the 49ers 2-yard line.
The Cowboys lined up in a two-tight end set with a fullback before calling a timeout. When they returned to the field, Romo was in the shotgun with three wide receivers and DeMarco Murray next to him.
Garrett has spoken over and over about becoming a more physical team. He has used three first-round picks in the offensive line toward that goal. He kept a fullback on the roster to help run the ball near the goal line.
Why not line up and run the ball right there?
“We very easily could’ve taken that approach and decided not to do that,’’ Garrett said.
The call was still to hand the ball to Murray, but Romo didn’t like the defensive look and called an audible to a pass. He was sacked for a 9-yard loss, and the Cowboys eventually had to settle for a field goal.
Was it the wrong decision?
“I don’t want to get into the details of that particular decision, but we very easily could’ve run the ball in that situation and hopefully in the future we’ll handle that situation better,’’ Garrett said.
Romo usually exhibits a perfect recall of plays. But when asked initially about that second-and-1, he asked for clarification. He then spoke about how it’s always easy to say run the ball but hard to do if you have six players trying to block seven defenders.
“I think there are a lot of plays in the game you want back,’’ Romo said. “I’d put that lower compared to the interceptions.’’
The three interceptions were the most Romo has thrown since the Cowboys lost to Washington to end the 2012 season. One came when he tried to force a pass into double-coverage to Jason Witten on first-and-goal from the 5.
Garrett declined to say if Witten or Dwayne Harris, who was wide open, was the primary target on the play. He was asked if he evaluates how much latitude he gives Romo in these situations.
“Obviously, we make those evaluations all the time,’’ Garrett said. “If you look at the body of work and the efficiency that we’ve had and he’s had, it’s been fairly high.
“Sometimes when it doesn’t work out, people overreact to something like that, but you do have to look at the whole body of work. We do that all the time.
“Tony, like everyone else in this room and on the football field yesterday, is human. He made some decisions over the course of the game that he’d like to have back. That happens every week in the National Football League to every quarterback.’’
Romo is a little more than eight months removed from surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back. It’s natural to question his health after a substandard performance.
Here’s an idea: What if Romo is fine physically, but the limited practice time in training camp and the 48 snaps he took in the preseason weren’t enough to prepare him to play at game speed? Did his physical well-being to start the season take precedence over the repetition it took to be sharp?
“When players come back off of an injury, you have to have a plan for them to get themselves healthy,’’ Garrett said. “We thought it was important to do the things we did to give him an opportunity to play yesterday.
“Sure, you want more reps. You want more reps for everybody. That’s the nature of it. At the same time, you’ve got to go play given what the situation is.
“Was he as sharp as he’s been in his life? No. He made some bad decisions in this game that really hurt us. There were some other throws that weren’t perfect. But there were some good throws, too.’’
Romo understands why some cling to the theory that he needed more reps, but he said he felt comfortable Sunday.
He may have been comfortable, but he was far from efficient.
“He’ll learn from this,’’ Garrett said. “He’ll watch the tape, just like he’s done in the past and move forward.’’
DAVID MOORE Staff Writer
dmoore@dallasnews.com
IRVING — As Jason Garrett was pressed on the health of his quarterback, the reliability of his decisions and the thinking behind a certain second-and-1 call, here’s what the Cowboys head coach divulged:
Like all of us, Tony Romo is human. He’s given the latitude to change plays at the line of scrimmage, and people should assess his body of work rather than focus on one play that took place seven minutes into Sunday’s game.
Garrett concedes that Romo wasn’t perfect in the 28-17 loss to San Francisco to open the season, but there were some good throws. He’ll learn from what happened and move forward.
What? You were expecting rare insight?
Garrett was more evasive than enlightening during his Monday afternoon news conference. It began with the ill-fated call on second-and-1 from the 49ers 2-yard line.
The Cowboys lined up in a two-tight end set with a fullback before calling a timeout. When they returned to the field, Romo was in the shotgun with three wide receivers and DeMarco Murray next to him.
Garrett has spoken over and over about becoming a more physical team. He has used three first-round picks in the offensive line toward that goal. He kept a fullback on the roster to help run the ball near the goal line.
Why not line up and run the ball right there?
“We very easily could’ve taken that approach and decided not to do that,’’ Garrett said.
The call was still to hand the ball to Murray, but Romo didn’t like the defensive look and called an audible to a pass. He was sacked for a 9-yard loss, and the Cowboys eventually had to settle for a field goal.
Was it the wrong decision?
“I don’t want to get into the details of that particular decision, but we very easily could’ve run the ball in that situation and hopefully in the future we’ll handle that situation better,’’ Garrett said.
Romo usually exhibits a perfect recall of plays. But when asked initially about that second-and-1, he asked for clarification. He then spoke about how it’s always easy to say run the ball but hard to do if you have six players trying to block seven defenders.
“I think there are a lot of plays in the game you want back,’’ Romo said. “I’d put that lower compared to the interceptions.’’
The three interceptions were the most Romo has thrown since the Cowboys lost to Washington to end the 2012 season. One came when he tried to force a pass into double-coverage to Jason Witten on first-and-goal from the 5.
Garrett declined to say if Witten or Dwayne Harris, who was wide open, was the primary target on the play. He was asked if he evaluates how much latitude he gives Romo in these situations.
“Obviously, we make those evaluations all the time,’’ Garrett said. “If you look at the body of work and the efficiency that we’ve had and he’s had, it’s been fairly high.
“Sometimes when it doesn’t work out, people overreact to something like that, but you do have to look at the whole body of work. We do that all the time.
“Tony, like everyone else in this room and on the football field yesterday, is human. He made some decisions over the course of the game that he’d like to have back. That happens every week in the National Football League to every quarterback.’’
Romo is a little more than eight months removed from surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back. It’s natural to question his health after a substandard performance.
Here’s an idea: What if Romo is fine physically, but the limited practice time in training camp and the 48 snaps he took in the preseason weren’t enough to prepare him to play at game speed? Did his physical well-being to start the season take precedence over the repetition it took to be sharp?
“When players come back off of an injury, you have to have a plan for them to get themselves healthy,’’ Garrett said. “We thought it was important to do the things we did to give him an opportunity to play yesterday.
“Sure, you want more reps. You want more reps for everybody. That’s the nature of it. At the same time, you’ve got to go play given what the situation is.
“Was he as sharp as he’s been in his life? No. He made some bad decisions in this game that really hurt us. There were some other throws that weren’t perfect. But there were some good throws, too.’’
Romo understands why some cling to the theory that he needed more reps, but he said he felt comfortable Sunday.
He may have been comfortable, but he was far from efficient.
“He’ll learn from this,’’ Garrett said. “He’ll watch the tape, just like he’s done in the past and move forward.’’
