Tony Romo saves best performance for last

Tony Romo was never known as a big-game player during his NFL career with the Cowboys. But during his first season as an analyst, he saved his best performance for the biggest game he called all season, the AFC Championship Game.

On Sunday, Romo was everything he had been during the regular season: Entertaining, insightful and, at times, clairvoyant. But something about this performance was different. Romo was less excitable. He was more professional. The moment was not too big for him.

Romo was confident because he had clearly done his homework on both the Patriots and Jaguars. He called out receivers routes before the snap. He pointed out blitzes before they came. It was like Romo was listening into both huddles…

The drop-off from Romo calling the AFC title game to Fox's Troy Aikman in the NFC title game was striking. Aikman, Fox's No. 1 color guy, is dry and rarely offers any information that you couldn't get from that guy at the bar who with a Pro Football Focus subscription. Romo entertains while informing, and his tone never seems to change. He enjoys breaking down a play as much as he enjoys cracking a joke.

Like a good rookie quarterback, Romo has plenty to work on during the offseason. He still gets too excited at times (WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO HERE, JIIIIIIIIIIIM!?!?!?)…

And he gets a little too much enjoyment out of slow-motion replays…

But Romo having recognizable quirks isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means people are paying attention. People don't care about boring. They certainly don't pay enough attention to notice patterns if you're boring. Aikman, for example, has been calling games for over a decade, and I'm not sure what's he known for as a broadcaster.

Romo's obvious improvements over the course of the season are encouraging. If he can continue to clean up some of his issues while playing up the characteristics most viewers have enjoyed, he could be the NFL's best analyst as soon as next season, which, we already know, will be capped off with Romo calling the Super Bowl.

If 2018 is anything like 2017 for Romo, we should be in for a wildly entertaining broadcast.

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