In the sometimes-bizarre world that is Dallas Cowboys owner’s Jerry Jones’ mind, there is no telling what his train of thought is this week in not only including quarterback Tony Romo on the team charter to London for the last overseas NFL game this season, but in giving his stamp of approval to apparent plans to start him against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A lasting image from Dallas’ overtime win over Washington in the Monday Night game on October 27th was Romo bent forwards on a sack and staying on the ground. Having undergone back surgery in the offseason, red flags surely had to have gone up on the Dallas sideline as Romo lay prone on the ground while Dallas medical staff attended to him.
Romo was thankfully able to leave the field on his own two legs and immediately went to the locker room to be looked at. As the game played on and Brandon Weeden took snaps under center for Dallas, viewers witnessed a remarkable scene unfolding off the field as Romo was clearly lobbying anyone who would listen (including, one would assume, trained medical personnel) that he was ok to come back into the game.
As has become common during big moments in Dallas games, there was an extra person on the sidelines during Romo’s absence – Jones left the cozy confines of his owners’ box and was field-side in short time. His looking over the shoulder of head coaches during his tenure as Dallas’ owner has always been a talking point for analysts, and this was no different. If playcalling and lineup choices were impacted by his mere presence close to Jason Garrett and other coaches before him, there is no great leap of logic required to presume that Jones, who has always been loyal to Romo, was by his mere presence silently lobbying for his chosen quarterback’s return to the game as well.
Romo did return to the game for Dallas’ final drive of the game in regulation before Washington finally won in overtime. The very first play after his return was almost disastrous, as he was sacked and fumbled the ball right on his own 5-yard line, but DeMarco Murray was able to recover the ball after whiffing on the blitz pickup.
Playing it safe, Romo was inactive the very next week, as Dallas dropped their 2nd in a row at home against Arizona. As preparations began for the trip to London, doubts still remained about his status for the game, but it was becoming more and more apparent that he did not make the trip for sightseeing purposes. For starters, there were Jones’ comments to local sports-talk radio:
“This is a function of pain tolerance,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan, adding there was “nothing medically that would prevent him from playing” after Romo took a knee to the back and needed a painkilling injection to return in an overtime loss to the Washington Redskins two days earlier.
Of all the owners in the entire league, there is none that is more media-savvy when it comes to exerting his influence than Jerry Jones, and Garrett toed the company line when he said the following during the traditional Monday coaches press conference earlier this week:
“I don’t think there is any external pressure than is greater than the players put on themselves to play. If you have the right kind of guys on your team, they want to do everything to play, and they are doing everything they can to play. Tony’s a tough guy. He’s physically tough, he’s mentally tough, and typically, quarterbacks are that. There are great stories of guys coming back and playing through things, and Tony has his own.”
Sure enough, Jones touched on Romo’s status again during his press conference on the Thursday before the game:
Romo may in fact be cleared to play, but having already gone through a back procedure in the offseason and now having picked up two fractures in his transverse process, it is the opinion of this writer that it is appropriate to second-guess Jones, Garrett, and the rest of the Cowboys’ coaching staff on this matter. Besides the potential for aggravation of the injury, there is also the added stress on the body of transatlantic travel. The Cowboys will go from their flight to London earlier this week to a game on Sunday, and then the same flight back to Dallas. They do have the benefit of a bye week coming up in week 11, but that seems to only drive home the argument that this week seems as good a time as ever to give Romo some extended rest.
Even if all official statements from the team are to be believed, and the injury was not as serious, the inherent risks seem magnified by the demands of the schedule. On top of all that, Jacksonville, though struggling at 1-8, is not a defensive unit to be trifled with. This is a defense that ranks 5th in the entire league in tackles for a loss and tied for 3rd in sacks. Translation? They have a defensive line that likes to penetrate and get to the opposing team’s quarterback. In Sen’Derrick Marks and Geno Hayes, they have two defensive players who rank among the top 10 in the league in stuffing run plays, which may affect Murray’s ability to keep the pressure off the pocket.
Dallas does have one of the best offensive lines in the league, with Murray’s superb 2014 so far the primary indicator of that. This makes what should otherwise have been a fairly straightforward win for Dallas on Sunday an interesting matchup to watch at the line of scrimmage when Dallas is on offense. Ultimately, Jacksonville has a poor secondary, and Dallas should have no problem moving the ball against them – which begs the question of whether or not it would have been wiser for their long-term prospects this season to have left Romo at home and let Weeden have the start.
Of course, only time will tell. However, in a time when many concerns have been raised about player safety to the point where the league has taken steps to legislate safer play with stricter interpretations of contact penalties, it is hard to erase the images of a big-name player openly lobbying to return to a game and team officials appealing to the macho aspect of the sport, where the subtle message about that particular player’s “toughness” is fairly clear.
(Featured image: AP Photo/Roger Steinman)