Just one week after defending Tony Romo following the Dallas Cowboys’ fourth quarter collapse against the New York Jets, Jerry Jones was validated by Romo in his team’s Week 2 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers. Romo has cracked ribs and a punctured lung, and it’s not clear if he’ll be able to play in Dallas’ Week 3 tilt with the rival Washington Redskins. But as Jones noted on Tuesday, all that matters was that Dallas get an early-season road win and avoid an 0-2 start.
Jones talked to 105.3 The Fan in Dallas about the comeback win, the toughness displayed by Romo, and how his team will overcome the rash of injuries it’s sustained early on in the still-young 2011 season.
How important the win was against the 49ers:
“Well we needed to win that game, win a game period. We needed to win that game. We had been dealt the cards of two road games to start the season. Somebody has to do it and we did it. Two road games are tough back to back especially after the disappointment we had the week of the Jets. To come back and do it in that fashion I think is a character builder. I’m not only proud of the players, but I’m proud of Jason, the players and they just would not take no for an answer. They didn’t. I think it is something you can build. I remember my second or third year I was involved with the Cowboys, we had a big hallmark win in Washington that really made the difference and set the tone for several years to come. Wins or instances can do that and this may have been one of them. We had guys play from the beginning of the game, but we had guys play hurt. This Felix Jones injury is another one that should be noted. That’s the injury that Emmitt Smith had in the great game he played against the Giants that put us in the playoffs. Felix kept giving all his effort and that is to be noted as well.”
Whether or not Romo is going to be able to play this weekend:
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I understand the nature of the injury as much as you can without being in medicine. We’ll just have to see how it goes. It has everything to do with his ability to handle pain. We know he’s got a bunch of it so we’ll see how it goes and he’ll be monitored obviously extremely closely regarding it and we’ll see how it goes. I wouldn’t dare speculate on that.”
If Miles Austin’s injury is worse than Romo’s:
“I’m probably pretty negative on Miles getting to play. It seems like we’ve been dealing with a lot of those soft tissue injuries this year and he was almost a game time decision although he knew the night before that he was going to play but we were letting him again make that decision. He had done a really good job of managing his hamstring and so when he said he could go we were glad to have him obviously. Bottom line is it doesn’t look good this week.”