Tony Romo practices, but Cowboys’ job is still Matt Cassel’s

The good news for the Dallas Cowboys is: Tony Romo rejoined practice Wednesday. The bad news for the Cowboys is: The starting quarterback isn’t eligible to play until Nov. 22.

The Cowboys, in need of a victory to end a five-game losing streak, have to make do without Romo for two more games. Matt Cassel starts again this week, though coach Jason Garrett said Monday the team hasn’t made “any determination” on the starter beyond the game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Brandon Weeden went 0-3 as the team’s starter. Cassel has gone 0-2.

The Cowboys were 2-0 with Romo.

In the two games with Romo, the Cowboys averaged 23.5 points, 397.5 total yards and 303 passing yards. In the five games without Romo, the Cowboys have averaged 17.2 points, 325.4 yards and 184.2 passing yards.

“Oh, it’s a team thing. You win and lose as a team,” Garrett said Wednesday. “It’s coaches, players, offense, defense, special teams. It’s everybody. We are all a part of it. When you have success, it’s a collective responsibility. When things don’t go well, there’s collective responsibility.

“Certainly Tony is a very important player on our team. Dez Bryant is a very important player on our team. But we don’t live in that world. We live in the world about what the opportunity is in front of us, get the guys ready to play who are available to you and go play your best. And that’s what we try to do.”

Romo, 35, fractured his left collarbone in the Week 2 game against the Eagles. The Cowboys placed him on short-term injured reserve, making him eligible to return to practice this week.

On Wednesday, all eyes were on No. 9 as he ran out to the practice field.

Romo looked like his former self as he went through pat-and-go, threw some individual routes with the group and then threw on the side. Cassel took all the first-team reps.

“Tony has been a really good player for us,” Garrett said. “One of the things about Tony is in his absence he always stays engaged. It’s not like he has been away. But it will be nice to see him out there throwing a little bit. He was throwing a little bit last week. That’s always a positive sign.

“He has a great way about him. He is a natural leader. He has been really helpful during the week of preparation and also during the game for the other quarterbacks and whole football team.”

The Cowboys have failed to score a touchdown in two of the past three games. They have had seven red-zone possessions the past three games, scoring only one touchdown and getting five field goals.

Cassel blamed it on “little things” that they can easily correct.

“It’s an easy thing to eliminate, and if we do that, I think we put ourselves in better positions to score points and score touchdowns,” he said.

Big plays are lacking for the Cowboys. They had one passing play of 20 yards or more against the New England Patriots, five against the New York Giants, and despite Bryant’s return from a five-game absence while recovering from foot surgery, none against the Seattle Seahawks.

“I think you cut the field in half if you get a big-chunk play,” Cassel said. “You don’t have to go first, second, third down, first, second, third down. Those guys on the other side are pretty good, too, and so when you have to go the full length of the field, and you’re not able to get that chunk play, a lot of times it becomes a lot more difficult.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Tony Romo practices, but Cowboys’ job is still Matt Cassel’s."