So apparently Brandon Jacobs (or BJ as I like to call him when he starts running his mouth, hey it fits) has decided to grace us with his opinions yet again, and this time he’s going right after Tony Romo.
“I don’t think he’s that good a passer, to be honest with you.” – Straight from the horses mouth.
I read about this over on the Dallas Morning News blog while I was at work tonight, and as I scrolled down the page reading the comments to that post seeing so many opinions on who we’d rather have between Romo and Eli Manning, it got me to thinking, who’s really got more bragging rights?
Okay so Manning has a Super Bowl ring, but did he beat the Patriots all by himself or was it a team effort in which he merely avoided screwing up too badly to recover from?
So let’s take a look at the two over the last three seasons. Though I do want to mention that if you take each of their careers, though the same length Manning played a lot his first two while Romo didn’t, Romo has a better completion percentage, average yards per completion, and rating – just saying.
[table id=2 /]
I know there are those of you who feel that stats are worthless, or at least worthless alone. Sure Manning has won in the post season; some of you same folks also act like post season success is all that matters. Yeah it’s the one thing Manning has that Romo doesn’t – but Manning was on a team that was clicking all year long.
But what if we had caught the luck that Tyree had on that Hail Mary, then the Giants would have lost in their first round. The cards fell the other way though. Does that mean Manning is better than Romo? Hell no!
Those stats show one thing – Romo is consistently better than Manning by recorded stats in every column. And keep in mind that these stats have Romo on three less games than Manning. That may make it easier to win some of the percentages, but not when Romo also beats Manning on the yards, sacks, touchdowns, interceptions, etc. etc.
So yeah, Jacobs can say all he wants about Romo not being that great of a passer, because if it’s true then it just means his QB sucks even worse!
I happen to agree with him on that point though. Romo has a good arm and a quick release, but in the pocket is not where he is most effective. Usually his pocket is collapsing around him and not many quarterbacks in history have been able to consistently deliver in a failing pocket. Romo makes plays.
All I can think is of when I was a teenager and played football – it was always a lot damn harder to throw accurately and downfield on the run than it was setting up in the pocket.
The beauty of this situation, is it is clear Brandon Jacobs and company underestimate the Cowboy’s and the step’s they took to improve over the offseason. And, should the Cowboy’s beat Tampa in the first week, I don’t think that will change, meaning that when the Cowboy’s open up Cowboy’s Stadium for the first time against the Giant’s, it could be a game to remember…and one BJ will likely want to forget.
And something I forgot to mention about those stats – Romo was injured for three of those games, all in 2008 – but how many games was he technically active for but did not take a single snap in 2006?
@Jonathan – It will be funny to watch that game. Even if we lose, at some point we’ll be ahead and it’ll drive them Giants fans crazy. Sad for me is that I work with almost nothing but Giants fans – only one Cowboys fan.