What’s Up With Romo?

Tony Romo, who is on pace to duplicate the statistics he put up last year and is usually a Jedi on the field, has look rather pedestrian the last few weeks. He has flat out missed several wide open receivers, turned the ball over and made questionable decisions. He had solid performances against the Browns and the Eagles but had an uneven performance against Green Bay, Washington and Cincinnati. That’s going to happen to a QB over the course of his career, no question about it. That’s happened to every Hall of Fame QB. However, the thing I’m a bit unnerved at is Romo’s body language. There were several times on Sunday after a bad play, turnover or 3 and out where the camera caught Romo walking off the field with his head down or over on the bench looking like he just sank the Titanic himself. That’s not what I want to see from him. I want him to keep his head up, jog off the field (not walk) and exude the leadership that has been placed upon him. Things are not going to go well all the time and the team is going to follow their leader’s example.

I also remember though that Romo didn’t really look like his normal “happy-go-lucky” self when Dallas was cruising and up by 17 points. He looked like he wasn’t enjoying the game and that there was something else on his mind. Last year, it seemed he was smiling from ear to ear almost every game and not just when things were going well either. I remember last year, after he had thrown an interception or fumbled or something else had gone wrong, he seemed to have a “kid-like” goofy grin on his face and exuded this “we just screwed up but we’re gonna come out and score a touchdown on the next series” attitude. But the past few games, and especially on Sunday, he looked like he had just found out his dog had just died.

Maybe there is nothing to this. Maybe I’m totally reading into Romo and there’s nothing going on out of the ordinary. Maybe Romo is trying to level himself off and be more even keeled. I hope so. I mean, on Sunday, Romo was 14 of 23 for 176 yards and ended the day with a 106.2 rating, which is great. Those are solid stats which you can’t argue with. I’m a fan of Romo but one reason is that he has this fun-loving care free attitude which seems to have disappeared. In the end, I just want Dallas to win and if Romo can make that happen, smiling or not, then the rest is just details.