Cutler Wins the Battle of the Gunslingers

Romo's gun slinging style simply doesn't work in the NFL.

Last night's Bears, Cowboys matchup had all the makings of a Wild, Wild West shootout with two high-powered weapons chalk full of athletic weapons. Of course each team led by a pair of absolute gunslingers that rarely remove their finger from the trigger. Two guys, in my opinion, that waste their talent on impulsive throws and an overt desire for the big play and last night once again proved that you simply can't trust a gunslinger.

Both Romo and Cutler are good for a couple things. One, they'll rack up 300 yards passing no matter how many attempts they have. Two, they're going to get you some TDs. And finally three, some of their passes are going to find the hands of the guys in the wrong jerseys. It's in the DNA of a gunslinger. They have an inherent need to throw the ball into tight windows and to make the biggest play they can make. There is no settling, there's no checkdowns, no West Coast-offense nonsense. It's a style of quarterback that can look spectacular on one day, and horrendous the next. Cutler has 122 career TDs to 92 career INTs, as compared to Romo's 154 TDs and 80 INTs. While Romo's numbers don't pop like Cutler's do, there are still far too many times that you watch these guys' four-touchdown games go to waste because of a matching four INTs. Romo also makes up for his lack of INTs with an average of more than six fumbles a season.

Cutler certainly brought his A-game last night going 18-for-24 with 275 yards and two TDs, though it was a conservative game in the least bit for him. That was the beauty of his performance last night, he didn't try to do so much, he just let it flow, abusing the one-on-one coverage on Brandon Marshall like any intelligent quarterback would do. But as we all know with the volatile Cutler, one extremely effective performance could easily be followed up by a stale one against the lowly Jaguars next week.

Romo, on the other hand, threw up an absolute dud. He threw five picks. This conversation really could end right there. Honestly even if he threw five TDs, there isn't a justification for that sort of game. His 60.1 QB rating is a bit of a understatement if you ask me. But a stat line that reads 31/47, 307, 1 TD and 5 INTs screams classic Romo. Three of those five picks were absolutely embarrassing. The first of the bad picks came when Romo got some immature happy feet and let a floater go that was intended to be a deep ball to Dez Bryant. Instead it fell into Tavares Tillman's hands for a pick six with Bryant almost ten yards away. The announcers pointed to a communication error, but it was totally on Romo who felt the pressure far before it actually came. Then Lance Briggs was the beneficiary of Romo trying to do too much as a tipped shovel pass turned into a pick six giving the Bears a commanding 24-7 lead in the third quarter. And then finally, in a last ditch effort down 17, Romo hit Bears cornerback D.J. Moore on a perfect post route. No, you didn't read that wrong, the ball was so badly under thrown to Miles Austin that it looked as if Moore was running the route. "Laughable" would be selling that play short.

Now just because last night's game occurred the way it did, doesn't mean it's an indictment of Romo's ineptitude or Cutler's competence. I was just pointing out that when you put a gunslinger under center, you're playing with fire. It may have been Cutler's rodeo last night, but it easily could have been vice versa. These two clowns both top my list of quarterbacks I wouldn't want on my team because they don't think with their heads but instead with their stat sheets. And people wonder why Cutler and Romo are a combined 2-4 in the postseason, a real head-scratcher.