Jason Garrett and Paul Pasqualoni face an additional degree of difficulty in turning their defense around, as defensive end Marcus Spears will miss 4-6 weeks with a calf strain. Spears injured his calf during Sunday night's loss to the Packers.
His injury creates a bit of a crisis in the defensive line for the Cowboys. Spears' natural replacement, Jason Hatcher, was already injured against the Giants and will miss another 2-4 weeks. Rookie backups Josh Brent and Sean Lissemore are also injured, leaving the club with virtually no depth behind Jay Ratliff, Igor Olshansky and Stephen Bowen. There are no defensive linemen on the practice squad, so they may look to sign someone at the position to provide emergency depth.