Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has a reputation of choking in the fourth quarter and throwing ill-timed interceptions, but Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly disagrees with that assessment.
According to Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News, Kelly said Romo has been a premier NFL gunslinger for a long time.
“Tony has been an elite quarterback for a long time. He’s as good as anybody playing right now. I’ve always been a big fan of Tony and just how he plays the game at quarterback.”
Kelly continued, praising Romo’s ability to read defenses, call the proper protection and audible, then execute.
“He has an unbelievable understanding of what they’re doing. He gets them always into the right play, always in the right protection and he can make all the throws. He’s playing as good as any quarterback in the National Football League.”
But Romo stinks! Oh, how wrong that sentiment is and has been.
Romo is one of the NFL’s most clutch quarterbacks. Sunday night’s comeback victory over the New York Giants provided even more evidence to that fact. According to ProFootballReference.com, Romo has engineered 19 game-winning drives since 2011, which is the most of any quarterback during that span.
Plus, now the Romo actually has a decent offensive line protecting him—and Dallas has a tremendous one—completed a career-best 69.9 percent of his passes, threw 34 touchdowns and tossed only nine interceptions. Romo’s 113.2 quarterback rating led the league.
Remember when he escaped two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt? No? Well it happened, and it was awesome.
The Eagles have slowed Romo before, and the Cowboys will be without star receiver Dez Bryant on Sunday, so Philadelphia has a chance to earn an important early-season NFC East victory.
However, even without Bryant, a quarterback with the pre-snap brilliance Romo has consistently displayed combined with an outstanding offensive line gives Dallas a perfectly realistic chance to cage the Eagles.