Now, it really gets rough for T.O. Tony Romo is expected to miss at least four weeks (three games) with a broken pinkie finger on his throwing hand.

Enter Brad Johnson, a 40-year-old bus driver. Exit the vertical passing game, although we haven't seen much of it recently anyway.

This will be the ultimate test to see if T.O.'s transformation into a team player is true.

Our crew is traveling this morning and will soon be at Valley Ranch.

Much, much more to come.

"This team is a good team, but we're learning that we're not just going to walk out there and beat anybody," Witten said. "We've got to go out there and play our football."

It seems like that message should have been pretty clear after the Cowboys collapsed down the stretch last season. There is absolutely no reason that a team full of guys who have never won a playoff game in a Cowboys uniform should have big head syndrome.

However, Witten didn't necessarily agree with Patrick Crayton's assessment that an ass-chewing might be in order.

"I think Wade's been pretty successful with what he's done and his approach," Witten said. "He holds us accountable. I think Patrick's meaning that something's got to happen for us to play better, and we do need to play better football. But Wade's philosophy is holding each other accountable and believing in us and going out there and playing good football.

"We've done that for a long time. For whatever reason, we didn't do that today. We've got to get that fixed."
(Dallas Morning News photo by G. J. McCarthy)

Well, the Cardinals' front four whupped the big, bad Cowboys' O-line that features three Pro Bowlers. Led by Dockett's dominant performance, Arizona sacked Tony Romo three times and pressured him on a consistent basis. Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt talked about the Cardinals' ability to get to Romo without blitzing being one of the game's biggest keys.

You know the Cowboys' offensive line had a rough day when even Wade Phillips admits it.
(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Ainsworth)

"We need to study it and see exactly what it was this week," Phillips said of the O-line woes. "It looked like from the sidelines that their guys were doing a good job of getting around the corner and coming from behind even, because we had holding penalties and tehy sacked us several times. That hasn't been the case this year very much, so we have to look into that and see."

"All we've been hearing is how big this offensive line is, they're so big and their running back runs so hard," Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "Don't get me wrong. That's probably one of the best teams in the NFL. I've heard a lot of people say it, even Michael Irvin. You come out here things are bound to pop off. You can lose any day out here."

To be fair to the Cardinals, they are 9-2 at home under coach Ken Whisenhunt. And to be fair to Dockett, he had a heck of a day. He had three tackles, three quarterback hurries and a big sack for a 10-yard loss.

"My coach challenged me," Dockett said. "They have Leonard Davis, probably one of the best guards in the league. He looked at me and said, 'I think you're one of the best D-tackles in the league, so let me see what you're going to do.

"I laid all mine on the table and numbers don't lie."
(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Mulvey)

This isn't an X's and O's problem, if you ask me. It's like Keith Davis said. This is a "want-to" issue. Davis was referring to special teams in that context, but it applies to the big picture. This is all about whether the Cowboys want to get better or not.

"Guys are hurt, because you don't expect to ever lose," DeMarcus Ware said. "What are you going to do about it. What are you going to do next week to get that taste out of your mouth?"

By the way, Ware kept his sack streak alive. He now has a sack in nine straight games, tying Harvin Martin for second-most in club history. Martin holds the team record with a sack in 11 straight games, a feat he accomplished over the 1976 and `77 seasons.

One would think that it's good that St. Louis is up next. But based on what I saw today between the Rams and Redskins, St. Louis will be a handful, too.
(Dallas Morning News photo by G. J. McCarthy)

Pacman didn't talk after the game. He still hasn't said anything publicly after the jivin' at the Joule gone wrong, which could cause commissioner Roger Goodell to suspend him again next week.

Wade Phillips mentioned that the defense played well when asked whether the events of the week affected his team today, then started talking about the offense's struggles. Tony Romo emphatically insisted that the Pacman drama had nothing to do with the Cowboys' subpar performance.

"The biggest misconception out there is that stuff like that affects the locker room," Romo said. "You can ask the Cowboys of the early '90s. They dealt with that stuff all the time, but you just do what you do when you're there."
(Dallas Morning News photo by G. J. McCarthy)

QB Tony Romo (sprained right pinky finger)

RB Felix Jones (strained left hamstring)

P Mat McBriar (bruised right ankle)

LT Flozell Adams (stinger)

SS Keith Davis (cut left thumb)

OLB Anthony Spencer (strained left hamstring)

NT Jay Ratliff left the game briefly, but he returned. Not sure what his ailment was, but it wasn't mentioned in the injury rundown.

He didn't make his normal postgame trip to the interview room and declined comment in the Cowboys' locker room. It's safe to say that he wasn't thrilled about catching four passes for 36 yards in a loss.
(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Mulvey)

"Maybe we need our asses chewed out or something," Crayton said.

The loss to Washington should have been a wake-up call for the Cowboys, Crayton said. It clearly wasn't. The Cowboys followed that up with an ugly win over the 0-fer Bengals, and the head coach and several players spent the next couple days defending that sloppy performance. The Cowboys didn't play any better today and paid for it with a loss to the Cardinals.

I hope you're not holding your breath for Wade Phillips to deliver any harsh words to his underachieving team. Well, Wade, are the Cowboys meeting your expectations?

"No, obviously not," he said during his postgame press conference. "We would like to be better. We lost two very close games and this was one of them."

Ooh, that oughta get the Cowboys' attention!!!

"I think we need to take it upon ourselves and be accountable to each other," Crayton said. "It doesn't have to be the head coach."

It obviously won't be the head coach. We'll find out whether the Cowboys are capable of pushing themselves.
(Dallas Morning News photo by G. J. McCarthy)

The Cardinals had been double-teaming Kevin Burnett, the Cowboys' best special teams coverage guy, so Read shifted Burnett from tackle to guard on the final punt. The player who replaced Burnett at guard -- Morey was too nice to identify the guy -- made a mistake that resulted in a blocked punt for a TD and bruised right ankle for Mat McBriar. UPDATE: After seeing the replay, Tony Curtis appears to be the guilty player.

All in all, it was an awful day for Read, whose kickoff coverage team opened the game by allowing a 93-yard return for a TD.

Jerry Jones steered clear of criticizing Read when asked a pointed question about him, but this game certainly doesn't help the cause of a special teams coach who was already under fire.

Update: It appears that the Cowboys had the same alignment on the previous punt. We'll try to get to the bottom of this tomorrow at Valley ranch.

(Dallas Morning News photo by G. J. McCarthy)

The Cowboys were lucky that they had any chance to beat the Cardinals this afternoon. From the opening kickoff, which Arizona's J.J. Arrington returned for a touchdown, the Cowboys made mistake after mistake after mistake.

That isn't necessarily surprising. After all, the Cowboys spent the week making excuses for an ugly win before dealing with distractions caused by Adam "Pacman" Jones' stupidity.

This is a team that considers itself a Super Bowl contender, but it sure isn't playing or acting like one. Anybody have confidence that admitted softie Wade Phillips can right the ship?

Back with much, much more after visiting a locker room that won't be a very happy place.

(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Mulvey)

And if that doesn't sting enough, Mat McBriar got hurt on the play.

Sean Morey came free up the middle and stuffed the punt off McBriar's foot. Monty Beisel picked it up and walked three yards into the end zone for the Cardinals' win.
(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Ainsworth)

They got saved by a strange forward progress call once. The tuck rule erased a Cardinals TD later. And this one was just a lucky bounce right back into Romo's hands.
(Dallas Morning News photo by Michael Ainsworth)