The “Romo Friendly” Offense – Week 4 vs Denver

Published on 12 October 2009 by Ryan Ritter in Tony Romo

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We’re half a week behind due to scheduling issues, so we’ll make this our week to catch up. I’ll cover Week 4 today and hit Week 5 later in the week. Week 3 left me scratching my head as to why Garrett wanted to get far too cute with the offense and not shove the ball down the Panthers’ collective throat via the ground game. So how did the Cowboys fare against what seemed to be a rather stout Denver defense? Let’s find out.

Just How “Romo Friendly” Were We?

Let’s just come out firing: Romo had another awful game. We’ve gone from career performance, to one of his worst, to a decent performance, and back to awful. Let the roller coaster begin. Romo went 25-42 (59.5% completion) for 255 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, and 2 fumbles (one of which was lost). This marks the second straight game in which Romo failed to throw for a TD.

Last week, the claim was “Romo Friendly” somewhat succeeded by not having the game completely depend on Romo. Well, this time we needed Romo to come through in the clutch and he couldn’t. To go even further on this point, I highly doubt “Romo Friendly” means that “Romo doesn’t need to throw a TD.” At some point, Romo is going to need to put the ball in the endzone as well.

Checking the Balance

Dallas ran 72 plays in Denver: 25 on the ground and 47 through the air (including 5 sacks). No typos there, we sent in a pass play 65.2% of the time. I understand that we were trailing and needed to pass in the end, but the final drive only accounted for 10 plays (all pass). Take away that drive and you are still left with 37 out of 62 (59.6%) plays going through the air. And before you ask, at the end of the second half, yes, Dallas had the ball and passed 4 out of 6 plays. Again, even taking those 6 out, you are left with 33 out of 56 plays going through the air — that’s 58.9% pass.

There was no balance at all this week.

Sure, the running game may have only gained 74 total yards and 3.0 yards/carry, but it was also how we scored our first (and only) TD. We also more or less abandoned the running game in the second half, as only 7, yes 7, running plays were run the entire half. It was clear Garrett felt the run wasn’t working and it was time to pass. Bad call.

As far as how Romo spread the ball around the field, this game marks the first time Jason Witten did not lead in targets. Patrick Crayton and Miles Austin led the team with 8 each. Williams followed with 7. Next was Choice with 6. And Witten falls all the way down to fifth/sixth option along with Hurd with 5 targets. Rounding out the day was Barber with 2 targets, Anderson with 1 and Bennett with 1.

Someone really, really needs to explain to me how Witten, one of, if not the favorite target of Romo didn’t see the ball coming his way more often, especially since…

Messing with the Champ?!

…we threw in Champ Bailey’s direction 13 times?! I don’t care which direction the play is meant to be called, if Champ is hanging around that area, unless he is completely burned, you just flat out don’t test your luck more than a handful of times. Just let this sink into your head a little bit further: when Romo threw, he went in Champ’s direction more than 1 out of every 4 times (27.6% to be exact). There are just no words for how dumb that is.

So the question is do I blame Romo or Garrett here? The answer is both. Garrett for not trying to mix plays up to get main receivers off of Champ and/or call more plays to Witten. Romo gets the blame for challenging Bailey that often. You have check down routes for a reason which is why I’m even more surprised that Witten didn’t have the ball come his way more often. Even more inexcusable is Romo challenging Champ on the two most crucial plays at the end of the game…with Hurd as his option to go against him.

That’s right, throw to your #4 receiver against one of the top CBs in all of football twice to try to win. Not smart.

The Verdict

It’s pretty simple: failing marks across the board.

This game was an offensive disaster. We weren’t even close to balanced or effective. Romo also looked horrendous and made awful decisions on top of poor throws (just ask Williams how his ribs are feeling when he was hung out to dry).

I’m not sure what the solution is to this thing, but it is clear that the running game needs to be getting 5-6 yards/carry for Garrett to even considering running the ball. He is clearly in love with the pass and this game absolutely takes the cake on that end.

To top it all off, Romo just looks plain lost. The only exception was the one play that even gave the Cowboys a chance Sunday and that was the long gain by Hurd. Romo went back to instincts there — I’m screaming “run for the first!” and Romo scrambles around just enough to find Hurd wide open. Not only does Romo find him, but he hits him in stride. Perhaps it may be just time to tell Romo to stop thinking so much in the pocket and trust his gut. I’d much rather have the gunslinging mentality over what I’m seeing right now.

I’m starting to get the feeling that whatever “Romo Friendly” gameplan that is being put in place is becoming the furthest thing from it. Save for torching an awful Tampa Bay team, nothing has really clicked this season like it should. If this current trend continues, I expect a very, very long season for Romo and company on the offensive side of the ball.

Thank God we play the Chiefs next week.

Dallas Pro Sports