Tony Romo Injured In Second Half Against The Eagles

It doesn’t look good for Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys in the early going of this NFL season. Wide receiver Dez Bryant was already out for a significant part of the season, and now the Cowboys appear to have lost Romo for a good amount of time as well.

Romo left Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles early in the second half after he was sacked by Jordan Hicks. NFL is reporting that x-rays show that Romo has a fractured left clavicle. He returned to the sidelines in the fourth quarter with his left arm in a sling. Tony suffered a similar injury in 2010.

Before he left the game, Romo had tossed the ball 27 times and he completed 18 of those for 195 yards. He also had one rush for 12 yards. The 35-year-old quarterback has been the starter in Dallas for 10 years and is coming off a season in which he threw for 34 touchdowns and had just nine interceptions. In Week 1, Romo rallied the Cowboys to a victory over the New York Giants with a 72-yard drive in the game’s final couple of minutes which culminated in a touchdown pass to his favorite target Jason Witten.

With Romo out, the Cowboys had to turn to Branden Weeden to lead the offense. Weeden played in five games for the Cowboys last season and started one. In his lone start, the Cowboys fell to the Arizona Cardinals 28-17. Weeden completed 18 of 33 passes with one touchdown and two interceptions. Weeden was able to throw a touchdown on Sunday that cinched the game for the Cowboys. Dallas is now 2-0 on the season. The Cowboys will now rely more on their defense and and on a rushing game that hasn’t established itself quite yet.

Dallas will need to look for a new backup quarterback because they were only carrying two quarterbacks coming into Sunday’s contest.

The Dallas Morning New is reporting that the early timetable for Romo’s return is four to 12 weeks. That is quite the gap between the high and low end, but the Cowboys, and the rest of us, should have a better idea at exactly how long Romo will be out after he has more tests run on Monday.

Do you think the Cowboys still have a shot at a Super Bowl title without Tony Romo for an extended period of time? Do you think they will even make the playoffs?

[Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]