It has been quite the dichotomous start to the season for the Dallas Cowboys. On one hand, they are 2-0 with both of those victories coming inside their division. On the other, two of their top three skill position players have suffered bone breaks in consecutive weeks while the third may be in worse shape overall. The Cowboys showed on Sunday that there was life after Dez Bryant as the All-Pro sat on the sidelines with a broken foot. With Tony Romo now sidelined with a broken collarbone, will they find another new lease on life or will the proverbial accumulation of cracks break the dam?
In their 20-10 win over Philadelphia, Dallas proved that they could shift the depth chart up and still be an effective offense. Terrance Williams led the line with 84 yards and a touchdown all while absorbing the extra attention that would normally be centered on Bryant. Jason Witten also increased his workload, leading the team in targets (8) and catches (7) while staying in to block on running downs. Unlike the receiving corps however, the tight end contingent struggled as Witten started to show his own signs of physical dilapidation. Gavin Escobar and Geoff Swaim looked overwhelmed in their attempts to lessen the burden on the 13 year veteran. With more knocks for injuries instead of breaks, Witten was able to power through the game and hopefully for the coming weeks. As a new sense of normalcy on the offensive side of the ball was being established, the team suffered their biggest blow yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMio5kGw_kQ
As Romo looked short to Witten in the flat, a delayed linebacker blitz came up the middle and caught the Cowboys QB off guard. Rookie Jordan Hicks got his hands on Romo, and the ball spilled out of his hands as if it was instantly coated in Vaseline. As Romo tried to reach out to recover his fumble, Hicks drove him shoulder first into the ground with his entire 230 odd pounds crashing down on top of him. Romo immediately went limp and as the scramble for the loose ball continued a mere five yards away, Dallas’ present and future leader lay flat on his back wincing in obvious pain. The injury bug had not only bitten again, it had set up a nest in the Cowboys’ huddle.
Enter Brandon Weeden. The 31 year old, four year veteran hasn’t been the steadiest of hands during his career split between Cleveland and Dallas. He was part of a constant quarterback carousel in Cleveland, even though he was a first round pick out of Oklahoma State. It was a sign of mismanagement within the franchise as well as a symbol of his own ineffectiveness throwing the football. Upon his release from the Browns, he signed a two year pact with the Cowboys. He saw five games of action with the Cowboys, but only made one start in place of an injured Romo. Jason Garrett, Jerry Jones, and the fans of “America’s Team” hope that his second try at filling the void goes better than the 7.4 QBR, 2 INT performance against Arizona last year. However, unlike teams of the recent past for Dallas, Weeden won’t have as much onus on him because of how well other units are currently playing.
Gone is the league’s leading rusher in Demarco Murray, but in has stepped a Cerberus of a backfield brigade. Joseph Randle, a change of pace guy during his tenure with the club, has assumed the role of lead back. His yards per carry aren’t going to blow you away, but he’s taken the ball when needed and gotten first downs. He’s also improved himself in terms of being a receiver and a blocker. Speaking of receiving, Lance Dunbar has proved to be an invaluable asset in the underneath game for the ‘Boys. Dunbar has 11 catches through two games, including team highs of eight receptions and 70 yards in Dallas’ comeback on Sunday Night Football against the Giants Week 1. Darren McFadden may be more of a “Briskly Jog DMC” at this stage of his career, but his ability to spell Randle or Dunbar and be competent in both facets of attack is something that the team has lacked in the past. As this trio continues to run and catch behind one of the NFC’s staunchest lines, they’ll allow Weeden to slot into a game manager role instead of a playmaker like Romo. It isn’t just his offensive counterparts that will help ease him in either. The defense, once the team’s Achilles’ Heel, is strong and poised to only get stronger.
The defense was put in a lot of bad situations by the offense against the Giants, but was able to overcome and make stops when they needed to (combined with some idiocy from Eli Manning) that allowed them to roar back and win. They made sure that the Eagles never even got a chance to build a lead. Sam Bradford lost a fumble and threw two picks against a defensive front that attacked from every conceivable position on the defensive compass. The Eagles only rushed for seven yards as a team, including a puny two (YES, 2 YARDS) from DeMarco Murray. Now Murray has just 11 yards through two games after having his low output last year being 58, but the way Dallas made them one dimensional in a non-blowout was impressive. Once the villainous duo of Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain return in two weeks from their respective suspensions, they’ll be even more fierce.
Now it was a small sample, but the Cowboys have shown that they have a deep enough, cohesive enough squad to not only keep themselves afloat in the division whilst Romo and Bryant are down, but actually be a team to be reckoned with. The receiving corps will have a minimum of 10 Bryant-less weeks while having at least eight of those working with Weeden. Due to complications in Bryant’s procedure and Romo opting against surgery altogether, the return timetables of both are surely going to surpass even their most favorable of forecasts. But for now, it looks as if the Cowboys can maintain. The NFC South beckons next with Atlanta coming to town before a trip to the now dreary Saints. New England is a difficult task even for a team at 100%, but then Dallas has a much needed bye week immediately following that. We’ll see until that bye what this team is really made of.
For the past few years, the Cowboys had a deserved reputation of being soft with any adverse event sending them into a tailspin. I think though that Dallas has finally solidified their roster enough that even the two biggest breaks they could get won’t break their spirit.