NFC East awards: Tony Romo, MVP
NFL Nation reporters from the NFC East -- Phil Sheridan, Dan Graziano, John Keim and Todd Archer -- have crunched the numbers, ran through the analysis, double-checked their notes and gone with some gut feelings.
This week, they are offering up their NFC East Awards.
Today they close the awards with the division’s Most Valuable Player.
Tony Romo was tied for third in the Associated Press MVP vote with two first-place votes. DeMarco Murray also received two votes, but in the NFC East voting, Romo received all four first-place votes. Murray finished second and New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was third.
Just as Romo was worthy for the league-wide MVP pick, he was more than worthy for the division award.
Romo led the NFL in completion percentage (69.9), passer rating (113.2) and Total QBR (82.7). He also had 34 touchdowns and just nine interceptions for the best touchdown-to-interception ratio of his career. Romo missed one game because of two transverse process fractures, but he was able to have his best season despite coming off a discectomy that kept him out of the 2013 season finale and limited him in training camp and the preseason.
Along the way, Romo became the Cowboys’ franchise leader in passing yards, moving by Hall of Famer Troy Aikman.
But it was how Romo closed the season that won him this award. With teams starting to slow down Murray, Romo raised his level of play in December, which had been his cruelest month. The Cowboys went 4-0 in December, beating the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field and clinched the division the following week with a win against the Indianapolis Colts. For the month Romo had 12 touchdown passes and one interception and completed 75 percent of his passes.