Underrated Romo?

By Thomas Rende

This weekend is the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference. For those of you who aren’t bursting from the seam with excitement of the new discussion topics and ideas that will be presented, I will explain to you what this conference entails. It is simply known as “dorkapalooza” in sports circles, a conference in which the brightest minds of advanced statistics come together to talk about everything sports. The topics may range from business models to the proposal of utilizing cameras to measure statistics in soccer.

AP Photo/ Brandon Wade

Several interesting topics were discussed but I found one incredibly interesting: the under appreciation of Dallas Cowboys QB, Tony Romo.

A question was asked of whom was the most overrated and underrated players in the NFL and, apparently, many of the panelists backed off from answering the question. The only one who felt equipped to answer the question was a writer from Football Outsiders, named Andy Schatz.

Schatz’s claim that Romo is the most underrated QB in the league may be very controversial for fans nationwide. That is actually Schatz’s point for why Romo is underrated. He says that heavy opinions are typically garnered from effectiveness in nationally televised games, an issue Romo has had throughout his career.

This year alone Romo played in six nationally televised games. In those five games he averaged 316 yards, on a 67.3 completion percentage with 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The raw numbers look relatively impressive but the only monstrosity of a game that he had was against the Chicago Bears (He threw five interceptions that game), which makes his number even that more impressive.

The reason he receives so much flack is the timing of his bad moments. They all seem to build at the worst moments of games and seasons and typically leaves fans with a sour feeling towards Romo. For example, he threw a backbreaking interception against the Washington Redskins late in the game. If Romo would have been able to lead the Cowboys downfield, they might have won the game and the division crown.

The reason for some last minute losses has been due to time management, missed field goals, and poor secondary play. They lost by a finger against the Giants in Week 8 when Dez Bryant wasn’t able to stay in bounds for a touchdown. The defense allowed the Redskins to jump out to an early 28-3 lead on Thanksgiving Day and Romo’s comeback came up just short.

Romo is in the last year of his deal with the Cowboys and as they continue their slashing of contracts in order to get under the cap, they better invest a few years into their QB. It’s inevitable that he will payoff for them and earn a different reputation from the public as a clutch QB, he’s done it before. You just haven’t seen it.