PHILADELPHIA – There will be a multitude of other storylines to consider, but the loss of Tony Romo will dominate the talk about Sunday's 20-10 win against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Romo exited the game with a broken left clavicle with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter and did not return. The 35-year-old quarterback underwent X-Rays on the break, and the Cowboys said he'll undergo further evaluation when the team returns to Dallas.
"We'll get all that taken care of tomorrow,as far as some of the details of it," Romo said. "You get the X-Ray and it's pretty obvious what it is, but then you've got to go look at the detail of it -- the CT scan and the MRI scan."
The loss of the Pro Bowl signal-caller didn't prevent the Cowboys from grabbing a win and a 2-0 record, but it certainly evoked a much more subdued from team owner/general manager Jerry Jones in the postgame locker room.
"Tony, you'll see, is Tony – he's looking to tomorrow, looking to when he can get back," Jones said. "He doesn't know, no one knows when he'll be back, but we've got to put this thing together and certainly Weeden had a good account of himself last night."
Weeden did complete 7-of-7 passes for 73 yards and the game-clinching touchdown in relief. But that's not going to stop the speculation about what kind of timetable is awaiting Romo, who would inarguably be considered the most important member of the Cowboys' roster.
Jones acknowledged that fact, but he reiterated several times that the news is simply too fresh. Romo will undergo a thorough evaluation upon returning to Dallas, where the Cowboys will consider their options -- including whether the break will require surgery.
"It's just too early – at all. I just don't have any idea tonight," Jones said. "We keep saying that bone takes six weeks, but there's some ligaments there that may or may not be necessary to move around to help the healing process. If it's not necessary, then it could very easily not require surgery. But I'm merely speculating. I don't know."
There will be a variety of ways to handle the injury, including the option to put Romo on short-term injured reserve. That would remove him from the 53-man roster for eight weeks while he recovers. He'd be able to begin practicing with the team after six weeks, and he'd be able to play again after eight weeks. Were the Cowboys to do that, he'd be unavailable to play until Nov. 22 against the Miami Dolphins.
All of that talk is premature, however. The only thing the Cowboys know for sure right now is that Romo will be unavailable for at least the time being, leaving Brandon Weeden as the only quarterback on their active roster.
Jones said the Cowboys will go forward with Weeden as their starter while Romo is injured. He declined to speculate on any other possibilities at the position. Kellen Moore and Jameill Showers are currently on the team's practice squad, and it's also possible the Cowboys could look around the league for added help.
Again, Jones didn't want to speculate too soon.
"We certainly haven't had time at all to talk about it today," he said. "We'll certainly go with Weeden, but we'll look at a lot of options and I've already started mulling them over as I was watching the game."
For the time being, the Cowboys will head home atop the division standings as the NFC East's only unbeaten team. The gameplanning for coping without Romo will begin once they're there.
