The news today is that QB Tony Romo suffered a broken pinky finger during yesterday's game and is projected to be out for 4 weeks.  I expect that most people in Dallas are justifiably upset over that, and the team's play of late.  However, let me offer this opinion: I believe that the Dallas Cowboys will be a better team due to this injury.  That is, if they're smart enough to act on it properly.

Dallas has long had the feel of a three-ring circus.  It starts with the owner, who is usually smart enough to keep his football-based contributions to a minimum.  But Jerry Jones knows the value of an investment dollar, and has never shied away from hiring on players whose egos are larger than life.  Three names come to mind: Terrell Owens, Tank Johnson and Adam "Don't Call Me PacMan" Jones.  The next ring is the coaching staff.  In a parallel that ought to scare the hell out of Dallas fans, Cowboy coaches seem to understand their role in that organization.  You can do what ever it is that you think you need to do in order to make the team win.  Except when Jerry Jones thinks he has a better idea, in which case scrap your ideas and replace them with Jerry's.  That is too similar to the Al Davis - Oakland Raiders soap opera for comfort.  Finally, the players - first it was too disciniplinarian, and now it's too lenient.  But this year those same players, no doubt enjoying the freedoms granted by Wade Phillips, are playing like a bunch of guys who don't really care.  Say one thing about Bill Parcells teams, win or lose, and that is that the players always play.  They compete hard, because they're afraid of Parcells' wrath.  That isn't the case in Big D right now, and it shows with the performance.

But the Cowboys have a bit of a unique opportunity.  They can use this to solifify the weaknesses on their team.  They can stop relying on Romo's antics and begin playing solid football.  They're going to have to if they want to come out of these 4 weeks in any position to strike for the NFC East title.

Brad Johnson is a workmanlike quarterback, well-suited for his current role of injury replacement.  Johnson cannot run a team for an entire year any more.  Age and injuries have crept up to him.  But no one doubts his ability to run an offense in the short term.  And the Cowboys will find themselves getting back to solid fundamental football under Johnson because he doesn't add the same elements that Romo does.  So to succeed, the Cowboys need to run a balanced attack between the run and pass, using smart throws with strong quarterback protection.  It seems that Dallas has not had that offensive scheme in mind for a while, and perhaps this injury will allow them to hit the offensive reset button for a bit.  And I think that should Dallas taste serious success using that formula, the rest of the offense will expect the same if not better under Romo.  What they can't do is return to their current ways, which as the last 3 games have shown don't always guarantee success.

Defensively, the Boys were supposed to be great.  Maybe they can be, but now there's far more pressure on this unit than there was before Romo's injury.  With Romo, the Cowboys can score a lot of points.  That same ability is there, but not to the same degree with Johnson, therefore the defense is under more pressure to make stops.  Any Wade Phillips coached defense should be good at that, but they've not shown it thus far.  The defense can focus on basics here, too, and stopping the run while also being able to pressure the passer needs to be addressed.

I don't know if the Cowboys are feeling the pressure from their hype, if the locker room and overall atmosphere is too loose or what.  But the feeling right now is that they have to get more professional, and better at playing the game.  The NFC East is too good, and the entire NFC looks much stronger this year than in past years.  So unless the Cowboys enjoy earning their paychecks while watching other teams compete for glory, they need to change and do so quickly.  With Romo's injury they have that season-defining moment in which to do it.  Whether or not they can is a different issue.  But I think they can, and I think that they will.