McNabb Should Pull a Page Out of Romos Book

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Loyal reader Sean Johnson had a bright idea at a bar the other night and as many brilliant bar minds do, he emailed his thoughts to The700Level.com. Here is Sean's conspiracy theory.

I’m not going to mince words – that title was tough to
write. My soul hurts a little bit. But the fact of the matter is that I am
certain Tony Romo displayed some impressive “strategery” on Sunday night against
the Giants, which led in large part to a W. This is not something that I
recognized after it happened; in fact, I texted my buddy, a Giant’s fan, about what
I thought was happening while it
happened.
The series of events that followed only confirmed my theory.

For those of you who watched the game, you know that the
first quarter ended in a scoreless tie. At the beginning of the second quarter,
the Giants drive stalled and the Cowboys began their fourth drive of the game
(at the 13:26 mark). On the very first play of that drive, Tony Romo was sacked
by Kiwanuka and appeared to be badly injured, wobbling as he got up and wincing
in pain. For many people, this was probably written off as a powerful hit by
the Giants beastly defensive end, but, at second glance, I found myself saying
“Ok, Romo might be fragile but there’s no way that he should be in that much pain.” Then it dawned on me.

The crazy and awesome thing about division games is that the
teams know each other so well and it often times makes for an even matchup, no
matter what the disparity is in talent. Throw the records and statistics out
the door because when it comes to these types of matchups, nothing matters but
that game, whether it’s the first game of the season or week 17 with playoff implications.
This is especially true for the NFC East, but that’s a whole different column.

That being said, Romo knows that the Giants recent dominance
in the division is in large part due to their defense. This is the type of team
that looks for a weakness and does a great job of exploiting those weaknesses by
executing their game plan. My theory is that Romo was hyperaware of this, and
even before the game had started had determined a type of trick play that went
unnoticed by everyone, particularly the Giants defensive squad. When Kiwanuka
took him down, Romo saw his opportunity to embellish the hit and present
himself as being visibly vulnerable. Did the hit hurt? Probably. But every
quarterback in the league takes several hits of that magnitude each game. But
you see, Tony Romo wanted to portray to the Giants that there was blood in the
water, and the Giants took the bait. Which is why they blitzed mercilessly on
the next few plays, hoping to get another hit on the QB and either knock him
out of the game or limit his effectiveness to Brad Johnson-esque levels. There’s
no coincidence that the next three plays were pass plays. They went like this:

- Romo shotgun pass short right to Tashard Choice for 22
yards. (NYG 40)

- Romo pass short left to Terrell Owens for 6 yards (NYG
34)

- Romo shotgun pass deep right to Patrick Crayton for 34
yards – Touchdown.

Tony Romo knew the pressure would be coming, and he was
right. He was prepared to get rid of the ball quickly on the first two plays.
Not to mention that he looked like he was in total control and that, if
anything, the Kiwanuka hit had somehow improved his performance. He went from
limping and grimacing to rifling off passes in the span of four plays.

Now, this is not something that can be pulled off very often,
maybe a couple times in a season. The Cowboys needed to win this game, and they
pulled out all the stops. Whether or not Romo had discussed this strategy with
anyone prior to the game (perhaps over some tea with TO and Witten) I do not know; however, I am certain
that it was done intentionally. I have no evidence, and no way of proving that
I am correct. But I encourage everyone to take a look at the game’s highlights
and to check out this sequence in particular, because I’m willing to bet that
you’ll at least acknowledge that this scenario is a possibility.

Even in the event that I am wrong, this seemingly small,
deceptive behavior really could result in a big payoff. Consider facing a
defense as aggressive as the Steelers, Ravens, or Giants in the playoffs. Don’t
you think that they might go for the kill if they had any inkling that all was
not right with the passer? If you could get all the players on the same page
prior to the game to participate in this stealth mode sleuthing, I honestly
think that there would at least be a chance to rip off a couple chunks of
yardage. Maybe even to the point where the QB speaks to the backup QB on the
sideline in what looks like a situation where he is saying “Get ready to go
in,” when in fact he’s really saying “I don’t care what anybody says, I really
do like that show Gossip Girl.” Or course, nothing is guaranteed in the NFL,
but innovation can be the key to success, and this could be as innovative as
the Wildcat formation that we are used to seeing utilized by several teams each
week.

If I ever get to meet Tony Romo, I will forego all the
questions about the love triangle between him, Jessica Simpson, and Carrie
Underwood. I’ll restrain myself from asking how TO went from backing him up and
crying on his behalf at post-game conferences to throwing him and Witten under the bus.
Instead, I will do you reader the justice of asking him whether or not I am
accurate in this assessment, and if he’d be willing to teach this valuable
skill to our fearless leader Donovan McNabb. Because, let’s face it, if anybody
could successfully convince the opposing team that he’s injured, it’s # 5.

Thanks to Sean for sending this along.

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