CALCULATED RISKS
Rebel. Gunslinger. The new Brett Favre. Just a few of the things folks are calling Tony Romo during a season of jaw-dropping highs (2,848 yards, 65.4% completion rate, 27 TDs) and some spectacular lows (five picks against Buffalo on Oct. 8). Of course, if you ask the QB himself (which we did), he'll swear he's not a risk-taker. Yeah, right.
The stuff I do doesn't feel like risk to me. Bill Parcells said this game isn't for the fainthearted and that if you're going to do everything by the book you're not going to be very good. I try to do the high-percentage thing, but sometimes your instinct kicks in, and you either trust it or you don't.
Take that Tony Curtis touchdown against the Giants in Week 10. I drop back, look to TO first, then to Jason. As I'm looking at Jason, I feel the guy on the right coming around the edge pretty quick. As I start to move up, I see Jason's covered, so I come to the back, and he's still covered. So I start to tuck the ball because I sense that someone's around me. As I'm going down, I see someone's hand in the end zone out of the corner of my left eye. Instantly, what goes through my mind is, Do I see any red uniforms? I didn't, so I came up quick and shot-putted the ball over to Tony. Plays like that just feel normal when I do them. I'm a golfer. I understand that you don't play the 7% shot. You play the 93% shot. At that moment, it felt like a safe play.
Same game, I threw a pick to Gibril Wilson. In hindsight, it's easy to say that TO was triple-covered. But if I'm thinking, Don't ever let go of the ball, then I'm probably not going to throw the four touchdowns that I had that game. Sure, 81 could've been more open, but you let it go because the brain tells you he's open. It's a combination of everything: game tape, the defense they're in, the routes you're running. And, of course, the past.
Some of the mistakes I made before I'm not making anymore. A classic example is the Buffalo game in Week 5 where I threw five picks. On one of them, we had a high-low over by the sideline. That's one receiver going long, the other breaking short. I tried to eyeball the short route to throw the deep route. The corner reacted, got back to the deep ball and intercepted the pass. Well, the same thing has come up three times since then. Same exact coverage. What I've realized is that instead of eyeballing short to go deep, you eyeball deep first. If the corner sinks at all, you throw it short. If he doesn't sink, you throw it deep.
A big part of my learning process has been knowing when to check down. Against Minnesota in Week 7 this season, I probably threw the check-downs on 23 of my 28 completions in the first half because the Vikings played the same coverages the Bills did. They took away downfield. So you learn to give it to the backs and tight ends underneath. It's not as fun for people to watch, but I don't care. As long as we win the game, that's all that matters.
If something breaks down, I'll ad-lib, but I try to execute each play the same way no matter if we're 9—1 or 1—9. Whether I've been sacked 45 times or if I threw four picks in the first half. Last season, if we were winning by 10, I'd try to not turn the ball over. But then you're setting yourself up for failure.
Speaking of failure, the playoff loss at Seattle last season was tough, but I learned a long time ago that if the worst thing that happens to me is sports-related, I've lived a pretty good life. So this year, if and when we make the postseason, it won't affect how I play. Bottom line, if I see a guy who's open, I'm going to throw him the ball.