The Cowboys are standing up for Tony Romo.
Several members of the team used Monday's chats with the media as a platform to express confidence in Tony Romo after he handed Sunday night's game to the Jets on a silver platter. In the Old West, they'd call it circling the wagons. We don't really have an updated version of the phrase, but it was pretty much the same thing.
Keith Brooking: "I'll take that guy over anybody in the league. Y'all might thing I'm crazy, but he's going to have an all-time year. He's going to shatter every record."
Dez Bryant: "I know the guys in this locker room wouldn't trade him for nothing. He's the best. He's the real deal. He is the real deal."
Jason Witten: "It was a disappointing couple of plays, but that doesn't define who he is. We know what type of player he is, so we'll get back on track. We have all the confidence in the world in him."
You'd expect nothing less from the locker room. Teammates should stick up for one another, especially when they feel like the whole world has sharp knives directed at a guy who holds a good bit of your future in his hands. But even people outside of the team are standing up for Romo.
Marshall Faulk said that it was the best Romo had ever played and that everyone should remember that he was only in position to blow the game because of how much he'd done to put the Cowboys in the lead. He also pointed out the raft of other errors that led to the loss and urged the Cowboys to do exactly what they're doing in terms of supporting the quarterback.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
In the end, everything that Faulk and the Cowboys are saying makes sense. Focus on the three quarters that saw Romo shred Rex Ryan's defense within an inch of its life while writing off the fourth quarter as a freakish turn of events that won't happen again. That's all well and good other than the fact that it is exactly the same thing that keeps on happening to Romo.
There's no doubting Romo's skills. He's accurate and athletic with a strong arm and a strong command of the offense. But he is also prone to the kind of self-inflicted wounds normally associated with Plaxico Burress and he hasn't found a way to eliminate them from his game. The Jets game wasn't an anomaly, then, but more of the same.
That doesn't mean the Cowboys shouldn't be confident and supportive of Romo. They should be and have to be if they are going to be successful this season. All the support in the world isn't going to rewrite history, though. Romo is what Romo is, whether it be good, bad or ugly.
Stay on top of the latest Dallas Cowboys news with NBCDFW.com. Follow NBC DFW Sports on Facebook, Blue Star Blog on Twitter @BlueStarBlog, or have breaking Cowboys news sent directly to your phone with Blue Star SMS alerts. Text "bluestar" to 622339 (NBCDFW) to subscribe to this free service. Read more about it here.
