Giant leap: On Romo, T.O., Automatica and the hype

By Os Davis  |   Monday, December 04, 2006  |  Comments( 5 )

Dallas Cowboys
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You know why sportswriters and sportscasters hype up the games so much? Because it's so much fun.

Check out The Tony Romo Show over there in Dallas Cowboys land. Going into the Fox telecast, the Romo story was a no-brainer as the main plotline for Fox's national telecast. Meanwhile, the New York Giants donned a red indicative of the team's general bloody mindedness; the talented Giants' story was all about their own implosion. And as bonus, we got a bit about Martin Gramatica as a resolution to the ballad of headcase Mike Vanderjagt. Plus, there's always T.O.

What's great about hype? Romo fulfilling all the praise that's been showering him for weeks now in NFL land. After being swamped in accolades that have the former benchwarmer drawing comparisons to Tom Brady, Romo went out and did his best Brady impression in the fourth.

Romo started things off with an unbelievable six-plus-minute drive in the fourth that had the 'Pokes converting three third-down opportunities, connecting with four different receivers and shooting for two others. Thanks to the hype, we can appreciate just how much cooler this Cowboys team looks under pressure; also thankful for the positive blitz of hype's way is the offensive line which has not improved tremendously since Drew Bledsoe's turf-eating days of September, but is more and more ignored as Romo runs like Forrest Gump and wins keep piling up.

After one determined Tiki Barber brought the Giants back to knot things at 20, Romo was able to use Terrell Owens as a decoy - a purpose which the monogrammed one has been somehow brilliant at this season, despite seeming mannerisms mentioned below - on streaks to ultimately easily connect with Jason Witten to set up the win.

(Romo's statline for the fourth quarter: A Brady-esque 6 of 8 for 91 yards, zero TDs, zero interceptions. What a story!)

And that win was finalized by not-so-Automatica Gramatica, an interesting story all the better to watch Big Brother-style throughout the fourth quarter. This season, Gramatica traveled the Vanderjagt/ Vinatieri triangle, a dangerous region of NFL rosters affected by game-changing kickers.

After being tested by the New England Patriots as a possible replacement to Adam Vinatieri, Gramatica was eschewed in camp for rookie Stephen Gostkowski. After occupying the non-space of uncontracted free-agent limbo, Gramatica took up residence on the Indianapolis Colts' roster after Vinatieri went down early in the season. Gramatica was 1 of 1 on field goal attempts for the blue-and-white and was released when the veteran returned.

After tiring of Vanderjagt's little eccentricities such as refusing to perform as the kickoff man, missing important field goals, and just generally acting the loon, Bill Parcells ditched ol' Shankenstein for Gramatica.

The fun in this story came to a head on the very first Cowboy drive when Gramatica, in a moment foreshadowed by those hype-driven production team members, muffed a 44-yarder. Who else laughed? Come on.

Yet, Gramatica was vindicated with the final-second game winner. Now who here doubts Vanderjagt would have missed it? Or that Parcells, with Vanderjagt on the sideline, would have risked the interception rather than the field goal attempt? What a story, eh? What a story!

And T.O. Thanks to Fox network (a common synonym for "hype" in and of itself) direction, viewers once again got lots and lots of T.O. Those paying attention learned two valuable things: Firstly, that Owens leads the league in dropped passes (after his distracted efforts in New York, he's now up to 14) and secondly, that he often indicates if the play is called for him.

The videotape or TiVoed version is worth another look. On the first drive of the game, Romo finds Terry Glenn and Patrick Crayton, mixes in a couple of run plays. With about four minutes gone, Owens lines up on the left side. As he does so, he's looking around everywhere, checking the coverage - and you know the ball is coming to him. But T.O. is such a bad dude, he runs the route perfectly gets the ball and does what he does better than anyone: drops the pass. On the next play, Owens telegraphs it again; again it's to him in the end zone but too long.

Check out Owens "going to work" in the second quarter. With about seven minutes, 30 seconds on the clock, Owens again lines up on the far side, but this time he stands shock-still, waiting for the snap count motionlessly and knowing he was called upon to run a decoy streak. Poor Sam Madison, who was tortured by Owens on most of the WR's eight catches, picked up on T.O.'s non-involvement and eased up on the coverage. Sure enough, Romo had called a short in route for FB Oliver Hoyte.

Unfortunately, the hype was not put to good use here, as Fox's guys probably could have pointed out that Owens has the worst poker face this side of the guy who asks "What beats a flush?" What a story, if only they'd pay attention.

The moral of these stories? The Cowboys are a serious threat to be playing deep into January. Gramatica can still play. And yes, while Romo may be human - Tony's statline reads as 20 of 34 for 257 yards with two interceptions against a team which seems to have his number, relatively - he is, in general, worth the ado.

For those of you that are particularly hype-intolerant, please turn away from Dallas' corner of the football world for the remainder of the regular season. Now in the driver's seat in the NFC East and the No. 2 seed in the conference, the media frenzy surrounding this Cowboys team packed with storylines is only going to get wilder. What a story...

All the Dallas Cowboys ' tales of woe and glory at RealFootball365.com.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 5  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Ed		02:23 PM
12/04/2006
If you think the Tony Romo show is crazy in Dallas, can you even imagine what kind of party Cleveland will throw if Derek...
No.2
mpayne		03:13 PM
12/04/2006
Hey, for those who critcize T.O. for dropping passes this year, realize that he has a steel plate in his right hand to help heal...
No.3
bruce		04:03 PM
12/04/2006
i tell you one thing,even though to has dropped a record number of passes this year,i am thankful he is on our team and we dont...
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