You’re not going to like this. And you don’t want to believe it.
But neither of those changes the fact that it’s true: Tony Romo has authored more comebacks than Roger Staubach.
Weird, but the quarterback constantly panned in these parts for being a choker is actually clutch in the, um, clutch.
While his critics were rubbing their hands together Sunday afternoon in advance of over-analyzing his fourth-quarter interception that put the Cowboys on the brink of an Apocalyptic loss to the lowly Minnesota Vikings, Romo up and engineered the 20th comeback drive of his career. That silence you hear today? Romo haters, stewing in the corner. Their favorite, lazy catcalls muted by the quarterback’s last-minute success.
Romo wasn’t great Sunday. His accuracy was fuzzy. His receivers dropped a bushel of passes. And the ill-advised pick with two minutes remaining almost cost the Cowboys another heart-breaking loss. But if you’re going to rip him when he fails, you must praise him when he’s Staubachian. Right?
Romo was perfect on Dallas’ winning drive. Nine plays. 90 yards. He completed seven of nine passes, the only two to hit the ground were a clean drop by Terrance Williams and a frantic throwaway that saved a sack and hit a referee out of bounds. His game-winning touchdown pass to Dwayne Harris was vintage No. 9, extending the play with his legs and delivering an unorthodox, off-balance strike with his arm.
“If you pull back and look at Tony Romo’s career, I know a lot of people want to talk about some of these plays or games where things didn’t work out,” said Cowboys’ head coach Jason Garrett. “But if you really look at his body of work and you look at it objectively, he’s done this kind of stuff a lot. Anybody who understands football and has followed our team understands what a fantastic player he is. That was on display again today.”
I know Romo also has 24 fourth-quarter interceptions and the images of his failures are haunting. But he has more game-winning drives than Captain Comeback.
Like it or not.
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He currently writes a sports/guy stuff blog at DFWSportatorium.com and lives in McKinney with his fiancee, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
