It’s okay for Cowboys fans to be upset about how unfair the NFL playoffs can be

lostxn

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It’s okay for Cowboys fans to be upset about how unfair the NFL playoffs can be
By RJ Ochoa@rjochoa Jan 15, 2018, 9:30am CST

The final four quarterbacks remaining from the 2017 NFL season are Tom Brady, Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, and Case Keenum. This is a real sentence.

Three of these quarterbacks (shocker here, not Tom Brady) enter the conference championship round for the first time in their careers, and honestly it’s a surprise that each of them did.

Everyone that wins any NFL game deserves credit for doing so, but anyone who follows the sport knows that there’s a certain amount of luck and good fortune associated with any playoff run.

Take Case Keenum for example. He’s in the NFC Championship while New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees isn’t. Brees led an amazing drive in the final minutes of Sunday’s divisional round to put his team in position to win. The Saints kicked a field goal, but thanks to a Marcus Williams goof they lost and are home for good.

Drew Brees, future Pro Football Hall of Fame QB, was denied a playoff win and chance at a Super Bowl ticket because a rookie safety made one of the worst plays of his life (hopefully he bounces back, btw). That’s how unfair the NFL can be.

It’s number nine that sits on Brees’ jersey, and it’s a different number nine that we all think of when it comes to how unfair the NFL can be - Tony Romo.

Romo will call Sunday’s AFC Championship Game knowing that Bortles, Keenum, and Foles all reached territory that he never did throughout his storied career. While they each defeated formidable competition to get there, it doesn’t change how frustrating it is that the cards never seem to fall the right way for Dallas.

Consider the Patriots in this season’s penultimate round. They simply have to go through Blake Bortles and the winner of Nick Foles and Case Keenum in order to win their third Super Bowl in four years, an entirely separate dynasty from the one they had in the early 2000s.

New England, other teams as well, is seemingly drawing the easiest possible matchups in the most critical situations. Of course the same could have been said of Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans (to a degree considering Keenum) last Friday, but they all squandered their opportunity.

When you think of the Cowboys from the Romo era until now, they’ve never been afforded any sort of pass like this in the playoffs. Every game they’ve played has been difficult:

2006, Wildcard Round - Dallas had to take on the defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks in their stadium, one of the loudest venues in the NFL. They lost in heartbreaking fashion (Romo bobble).
2007, Divisional Round - The Cowboys welcomed to town a division rival who they’d already beaten twice that season in the New York Giants. Eli Manning had at his back one of the best defenses Romo had ever seen, and New York the game.
2009, Wildcard Round - It wasn’t easy, but the Cowboys pulled off their first Romo-led playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, a team they beat in back to back weeks.
2009, Divisional Round - Brett Favre experienced a renaissance during his first season in Minnesota. Of course, the Cowboys ran into this buzzsaw, making Favre the oldest quarterback to win a playoff game (until Brady did against Tennessee last Saturday).
2014, Wildcard Round - Tony Romo was magnificent as the Cowboys exhausted every resource in their wheelhouse to take down one of the league’s more underrated defenses that season in the Detroit Lions.
2014, Divisional Round - Aaron Rodgers is heralded as one the finest talents to ever play the quarterback position. Even with a shaky calf, the Cowboys were on the wrong end of one of the most infamous calls in NFL history, and they failed to beat him.
2016, Divisional Round - 3rd and 20, Jared Cook, Mason Crosby. Dallas fell at the hands of their kryptonite yet again, Aaron Rodgers was simply too much to handle for them.
The Cowboys last three playoff losses have been against, as mentioned, one of the finer if not the finest talent to ever play quarterback and Brett Favre in a season where he found the fountain of youth in a record-breaking way.

Dallas isn’t drawing Nick Foles, Case Keenum, Blake Bortles, Brock Osweiler, or Tim Tebow in their biggest game’s of the season. Whether it’s because Tony Romo never got what was rightfully his or just because of it all, it’s understandable if you’re upset at how unfair the NFL can be.

It’s frustrating that other teams are not only good but have all of the breaks go their way as well. Some like to say that being that good forces the breaks to go your way, but some teams simply end up on the fortunate side of league-altering injuries.

While Rodgers might be the finest talent to ever play the game, Brady is the finest overall quarterback to play. It’s just frustrating that the well-acknowledged Superman of quarterbacks draws a field of what are seemingly non-challengers.

Football can suck sometimes.

_______________________________________

The sad truth is if Romo was healthy and playing, this team would be in the playoffs at this point. Of course that's because Romo was be doing his QB+OC thing overcoming the incompetence of Garrett/Linehan.
 

data

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Bullshit.

With Ryan, Brees and Roethlisberger losing, you think Romo would have won and be in the Championship Game?

Bortles, Foles and Keenum (along with their respective defenses) would have handed us another devastating and improbable loss that would have us crying in Ezekiel's cereal bowl.
 

lostxn

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Bullshit.

With Ryan, Brees and Roethlisberger losing, you think Romo would have won and be in the Championship Game?

Bortles, Foles and Keenum (along with their respective defenses) would have handed us another devastating and improbable loss that would have us crying in Ezekiel's cereal bowl.
I don't think so, honestly.
 

vince

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I'm more upset with how the divisions are now. The AFC East is clearly one of the main reason why the Pats are in it almost every year. That needs to change.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Bullshit.

With Ryan, Brees and Roethlisberger losing, you think Romo would have won and be in the Championship Game?

Bortles, Foles and Keenum (along with their respective defenses) would have handed us another devastating and improbable loss that would have us crying in Ezekiel's cereal bowl.
Yeah I don't subscribe to that theory at all. Romo missed the playoffs too many times in his career for me to subscribe to the concept that he was suddenly going to have more team success this year then he ever had. Besides the fact that we all know there is no way in hell Romo was staying healthy for an entire season. That Atlanta game for example would have killed him.
 

lostxn

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Yeah I don't subscribe to that theory at all. Romo missed the playoffs too many times in his career for me to subscribe to the concept that he was suddenly going to have more team success this year then he ever had. Besides the fact that we all know there is no way in hell Romo was staying healthy for an entire season. That Atlanta game for example would have killed him.
Yeah but there is no way Romo wouldn't have addressed the issue. He would have stuck Witten on Green's hip and rolled away from pressure. He is just a lot savvier than Dak at this point in his career. Dak will get a lot better in that area with time. Not sure he'll ever be Romo-smart. I hope so. The best QBs really are students of the game.
 

ravidubey

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Yeah but there is no way Romo wouldn't have addressed the issue. He would have stuck Witten on Green's hip and rolled away from pressure. He is just a lot savvier than Dak at this point in his career. Dak will get a lot better in that area with time. Not sure he'll ever be Romo-smart. I hope so. The best QBs really are students of the game.
No veteran would have put up with that shit. Audible to different protections, shorten up the patterns, get in Greens face a bit while still being encouraging, get someone over to chip, and keep a back in the fing backfield.

Romo has played with average OTs before without getting sacked 8 times.

Dak trusted the coaches and his team to keep protecting him. He’s not equipped to deal with the situation when it’s not happening.
 

VA Cowboy

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I'm more upset with how the divisions are now. The AFC East is clearly one of the main reason why the Pats are in it almost every year. That needs to change.
Yeah they are good but also not much competition in the AFC East so they can easily go 6-0 or 5-1 in their division every year. Of course, lately the Steelers have about the same situation in the AFC North. Browns suck. Bengals are never a contender and even if the make the playoffs are always one and done. And the last 3-4 years, once Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Ngata, etc left, the Ravens haven't been much competition so Pittsburgh racking up 5 to 6 wins in the division as well.

It's good to see the Jags rise up this year. Maybe in the near future a few other teams like the Raiders with Gruden, Texans with Deshaun Watson and JJ Watt, or even the Titans will improve and provide some competition for the Pats and Steelers.
 

deadrise

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It’s okay for Cowboys fans to be upset about how unfair the NFL playoffs can be
By RJ Ochoa@rjochoa Jan 15, 2018, 9:30am CST

The final four quarterbacks remaining from the 2017 NFL season are Tom Brady, Blake Bortles, Nick Foles, and Case Keenum. This is a real sentence.

Three of these quarterbacks (shocker here, not Tom Brady) enter the conference championship round for the first time in their careers, and honestly it’s a surprise that each of them did.

Everyone that wins any NFL game deserves credit for doing so, but anyone who follows the sport knows that there’s a certain amount of luck and good fortune associated with any playoff run.

Take Case Keenum for example. He’s in the NFC Championship while New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees isn’t. Brees led an amazing drive in the final minutes of Sunday’s divisional round to put his team in position to win. The Saints kicked a field goal, but thanks to a Marcus Williams goof they lost and are home for good.

Drew Brees, future Pro Football Hall of Fame QB, was denied a playoff win and chance at a Super Bowl ticket because a rookie safety made one of the worst plays of his life (hopefully he bounces back, btw). That’s how unfair the NFL can be.

It’s number nine that sits on Brees’ jersey, and it’s a different number nine that we all think of when it comes to how unfair the NFL can be - Tony Romo.

Romo will call Sunday’s AFC Championship Game knowing that Bortles, Keenum, and Foles all reached territory that he never did throughout his storied career. While they each defeated formidable competition to get there, it doesn’t change how frustrating it is that the cards never seem to fall the right way for Dallas.

Consider the Patriots in this season’s penultimate round. They simply have to go through Blake Bortles and the winner of Nick Foles and Case Keenum in order to win their third Super Bowl in four years, an entirely separate dynasty from the one they had in the early 2000s.

New England, other teams as well, is seemingly drawing the easiest possible matchups in the most critical situations. Of course the same could have been said of Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans (to a degree considering Keenum) last Friday, but they all squandered their opportunity.

When you think of the Cowboys from the Romo era until now, they’ve never been afforded any sort of pass like this in the playoffs. Every game they’ve played has been difficult:

2006, Wildcard Round - Dallas had to take on the defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks in their stadium, one of the loudest venues in the NFL. They lost in heartbreaking fashion (Romo bobble).
2007, Divisional Round - The Cowboys welcomed to town a division rival who they’d already beaten twice that season in the New York Giants. Eli Manning had at his back one of the best defenses Romo had ever seen, and New York the game.
2009, Wildcard Round - It wasn’t easy, but the Cowboys pulled off their first Romo-led playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, a team they beat in back to back weeks.
2009, Divisional Round - Brett Favre experienced a renaissance during his first season in Minnesota. Of course, the Cowboys ran into this buzzsaw, making Favre the oldest quarterback to win a playoff game (until Brady did against Tennessee last Saturday).
2014, Wildcard Round - Tony Romo was magnificent as the Cowboys exhausted every resource in their wheelhouse to take down one of the league’s more underrated defenses that season in the Detroit Lions.
2014, Divisional Round - Aaron Rodgers is heralded as one the finest talents to ever play the quarterback position. Even with a shaky calf, the Cowboys were on the wrong end of one of the most infamous calls in NFL history, and they failed to beat him.
2016, Divisional Round - 3rd and 20, Jared Cook, Mason Crosby. Dallas fell at the hands of their kryptonite yet again, Aaron Rodgers was simply too much to handle for them.
The Cowboys last three playoff losses have been against, as mentioned, one of the finer if not the finest talent to ever play quarterback and Brett Favre in a season where he found the fountain of youth in a record-breaking way.

Dallas isn’t drawing Nick Foles, Case Keenum, Blake Bortles, Brock Osweiler, or Tim Tebow in their biggest game’s of the season. Whether it’s because Tony Romo never got what was rightfully his or just because of it all, it’s understandable if you’re upset at how unfair the NFL can be.

It’s frustrating that other teams are not only good but have all of the breaks go their way as well. Some like to say that being that good forces the breaks to go your way, but some teams simply end up on the fortunate side of league-altering injuries.

While Rodgers might be the finest talent to ever play the game, Brady is the finest overall quarterback to play. It’s just frustrating that the well-acknowledged Superman of quarterbacks draws a field of what are seemingly non-challengers.

Football can suck sometimes.

_______________________________________

The sad truth is if Romo was healthy and playing, this team would be in the playoffs at this point. Of course that's because Romo was be doing his QB+OC thing overcoming the incompetence of Garrett/Linehan.


"Football can suck sometimes."

And when the pressure was on in a playoff game, Rome could suck every time.
 

BipolarFuk

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"Football can suck sometimes."

And when the pressure was on in a playoff game, Rome could suck every time.
Or complementary players like Cunt Crayton can give up on a route for a sure TD catch.

Not saying Romo wouldn't choke himself, but if he didn't, someone else would.
 
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