IRVING, Texas – The Cowboys fear the worst after watching Morris Claiborne go down and clutch his knee in the first quarter against the Saints.

Owner/general manager Jerry Jones said he's concerned Claiborne, who needed help from two trainers to slowly hobble off the field, tore his ACL after going down on a quarterback scramble by Drew Brees.

"Well, just a cruciate, yes, a tear is the concern we have," Jones said. "I don't know. I don't know. We did not MRI, we simply examined it. But the initial examination was not encouraging."

Claiborne got injured on a scramble from Brees and needed help from two trainers to hobble slowly off the field and into the locker room. Jones hopes it's not a serious tear in Claiborne's knee, but he knows that's likely the reality.

"I am concerned about Claiborne," Jones said. "We'll get more on it, but it doesn't look good right now. I hope we've got a big surprise for us in the morning."

For the second straight week, Claiborne and Bruce Carter, who helped seal the Week 3 win against the Rams with two game-sealing picks, were postgame storylines. Only this time, it's because of injuries.

Carter, who had a pass deflection that led to a pick by Justin Durant in the second quarter, was running down the sideline chasing Khiry Robinson in the fourth quarter when he felt his right quad pull. He immediately went down as Robinson continued on a 62-yard gain.  

Unlike the Claiborne situation, though, neither Jones nor Carter appear particularly concerned that the injury will keep the linebacker out long-term. Jones said Carter told him he was going to be fine, and Carter reiterated that after the game. [embedded_ad]

"Just depends how sore I am tomorrow, but for right now, they said I had great strength in it," Carter said. "I was able to do all the tests and pass all of those. The swelling up, they just said I've got a little bit of, I guess fluid, just blood from a little tear, but I should be fine."

Carter's dealt with serious injuries before in his career, but never a muscle injury that debilitated him while running like this. That may be new to him, but watching him go down around 40-yard line isn't. He got injured around the same spot he dislocated his elbow against the Redskins in 2012.

"I've got to stay away from that side of the field," Carter joked.