It's a new year and maybe time for a new narrative surrounding Tony Romo. Long known as a guy who can't close (because of minimal playoff appearances, a fumbled snap in Seattle and some high-profile turnovers), Romo and the Cowboys stepped on December's throat as they finished off their playoff run.
Pete Prisco did a wonderful job highlighting Romo's success in his always excellent "After Further Review" column but it warrants mentioning just how incredible Romo played when the lights were brightest.
His final December statline, in four games: 83/111 (74.8 percent) for 987 yards (8.9 yards per attempt) with 12 touchdowns and one interception.
Three of those games were on the road, two were division battles and in his one home game, Romo completed 90 percent of the passes as the Cowboys bludgeoned the Colts.
His 133.7 passer rating in December (as Pete noted, the highest ever for anyone with more than 100 attempts) vaulted his season passer rating to 113.7, the sixth-highest in NFL history for a single season.
His December run is arguably the greatest ever; he's the only quarterback with 950 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and just one interception in December.
And of the nine players with 950 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and just one interception, Romo had by far and away the highest completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating.
| Best December QB Runs | |||||||
| Quarterback | Comp % | Yards/Game | YPA | TD | INT | QB Rating | W-L |
| Tony Romo (2014) | 74.8 | 246.8 | 8.9 | 12 | 1 | 133.7 | 4-0 |
| Tom Brady (2010) | 65.0 | 249.5 | 8.3 | 11 | 0 | 121.5 | 4-0 |
| Chad Pennington (2002) | 66.9 | 239.4 | 7.8 | 11 | 1 | 111.3 | 3-2 |
| Philip Rivers (2008) | 66.1 | 263.5 | 8.7 | 11 | 1 | 120.3 | 4-0 |
| Aaron Rodgers (2012) | 68.8 | 291.4 | 8.4 | 11 | 1 | 113.3 | 4-1 |
| Jeff Garcia (2003) | 64.1 | 267.3 | 8.4 | 10 | 1 | 113.1 | 2-2 |
| Matt Ryan (2012) | 71.9 | 282.3 | 7.4 | 10 | 1 | 111.8 | 2-2 |
| Matthew Stafford (2011) | 67.7 | 349.8 | 8.7 | 10 | 1 | 112.8 | 3-1 |
There's a long way to go for Romo to justify all the accolades he's received the past month or so. Put another way: lose at home to the Lions in the playoffs and the talk will crank back up.
But as it stands right now, Tony Romo should be about 60 January football minutes away from shutting down the narrative that he can't win big games late in the year.
