IRVING, Texas – Owner/general manager Jerry Jones knows to get the magic with Tony Romo, sometimes he has to persevere through the miscues.
Much of Jones' appearance this week on 105.3 FM "The Fan" centered on Romo's three-interception struggle in the opening loss to the 49ers, which Jones believes was more mental than physical.
"We've said this so often about Tony, to get the good, you've got to go with some of the foibles that come with the good," Jones said. "I hope that you could say that about me and other things that I do, or you. We know we've all got them, but sometimes they're the part that makes us do well, too."
There were times Romo's mechanics weren't ideal during Sunday's defeat, but it was the poor decision-making and vision of the field that stood out more to Jones than any physical issues.
"I know the actual best pass play of the day to (Dwayne) Harris, that ball was a duck," Jones said. "I didn't get a chance, I don't remember what his feet looked like or how they were set on the play, but still, I thought you could see some of that Sunday. But I don't think that was as big a thing for me as it was him just being able to see and throw it into coverage."
Jones said Romo's a perfectionist and has skills to diagnose defenses fast. Despite that ability, sometimes that can be a burden, as it was on the second-and-1 run call Romo checked out of near the San Francisco goal line.
Romo was sacked on the play. The offensive lineman looked bewildered as they run blocked and turned around to see Romo on the ground, and the Cowboys ended up settling for a field goal after getting down to the 49ers' 2-yard line. That was just one example of a few mental mistakes on Romo's part Sunday.
"The risks that are involved is that the rest of the team may not make the adjustment," Jones said. "That certainly happened on the sack. They did not make the adjustment. They did not hear it. They did not block pass protect, they blocked the run. The reality of the deal is that the odds were you could make a mistake checking out probably more so than staying with the play, even though there's somebody in the hole."
The questions after a performance like that naturally focused on Romo's rustiness after missing practice time following this offseason's back surgery. [embedded_ad]
Jones said the coaches added up Romo's missed time and counted seven days he didn't practice this preseason. But he said if there's ever been a player who could execute and play after missed practice time, it's Romo. Jones did acknowledge the other side of that argument, though.
"Stephen (Jones) was with Roger Staubach yesterday, and I saw Stephen last night, and Staubach was talking about how much missing practice hurt him one year when he was working through preseason and how it really took him some time to get back to the speed of the game," Jones said. "But Tony's biggest asset is he sees the field, sees it as well or better than anybody, and he didn't see the field good the other day, and consequently he made some of those decisions with the ball that he made because of a lack of that.
"Had he got those practices in, could he have had a little bit more time, would he have set his feet better, to basically, not just for vision, but to deliver the ball, all of those things? We don't know. But I do know this – if anybody can move past a bad time, he can."
