There wasnt much wrong with the Cowboy OL from 2006-2009. The playoff loss in Minnesota was bad and the OL had a terrible game, but that was due to injuries more than anything else. Romo ranked near the top of the league each yr in fewest times sacked and we had a fairly solid running game. 2009 was the first season with Romo as a starter where he was sacked more than 24 times (34 that yr)
There was definitely a lack of talent on the OL for a couple years but they started turning it around in 2011 with the drafting of Tyron Smith (and RB Demarco Murray). 2013 saw T Fred arrive and 2014 we added Martin. Murray racked up some dominant performances from 2011-2013 before his record breaking season for us in 2014.
People have this revisionist history all the time with Romo and the Cowboys, thinking he was sacked ten times a game for years or something. The fact is he was never sacked more than 36 times in a season and numerous seasons was sacked only 20-something times. Even both years he got hurt (2010 and 2015) he was sacked only once per game on average. People thought he was "beat up" behind a bad OL game after game but that definitely was not true. His lack of dedicated weight room work also played a factor, Troy Aikman he was not in that regard.
Romo had one of the quickest releases in the NFL. That helped him to not get sacked. it wasn't that the OL was playing remarkably well.
Romo also strategically let the play clock go to nearly zero so he could better anticipate what the D was going to do. That also helped with his protection.
I have zero clue what you were looking at. I know you pride yourself on being able to see OL play. But I gotta disagree with you here. Stats are sometimes a byproduct of what else is happening.
What I mentioned is part of the reason Jerry said Romo had unique skills". Romo would change the play, get the clock to basically zero, see what the D was doing, and get rid of the ball quickly.
Unfortunately, DC are not stupid and every so often they tricked Romo into an INT. Romo was under pressure a lot. It's not about the number of sacks. If a D can hurry up a QB's throw then that can lead to check downs and mistakes. YOU KNOW THIS!
I can't find the stats for 2010, but in 2011 Romo was
pressured 174 times! According to Pro Football Focus, they ranked 15th in pass blocking among NFL teams!
In 2012, Romo was sacked 36 times, an average of 2.25 per game (now keep in mind what I said above about Romo's escape ability, quick release, and so forth). He was sacked 7 times in one game against the Browns..
The Cowboys' OL
ranked 26th in pass protection. Again, keep in mind Romo's "Unique talent". And despite all of that, Romo threw for
4,903 yards and 28 TDs, and YES, he had 19 interceptions. With an OL that ranked 26th in pass protection, I think it's reasonable to assume the DC is going to take advantage.
Now let's go backwards, just to further show who "has revisionist history".
In 2009, Pro Football Focus ranked the OL
25th in pass protection. The OL was penalized 28 times!
Despite that, Romo threw for 4,483 yards and 26 TDs! They got to the playoff game where you pointed out the OL was horrendous and Romo was sacked 6 times.
Now, it's hard to find stats on the number of pressures, but we can infer that given the SHITTY pass protection rankings and the fact that Romo was known to have a quick release and so forth, that Romo was under pretty much constant pressure.
In 2008, Romo was the league's 3rd most pressured QB! In 2009, his pressure rate did go down by 11%, but that could have been to to factors such as Romo changing his game (quick reads, short passes, improved pocket movement, etc), changing plays etc. Because even though there was an 11% drop in pressures, he was sacked 34 times (2.1 a game)
Now I could go on an on. I can show you articles that talk about Romo's ability to anticipate the defense. How he put the offense in the right plays, how although his release was NOT as good as Tom Brady's or Dan Marino's, he still had a very good release time. etcetera.
All of it combined hid real deficiencies in the OL when he should have been putting up huge numbers and winning playoff games.
Dak Prescott would be one of the worst QBs in the NFL if he had to play with what Romo had to play with! As it is, he's above average.