RECAP: Babe Laufenberg's comments about Tony Romo
Recap by TEK2000 from a sports forum:
Babe was on 1310 The Ticket's BaD Radio earlier today and had some very interesting points about Romo.
Babe's thoughts paraphrased:
A lot of people want to talk about how defenses "get a book" on opposing QB's and then they can defend them much better. Ya know, you get a guy like Brad Johnson and you can get a book on him and adjust your defense to take away some things to make it difficult on him. Take away the inside routes and force him to throw it to the sideline or down the field... force him to use his arm, make the difficult throws, and don't give him the easier throws in the middle of the field. With Tony Romo, I don't buy into the point that a lot of people make about how teams got film on him. The thing about Tony is that there isn't a throw that he can't make. He can throw the out routes, he can throw the deep routes, he can throw the over the middle throws. He's an accurate passer and its not like you can just take away certain routes and force him to throw a route because he can throw all of them pretty good.
People also go on about how Tony struggled for the last 5 games of the season. Well, he had a couple of bad games but he won the Atlanta game.. and look closer at the Detroit game. Tony throws for over 300, completes 70+% of his passes. The problem he had with that game is the fumbles. If you've got a QB that throws for 70% completion percentage, you can coach him and correct him on the fumbles and win that type of game in the future.
What I think happened at the end of the season was that Tony got too caught up in making the big play. He had a lot of success with it early on and too often later on he was looking for the 20 or 30 yard pass and neglecting the 6 or 8 yard pass. You go through your progression 1,2,3 and when you've had success throwing to 3 that's 30 yards down field, you tend to start thinking "well if I move here or look over here or slide over I can get it to him". Its probably a subconcious thing and too often he'd overlook the TE with the 6 yard route and try to hit the guy that's 20 yards downfield.
All of that is stuff that he will improve on.
My thoughts:
One thing I noticed during the preseason that Tony did quite a bit differently that he did last season. When he made the decision to scramble out of the pocket... HE TUCKED THE BALL CLOSE TO HIS BODY. Last season, he'd hold the ball on the laces ready to throw it as he's scrambling and it was easy for defenders to knock the ball loose. During the preseason, I saw a few occassions where Romo immediately tucked the ball as the pocket broke down and he made the decision to scramble.
Also, I'm sure we all noticed that Tony spent much of the preseason taking the checkdown throws. There were a few times that he went for the deep route but for the most part, he was taking what the defense gave him and dumping it off to the TE or RB or short route reciever. Although, there were a few times where I wish he'd been more aggressive... it was just the preseason and maybe he was instructed to work on the underneath throws and going through his progression.
Babe was on 1310 The Ticket's BaD Radio earlier today and had some very interesting points about Romo.
Babe's thoughts paraphrased:
A lot of people want to talk about how defenses "get a book" on opposing QB's and then they can defend them much better. Ya know, you get a guy like Brad Johnson and you can get a book on him and adjust your defense to take away some things to make it difficult on him. Take away the inside routes and force him to throw it to the sideline or down the field... force him to use his arm, make the difficult throws, and don't give him the easier throws in the middle of the field. With Tony Romo, I don't buy into the point that a lot of people make about how teams got film on him. The thing about Tony is that there isn't a throw that he can't make. He can throw the out routes, he can throw the deep routes, he can throw the over the middle throws. He's an accurate passer and its not like you can just take away certain routes and force him to throw a route because he can throw all of them pretty good.
People also go on about how Tony struggled for the last 5 games of the season. Well, he had a couple of bad games but he won the Atlanta game.. and look closer at the Detroit game. Tony throws for over 300, completes 70+% of his passes. The problem he had with that game is the fumbles. If you've got a QB that throws for 70% completion percentage, you can coach him and correct him on the fumbles and win that type of game in the future.
What I think happened at the end of the season was that Tony got too caught up in making the big play. He had a lot of success with it early on and too often later on he was looking for the 20 or 30 yard pass and neglecting the 6 or 8 yard pass. You go through your progression 1,2,3 and when you've had success throwing to 3 that's 30 yards down field, you tend to start thinking "well if I move here or look over here or slide over I can get it to him". Its probably a subconcious thing and too often he'd overlook the TE with the 6 yard route and try to hit the guy that's 20 yards downfield.
All of that is stuff that he will improve on.
My thoughts:
One thing I noticed during the preseason that Tony did quite a bit differently that he did last season. When he made the decision to scramble out of the pocket... HE TUCKED THE BALL CLOSE TO HIS BODY. Last season, he'd hold the ball on the laces ready to throw it as he's scrambling and it was easy for defenders to knock the ball loose. During the preseason, I saw a few occassions where Romo immediately tucked the ball as the pocket broke down and he made the decision to scramble.
Also, I'm sure we all noticed that Tony spent much of the preseason taking the checkdown throws. There were a few times that he went for the deep route but for the most part, he was taking what the defense gave him and dumping it off to the TE or RB or short route reciever. Although, there were a few times where I wish he'd been more aggressive... it was just the preseason and maybe he was instructed to work on the underneath throws and going through his progression.
posted by The Gryphon at 9:42 AM
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