Machota: Romo - ‘I don’t care’ about critics saying I check out of too many run plays

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo: ‘I don’t care’ about critics saying I check out of too many run plays
By Jon Machota
jmachota@dallasnews.com
4:00 pm on November 7, 2013 | Permalink

IRVING – Whether the Dallas Cowboys run the ball 40 times or only nine like they did during last Sunday’s 27-23 win over Minnesota, Tony Romo says it depends solely on what it takes to win the game.

Like Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has said all week, Romo says the team wants to be balanced on offense. However, they’ve passed the ball 346 times and ran it 183 times. Only five teams have attempted fewer running plays and only Cleveland has attempted more passes.

“It’s about winning the games,” the Cowboys quarterback said Thursday. “If you’re worried about things other than that then you’re not in the right job as a player or a coach. Our football team takes that approach every week.

“Like we’ve said 50 times, everyone wants balance. We want it as well. We’re going to want to find that balance. We’re going to need it. It will help everybody and things will be easier. At the same time, you have to call a game to win.”

Romo’s increased influence in the offensive game-planning during the week and his ability to audible out of plays has some saying Romo is checking out of too many run calls.

How does Romo feel about those opinions?

“I don’t care,” he said. “We won the football game. You can say whatever you want. It doesn’t really bother me.”

Iamtdg said:

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Fricking incredible.

Romo Not Worried About Appeasing With Balance
Posted 37 minutes ago

Rowan Kavner
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas – Balance on offense isn’t Tony Romo’s primary concern.

The Cowboys’ quarterback is more worried about winning, and he doesn’t mind if the team passes 51 times and runs just nine times in the process. That’s what occurred Sunday in a 27-23 win against the Vikings.

“If you’re just thinking, ‘Boy, we better get to 15 runs, 20 runs, just to make sure that we appease everybody, that’s just silly,” Romo said. “I think what you find is we won that football game last week. We’re moving on to the next one. Maybe you only throw it 17 times the next week, maybe you only throw it 25 times, or whatever, so it varies.”


Even the 51/9 ratio is a little skewed. The Cowboys technically ran eight running plays and 55 passing plays. Three times Romo was sacked and another rushing attempt came on a scramble by Romo after the play broke down.

The Cowboys set a new franchise-low in a 16-game season with just 79.1 rushing yards per game last year on 22.2 carries per game. They’ve actually ran the ball less this year, with 20.3 carries a game through nine games.

“We’re trying to win the football game, first and foremost,” Romo said. “The balance, throwing, running, no one in this locker room cares whether we run 50 times. We just want to win.”


Romo said each game is different in terms of how often he can check out of running plays.

“Each game’s different,” he said. “Some games you’ll have two plays. Other games you’ll have eight or 10. That’s just part of each game, different philosophies. There’s no set number that we have set up. It varies every week.”

He looks at the coverage and the front and the play-call and determines the next move. He said if a team’s stout against the run, he’ll try to throw, and vice versa.

The Cowboys currently rank 31st in the league in rushing attempts per game, and their 75.7 rushing yards per game place them 27th in the NFL. They ran just nine times against the Vikings, but before that they ran 26 times apiece against the Lions and Eagles.

“I think what you find is in Detroit, we tried running it a lot on second down,” Romo said. “We were losing yards. Well, if you’re in second-and-4 and then you’re in third-and-8, I don’t know that that’s winning football, no matter how you slice it.”

Having said that, Romo added that running can be a huge advantage if a team can do it well.

“When you look back, I’m sure that we all want to have balance,” he said. “It makes everything easier. In specific games at specific times, there were some tough situations and calls and the defense did a couple good things. Before you know it, you’re behind and now you’ve got to throw the last few possessions and make it even more one-sided than it already was.”

Iamtdg said:

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo: ‘I don’t care’ about critics saying I check out of too many run plays
By Jon Machota
jmachota@dallasnews.com
4:00 pm on November 7, 2013 | Permalink

IRVING – Whether the Dallas Cowboys run the ball 40 times or only nine like they did during last Sunday’s 27-23 win over Minnesota, Tony Romo says it depends solely on what it takes to win the game.

Like Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has said all week, Romo says the team wants to be balanced on offense. However, they’ve passed the ball 346 times and ran it 183 times. Only five teams have attempted fewer running plays and only Cleveland has attempted more passes.

“It’s about winning the games,” the Cowboys quarterback said Thursday. “If you’re worried about things other than that then you’re not in the right job as a player or a coach. Our football team takes that approach every week.

“Like we’ve said 50 times, everyone wants balance. We want it as well. We’re going to want to find that balance. We’re going to need it. It will help everybody and things will be easier. At the same time, you have to call a game to win.”

Romo’s increased influence in the offensive game-planning during the week and his ability to audible out of plays has some saying Romo is checking out of too many run calls.

How does Romo feel about those opinions?

“I don’t care,” he said. “We won the football game. You can say whatever you want. It doesn’t really bother me.”

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So basically what he is saying he takes what is given.

Teams also know the more he throws, the more of a chance there is for a mistake. Minnesota just happened to snare their INT with about two minutes too long left on the clock.

Teams are not selling out for the run. They are run blitzing early and realizing we have zero commitment to that side of offensive football they are armed with the knowledge that we will eventually give up.

Play caller or QB, they all think the same.

They can say they will "commit" to the run, but they are not serious about it.

There are not a variety of blocking combinations in what we do in our rushing scheme versus say what a team like SF does. There is no signature "lead draw" play like what made Emmitt Smith. We don't execute any single type of run play consistently.

I love the give up answer, which is saying we can't, so we don't.

It is because we don't believe in it and we don't practice it. It is not part of the culture. That is what commitment means.

The rest of the comments from Garrett, Callahan, Romo...all of them...are empty rhetoric.

Tony Romo: said "winning" more important than running/passing disparity, doesn't care what critics think

The shifting of the blame for the Cowboys woeful running totals have gone from offensive coordinator Bill Callahan to quarterback Tony Romo and back and forth.

The Cowboys, who are coming off a team-record low nine rushing attempts in the 27-23 victory against the Vikings last Sunday, have called 346 passes to 183 runs this season.

And with that maybe "called" is too strong of a word, considering that there is a belief that Romo has changed many running plays to pass plays at the line of scrimmage, intensifying the disparity.

Romo said he doesn't care what anyone thinks. His focus is on winning.

“I don’t care,” he said. “We won the football game. You can say whatever you want. It doesn’t really bother me. It’s about winning the games. If you’re worried about things other than that then you’re not in the right job as a player or a coach. Our football team takes that approach every week.

“Like we’ve said 50 times, everyone wants balance. We want it as well. We’re going to want to find that balance. We’re going ttero need it. It will help everybody and things will be easier. At the same time, you have to call a game to win.

Clarence Hill

I get you call a game to win. But to pretend the Vikings were stonewalling each and every run is just complete crap.

And if Romo was going off what he saw, I say he went more off what he thought was there. There is no excuse to set an all-time franchise low against that Viking defense.

Just think about that for a second. We have played the Steel Curtain defense. Ran more. 89 Bears? Ran more.

Setting negative franchise records seems to be something this team is into this year....which half way through is looking to be one of the most odd since the team's inception.

If you don't run, it saves 50% preparation time. It's beer-thirty, time for happy hour.

pdom said:

If you don't run, it saves 50% preparation time. It's beer-thirty, time for happy hour.

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Or, if you're Mike Leach, more time for pirate conventions.

I don't care what the defense is doing, the only time you should be held to 8 or 9 carries is if you are down 20 or so early.

Yeah winning is the important thing, but the point is you aren't going to win this way very often.