Tony Romo led the Cowboys to their first playoff appearance since 2009 with a 12-4 record during the regular season. After defeating the Lions led by Stafford, the Cowboys lost to the Packers in the NFC Divisional round with the controversial “catch-not-catch” call on Dez Bryant. During the 2014 season Romo was the most efficient with the football in his entire career due to an outstanding wide receiver corp featuring Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams along with an offensive line that was the best in football. In this breakdown, we will go over some of Romo’s top touchdowns from the 2014 season while making observations about the rest of his 38 touchdowns during the regular season and postseason play.

Stats

Regular Season – 304/435 (69.9%), 3,705 yards, 8.5 y/a, 34 TDs, 9 INTs

Postseason – 34/50 (68.0%), 484 yards, 9.7 y/a, 4 TDs, 0 INTs

First let’s take a look at the recipients of Romo’s 38 thrown touchdowns during the 2014 season:

Receiver Breakdown

Dez Bryant 15 Terrance Williams 10 Jason Witten 4 Cole Beasley 4 Gavin Escobar 4 Tyler Clutts 1

As you can see, Bryant was the main target of Romo’s passes who consistently beat his defenders. Due to his performance these past couple of seasons he recently received a new 5 yr $70 million contract with $45 million guaranteed. Terrance Williams played hot-and-cold throughout the season only collecting 751 yards, but catching ten of Romo’s touchdowns. Here is a breakdown of his passes by quarter and down:

Quarter Breakdown

1st Quarter 10 2nd Quarter 12 3rd Quarter 9 4th Quarter 7

Down Breakdown

1st Down 10 2nd Down 15 3rd Down 13 4th Down 0

While here is a breakdown of Romo’s passes by distance and location:

Distance Breakdown

Fewer than 6 Yards 10 Between 6 and 15 yards 8 More than 15 yards 20

Location Breakdown

Deep Left Deep Middle Deep Right 3 6 6 Intermediate Left Intermediate Middle Intermediate Right 2 1 0 Short Left Short Middle Short Right 5 9 6

Finally, here is a route breakdown on the touchdown passes.

Route Breakdown

Vertical – Go/Fade/Backshoulder 11 Slant/Drag/Drive 8 Hitch 4 Seam 3 Post 3 Screen 3 Dig/In 2 Zig 1 Spot 1 Flat 1

Notice the large number of vertical passes that went for touchdowns. There were multiple games where Romo fired back-to-back touchdowns using the samne play (backshoulder fade, mostly) in order to score.

Let’s take a look at some of Romo’s key touchdowns throughout the season:

Play 1

Situation: 2nd and 4 at HOU 43

Description: Q3 – (6:18) (Shotgun) T.Romo pass deep middle to T.Williams for 43 yards, TOUCHDOWN [D.Manning]. Romo avoids a sack by Watt and rolls right prior to the pass. D.Bailey extra point is GOOD, Center-L.Ladouceur, Holder-C.Jones.

Opponent: 5. HOU

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Right Far

Offensive Personnel: 11

Defensive Formation: Cover 2 – 4 Underneath Zones

Immediately after the snap LT77 Smith gets beaten off of the line of scrimmage by DE99 Watt on a speed rush around the left edge. Romo sees this and does an excellent job of spinning away from the sack moving back to the left side of the pocket. WR88 Bryant on a go-route actually beats his man cleanly off of the snap, but due to Watt’s disruption Romo can’t get to him in time. Romo realizes this and moves on to his next read, WR83 Williams over the middle of the field on his deep post route hitting him deep for the touchdown strike. Romo actually gets hit to the ground right after he releases the ball on a delayed blitz by the slot defender. Additionally, due to the middle of the field being vacant the slot receiver is actually open as well on his slant/drive route across the field.

This play happened for two main reasons: First, Romo for having the elusiveness to avoid the sack, resetting his feet, and finding an alternate receiver. Second, just how badly the Texans defense got burned leaving the entire middle of the field open as FS21 Lewis gets pulled to the right side to cover the outside and not having the recovery to stay with Williams.

Situation: 3rd and 3 at SEA 3Description: Q2 – (:24) (Shotgun) T.Romo pass short middle to J.Witten for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN. D.Bailey extra point is GOOD, Center-L.Ladouceur, Holder-C.Jones.Opponent: 6. SEA

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Trips Bunch Right

Offensive Personnel: 12

Defensive Formation: Goalline Cover 3

In this play, the offensive line protection is incredible and the Seahawks actually do a great job of locking down all the receivers on the play, but can’t get any pressure on Romo by bringing four pass rushers. Once Romo starts shifting left, WR11 Beasley gets open on the right side of the formation, but since Romo is on the left side of the pocket he doesn’t see him. Romo then starts directing traffic telling TE82 Witten to move further left tricking LB52 Coyle who thinks he is going to follow Romo’s direction. Witten jumps back inside and is open for the short touchdown toss after his spot route. Simply put, you can’t give an NFL quarterback all day to throw even against an elite defensive secondary.

Situation: 1st and 10 at NYG 26Description: Q3 – (6:22) T.Romo pass deep middle to G.Escobar for 26 yards, TOUCHDOWN. Pass complete on a “seam” route.D.Bailey extra point is GOOD, Center-L.Ladouceur, Holder-C.Jones.Opponent: 7. NYG

Offensive Formation: Singleback Big 3TE

Offensive Personnel: 13

Defensive Formation: Cover 1

This is a two man concept against Cover 1 defense. The goal of this play is to separate the linebacker zones from the deep coverage down the field giving Romo a matchup advantage with his athletically superior tight end Escobar on one side of the field and WR88 Bryant on the opposite side. The Cowboys due this by lining up with three tight ends on the line of scrimmage faking an obvious running down by using play-action to pull the linebackers inside then have a go and seam routes on the opposite side of the field.

Bryant actually is covered well by the Giants, but Escobar beats his linebacker on the seam route for the touchdown toss. After the snap, Romo does an excellent job of not giving away his read by looking off FS35 Demps. This keeps Demps on Bryant’s side of the field, which leaves Escobar open for the touchdown pass perfectly placed by Romo.

Situation: 2nd and 8 at JAX 35Description: Q2 – (7:13) (Shotgun) T.Romo pass short right to D.Bryant for 35 yards, TOUCHDOWN. D.Bailey extra point is GOOD, Center-L.Ladouceur, Holder-C.Jones.Opponent: 10. JAX

Offensive Formation: Shotgun Twins Bunch

Offensive Personnel: 12

Defensive Formation: Cover 1 Robber

The Jaguars are in a Cover 1 Robber shell post snap playing high-low coverage with their outside cornerbacks. Since WR88 Bryant runs a drag route across the formation, FS37 Cyprien trips coming out of his robber role to get to Bryant and can’t make up the ground missing the tackle by the sideline. This gives room for Bryant to use his vision and open field quickness to avoid getting tackled for the score.

I wanted to show this play not because of anything Romo did particularly great, but just how great Romo’s weapons like Bryant are. On MANY throws throughout the season, Romo simply launched the ball up for Bryant or for his other receivers and they did an excellent job of bringing it down for him.

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