Ventre: Sorry, Jerry, but Romo doesn't look Super

Cowboys QB makes too many mistakes, and rest of NFC looks too tough

Julio Cortez / AP

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is an above-average quarterback, but he won't lead the Cowboys to a Super Bowl, NBCSports.com contributor Michael Ventre writes.

OPINION

updated 8:17 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2011

Michael Ventre

The wisecrack most often applied in these situations is the old saw, ?Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?? But that?s just one of many. There?s ?General Custer?s highly successful military exercises were spoiled by the arrival of thousands of Indians,? or ?The Titanic turned out to be as good as advertised, other than the sinking part,? or ?When you think about it, ?Gigli? was well-received, until it was released in theaters.?

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones added to this dubious canon the other day when he raved about the performance of his quarterback, Tony Romo, who committed two gargantuan gaffes in the fourth quarter that resulted in his team losing to the New York Jets, 27-24, Sunday night.

Said Jones: ?This may draw a little criticism, but I thought Tony played one of the best games I?ve ever seen him play.?

You have to give it to old Jer. He?s no dummy. He?s trying to pump up his guy, because he has a lot of dough invested in him. But that task is going to become more and more difficult, partly because Romo is who he is, and because he isn?t Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Mike Vick or a few other NFC signal-callers who might stand in the Cowboys? path.

Despite playing well for almost three and a half quarters and putting up bright numbers, Romo lost a fumble at the Jets? two-yard line, and he threw a ghastly pick that resulted in the game-winning field goal. But Romo has that reputation. Most notably there was the infamous botched hold of a field-goal attempt in the playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks after the 2006 season, which has seemed to both haunt him and define him.

Romo, who will lead the Cowboys into San Francisco on Sunday for a date with the 49ers, is a fine quarterback. An above-average quarterback. And he is surely taking more of a beating than someone who plays the position for a lower-profile franchise. When the quarterback of America?s Team trips on the sidewalk, a fleet of camera crews shows up to film his fall.

Romo is also 1-4 in playoff games, and Dallas has lost seven of the past eight games he?s started.

But this isn?t just about Romo being Romo. It?s also about the competition.

To explore the issue of whether Romo has the stuff to lead the Cowboys to a Super Bowl victory, consider the other contenders. Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and Brees and the New Orleans Saints ? the two past Super Bowl winners ? seem to be set as the class of the NFC for some time. Anything can happen, of course, especially injuries. Yet in handicapping the NFC field, give them the most serious consideration.

There are others as well. Vick, if he doesn?t get hammered into a lengthy absence as many expect, has enough talent around him to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the pinnacle ? not just this season, but possibly for many more to come. And there are Atlanta?s Matt Ryan, Chicago?s Jay Cutler, Tampa Bay?s Josh Freeman, St Louis? Sam Bradford and Detroit?s Matthew Stafford, who all have at least equal and probably better grasps on what it takes to win big games than Romo.

And that?s not even counting players who figure to blossom in coming years, including Arizona?s Kevin Kolb and Carolina?s Cam Newton, or somebody such as Eli Manning, whose team has slipped but who already has shown he can win a Super Bowl. Heck, Rex Grossman and the Washington Redskins might even be decent.

So why would anyone believe Romo is destined to win a title someday? Because Jerry Jones has unwavering faith in him?

That's not nearly enough.

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