Dallas: Let's end skid before Romo returns
Cassel likely to get one last shot as QB against Buccaneers.
Tony Romo, scout team quarterback.
That’s the best the Dallas star could do the past two weeks in his return from a broken left collarbone, so he was still watching while the Cowboys’ losing streak grew to six games without him, the team’s longest in the same season in 26 years.
Naturally, there’s a bit of anticipation for his likely start next week at Miami, even if that means peeking past Sunday’s visit to Tampa Bay (3-5). But there are limits to that eagerness for the Cowboys (2-6).
“You can’t sit and wait on Romo,” defensive lineman Jeremy Mincey said. “He’s not Jesus, you know? You can’t sit and wait on him because there’s some games we could’ve easily won without him being there. So it’s our fault.”
Matt Cassel and Brandon Weeden are both 0-3 trying to replace Romo, and Cassel will get probably his last chance to break that drought in what could be his final start for Dallas after coming over in a trade with Buffalo.
Cassel has filled in for a franchise quarterback before, but not as a lameduck starter. The job was his for the final 15 games in New England in 2008, when the Patriots finished 11-5 and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker after Tom Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury in the opener.
“You knew that Tom wasn’t coming back for the year, and we’ve known that Tony was going to come back at some point. But at the same time, you do what you can with the time that you get,” said Cassel, who struggled in the first two starts but is coming off his best outing, despite an interception that played a key role in Philadelphia’s overtime win last weekend.
Since Cassel obviously still needed first-team work in practice, most of Romo’s time in game simulations in practice was with the scout team. He was doing that as early as last week, the first week he was eligible to practice while still on the injured list with a designation for return.
Romo briskly jogged onto the practice field a few minutes late Friday, with All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant just behind him, and eagerly called for a ball before he had reached the quarterback group making soft warmup tosses.
Romo hasn’t had a session with reporters since he was injured.
“We’re anxious to get him back,” tight end Jason Witten said. “He’s our franchise quarterback, our leader, but our focus has been on this week of getting the win and getting ourselves back in position. We’re worried about next week when we get there with him coming back.”
Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said Romo looks “close to being 100 percent” in practice. Linehan’s primary focus is the weekly work with Cassel, but even he is doing a little peeking ahead.
“We have a plan each day, and I kept an eye on him ... just to see he looked the same and I didn’t see anything that concerned or alarmed me,” Linehan said of Romo.
“Like riding a bike, he’s going to be ready to go.”
Probably no more scout team work for Romo, starting next week.