Cris Collinsworth said exactly what I was thinking as the Cowboys exulted after their second Tony Romo-led touchdown drive in the last six minutes beat the Giants on Sunday night in Texas. “Tony Romo’s taken a lot of heat over the years for not playing in the clutch,” Collinsworth told America on NBC. “That was pretty darn strong.”
The next test for Romo and the Cowboys comes Sunday in Philadelphia. But last Sunday, there were two plays—one on each 70-plus-yard touchdown drive—that showed the maturation of Romo, and why the Cowboys, even without Dez Bryant for probably half the season now, are such a dangerous team.
First, to Collinsworth’s point about Romo. In 2012, Romo had games with five, four, three and two interceptions, and Dallas lost them all on the way to a disappointing 8-8 season. He was a great stat quarterback, but also too careless, and he knew it. Check out how his 2012 season compares to two years and a game since, including two 2014 playoff games:
[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]Year[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]W-L[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]TD[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]INT[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]2012[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]8-8[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]28[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]19[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]2013-15[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]22-11[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]72[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]21[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The answer to his newfound productive efficiency, can be found, first, in his smart phone.
Yes, Romo’s phone. In training camp this summer, I sat with him for an hour after practice one day. Romo started the conversation—well, after riffing on Bruce Springsteen, who was playing in the background of the interview; a couple of times Romo just stopped in the conversation and sang a lyric—by showing me still photos of the throwing motions of 10 or so quarterbacks. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Blake Bortles, Ryan Tannehill, Derek Carr, Russell Wilson, Philip Rivers, Cam Newton, Joe Flacco … he studies them, analyzing the hand motion as the ball leaves the fingertips, which he feels is crucial to accuracy and a strong throw. Romo has become a technician of The Throw.
He thinks so many different things are important to quarterbacking proficiency, aside from three obvious ones: accuracy, quick but self-assured decision-making and a strong arm. It’s not just the cliché things, either, like chemistry with receivers, understanding the route progression on every throw or knowing the defensive players’ tendencies on a given route.
“One thing that used to hurt me that I’ve really worked on,” he said, “is not having reactionary throws anymore. So if things are moving too fast and you can’t see people and can’t get it to an open guy, you get the ball to the ground. Just throw at people’s feet. You see if I miss someone, a lot of times I did it on purpose just because I’m being safe with the throw because I’m under duress. Instead of forcing it, now my reactionary throw is to get rid of the ball and move on to the next play. I understand that we are explosive enough to come back on second-and-15, or second-and-10.
“I progress through a lot of people really quickly. If there is one thing that I was given a gift with, it’s spatial awareness and the ability to process information very fast. So what I have to do then, because I go through it so quickly, is to play slower. I need to get my feet back, get set, be in a stationary position and understand what I like to refer to as a balanced pocket and from there I can get through a lot of stuff with very quiet feet to minimize turnovers.”
Spatial awareness is a newfangled term common to soccer that I’ve heard a few NFL folks use—Jacksonville, for instance, stresses it with Bortles. As defenses try to hide coverages more and more, quarterbacks have to be able to pick out coverage tendencies quickly as they process the progression after the snap of the ball on a pass play. “If you understand spatial awareness,” Romo said, “you process the coverage and leverage of the defenders and you do it all in one second.
“People talk about potential for quarterbacks, and it is one of the most overrated comments. To me, when I look at a young quarterback and a GM asks me, ‘What do you think about his potential?’ I can’t answer until I see how fast he can get through progressions. And when I say that, I mean I need to see if he understands spatial awareness and his ability to go from his third to fourth to fifth even possible guy—and how fast and long that takes him when he doesn’t know the coverage. You can teach someone footwork and teach them how to throw a football but it is very difficult to teach someone how to see things quicker. That’s what separates the quarterbacks who are at the highest level.”
Romo for an instant looked to the middle but Terrance Williams wasn’t there yet—and then fired a quick eight-yard out to Cole Beasley at the left sideline. Gain of seven. Clock stopped. Three plays later, Romo hit Witten for the first of two touchdowns Dallas needed.
Next drive: Thirteen seconds left. Giants up 26-20. Third-and-two from the Giants’ 11-yard line. From the shotgun, with back Lance Dunbar to his right for protection, Romo prepared to snap. But with 16 seconds left on the play clock, he went to the line and screamed out “TACOMA!! TACOMA!!”
Then some hand motions. Fourteen seconds left.
Now we get to the fourth quarter Sunday night in Arlington. Giants 23, Cowboys 13. Two plays made all the difference for Romo. Start with the principle that there was no time to waste for Romo, needing two touchdowns (as it turned out) in the final eight minutes, and having to drive more than 70 yards twice, and knowing the Giants would have a clock-bleeding possession in the middle of Dallas’ two possessions.
On the third play of the first drive, Romo saw a jittery-looking, clue-giving right cornerback, Trumaine McBride, creeping in a couple of steps from his normal position. “As he was about to call for the snap, Romo stepped from the shotgun toward the line.
“BLACK MUSTANG!!” Romo called. Obviously a change in the protection. Now Jason Witten, flanked left, moved into the gap between the left tackle and guard at the snap, and here came McBride, steaming in on a blitz. He would have been unblocked. And then what? A sack, and more time off the clock? A forced fumble? A wasted throwaway by Romo?
“He had a lot to think about there,” Witten said Thursday from Texas. “It looked like they were going to blitz, but they were disguising it, and Tony saw it. There were five, six, seven of those kinds of plays in the last two drives Tony made, when he has a lot to think about and processes it quickly and makes a quick decision. It seemed like every decision he made there at the end was the right one.”
Then calling out “47,” noting the number of the Giants’ middle ‘backer, Uani ‘Unga. Eight seconds left.
Then more hand motions. Six seconds left.
Then a few words to Dunbar. Four seconds left.
“Get us on the line,” Witten said. “Examine the coverage, examine the protection, change the protection, then see what the middle linebacker is going to do in coverage. We were going to read 47 and how he played it, and if not me, we had Cole in the slot, and we thought that might be open too.”Then the snap. One second left.
The snap went off his left arm and fell to the ground.
In all this time, no sudden movements, no evidence of panic or wasted motion. Romo picked up the ball, looked at Witten breaking free from Robert Ayers at the line, and then looked at ‘Unga allowing Witten to stay in front of him down the field. Well, if the middle linebacker was going to let Witten stay in front of him, and no Giant was going to get in the path of the throw from quarterback to Pro Bowl tight end, well, that’s a gift Romo’s going to take. He thought he might see it, he did, and he had enough time with the protection scheme he called for it to work. Touchdown. Dallas 27, Giants 26.
On the final two Dallas drives, Romo was 11 of 12 for 148 yards and two touchdowns.
Moral of the story: Romo could have agreed with all those who said he was doomed to be a failure in the clutch, or he could have worked to make his decision-making much better all through the game, and particularly in the crucial parts of the game. On these last two drives, he made one poor throw, leading Beasley too far two snaps before the winning touchdown to Witten. The key thing was, no Giant had a chance to pick it off.
“Some might call what’s happened to Tony a great leap,” Witten said. “He was willing to put in the work to go to a place not many players can get to. He worked for greatness. It’s not easy here. There’s so much to live up to, especially at that position. Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Hall of Fame quarterbacks. But Tony had some adversity, and he worked, and now, every snap, we trust he’ll get us into position to make a great play.”
