It’s hard to fault Roy Williams for trying to put a positive spin on a bleak situation. His team fell to 1-5 with their embarrassing loss to the Giants on Monday night and he watched as starting quarterback Tony Romo went down with a serious shoulder injury.

The latest on Romo is that he’ll miss 6-8 weeks, although he won’t need surgery. That means backup Jon Kitna will start for Dallas and according to Williams, the 38-year-old journeyman is just as good as Romo.

From the Detroit Free Press:

“Tony is our starter, but Jon is just as good,” Williams told the Dallas Morning News. “We are going to work this week in practice so we can get the timing down with the receivers. But I have complete faith in him. I have played with him for three years and I know how good he is.”

Although he hasn’t played in over a year, Kitna can be a serviceable starter. He’s a true leader and he demands the best from those around him. He’s not a quiet leader; he wears his emotions on his sleeve and he won’t go down without a fight.

That said, he’s very limited and while Williams was just trying to be positive, Kitna isn’t Romo. He has zero mobility, he folds under pressure and his decision-making during close games comes into question more times than not. This isn’t a guy you want at the helm when you need a big throw late in games and considering how bad the Cowboys’ defense has played the past couple of weeks, this will probably be a team that is trailing more times than not from here on out.

If Wade Phillips’ defense was playing at the top of its game, then the Cowboys might be able to get by with Kitna. But they’ve already put themselves in a 1-5 hole so a rebound at this point appears to be out of the question.

The Cowboys have a huge mess on their hands.

It’s usually not wise to pronounce a team’s playoff chances dead after only seven weeks. But an exception can be made for the 2010 Cowboys.

Tony Romo broke his left clavicle in an embarrassing 41-35 loss to the Giants at home on Monday night. As of this writing there hasn’t been a timetable given for his return, but it’s estimated that he’ll miss anywhere from six to 10 weeks, which means the 1-5 Cowboys can essentially put a bullet in their season.

Jon Kitna did throw for 187 yards and two touchdowns while subbing for Romo, but after the Giants took a 38-20 lead midway through the third quarter it was evident that the game was well in hand. The ‘Boys scored on a 15-yard Dez Bryant touchdown with 40 seconds remaining to cut the Giants’ lead down to six, but New York dominated the game once Romo left early in the second quarter.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Wade Phillips keeps his job. He’s come under fire for many things over the past few years but the one caveat is that his defensive game plans are usually sound. But the Cowboys’ defensive effort on Monday was atrocious.

They were left on the field for long periods of time, but as a defense you still have to tackle. You still have to find ways to generate a pass rush and you can’t allow 497 total yards – 200 of which coming on the ground. The Cowboys did pick Eli Manning off three times, but he completed 25-of-35 passes for 306 yards and four touchdowns and at one point he completed 18 of his 21 pass attempts. With how easy it was to find space in Dallas’ secondary, receivers Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham must have thought that they were lining up against their scout team.

The Cowboys faced an uphill climb when Romo was healthy but now that he’s going to miss a big chunk of the season, it’s safe to say that the Cowboys aren’t realistic playoff contenders. The Giants are light years better right now and we’re talking about a team that turned the ball over five times on Monday. I can’t imagine what the score would have been had the Giants not given the Cowboys’ scoring chances throughout the game.

The Cowboys suffered a tough break when Romo went out, but there’s no excuse for how the defense played tonight. Phillips and company are in for a long rest of the season.

In his latest edition of “Monday Morning Quarterback,” Peter King of SI.com discussed Tony Romo’s health status for Week 11.

I think this is Romo’s health status as of this morning: Talked to Romo on Saturday, while he was on his final two days off of a bye week, and he told me, naturally, that he would definitely play against Washington on Sunday night at FedEx Field. But it sounded like he’d be affected by his partially healed broken right pinky finger. The break is just below the top knuckle on his right little finger, and he’ll play with a splint on it.

“It won’t be all the way healed,” he said. “It’s still probably a good two or three weeks away from that. I don’t know where it’s exactly going to be, healing-wise, in Washington, but my timing will be fine.”

The key is whether Romo will be able to throw a hard 15-yard out. Any quarterback who can’t throw a liner to the sidelines is going to be a detriment. “I had to throw one of those this week,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you. There was pain when I threw it. But I can take the pain. If I’ve done it once, I can do it again.” Romo also told me the finger “has gotten healthy enough so I could take a hit on it.”

We’ll see.

Dallas-Washington, with huge playoff implications, is a pretty big game. Dallas-Washington, with a marquee quarterback an injury risk, with the eyes of the nation on him, makes it a compelling watch.

I think expecting Romo to light up on Sunday night would be unrealistic. He’s going to struggle and I think the Cowboys will too, although they need him to play. Brad Bollinger (that’s not a mistake) is/are awful and if Dallas has any hope in turning around their season they need Romo on the field.

Just don’t expect that the Cowboys’ offense will run like it did before he was hurt. If Dallas is going to turn around its season, it will need the defense to step up big time.

Listen in as Anthony Stalter and I discuss Brett Favre and “Lionsgate,” the firing of Mike Nolan and how it will affect the 49ers fantasy players, Tony Romo’s injury, the Larry Johnson and Kellen Winslow suspensions, and a couple of this week’s good fantasy matchups (SD/NO and NYG/PIT).

Click here to listen to the podcast.

(The opening and closing music is Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young,” which you might recognize as the opening music to “Old School.”) [iTunes link]

- Chiefs’ RB Larry Johnson is likely to be suspended or inactive for Sunday’s game following an investigation that he recently spat in a woman’s face at a Kansas City nightclub. (ESPN.com)

- Broncos’ CB Champ Bailey will miss 4-6 weeks after suffering a torn groin in Denver’s loss to the Patriots on Monday night. (ESPN.com)

- Tony Romo will not play in the Cowboys’ game this Sunday against Tampa Bay and could be out at least two more weeks with a broke pinkie finger. (Dallas Morning News)

- The Cleveland Browns have suspended Kellen Winslow one game for his rant Monday against GM Phil Savage and coach Romeo Crennel. Winslow questioned the team’s handling of his staph infection. (Rotoworld.com)

- Patriots’ safety Rodney Harrison’s season is over. He tore a quad muscle Monday in New England’s win over Denver and the injury likely will end his 15-year NFL career. (NFL.com)

For the second straight week, the Rams produced the upset of the day (or at least the upset of the early games) as they smoked the Cowboys 34-14 in St. Louis.

While the Rams have been a nice story the past two weeks under interim head coach Jim Haslett, the story of this game has to be how out of sync Dallas looked offensively without Tony Romo (broken pinkie finger). Despite having a plethora of options in the passing game, Brad Johnson was absolutely brutal until late in the third quarter when the Rams’ defense was playing off the ball and allowed easy completions.

What happened to “American’s Team?” They thumped the Packers in Green Bay and everyone said they were easily the best team in the NFC, if not in the NFL. But in hindsight, something that many overlooked was how bad the defense looked against the Eagles on Monday night in Week 2. Dallas was absolutely shredded and is a fumbled exchange between Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook away from being a .500 team. The warning signs were there, but people were so enamored with all of the individual talent Dallas had on offense that they overlooked the underlying issues on defense.

The Cowboys obviously need a healthy Romo to get the offense back in sync. But more importantly, Wade Phillips needs to start making some wholesale changes on defense or else the ‘Boys won’t make the playoffs playing in a stacked NFC East.

Sunday’s Best: Colts (3-2) at Packers (3-3), 4:15 PM CBS
There are some brutal matchups this week, so this one wins by default. The Colts will try to carry the momentum from last weeks blowout win against Baltimore into Green Bay this Sunday, but will be without running back Joseph Addai. Dominic Rhodes gets the start, but head coach Tony Dungy has said that Clifton Dawson and Chad Simpson will see some opportunities as well. Peyton Manning played his most complete game of the season last week and might get the opportunity to exploit a banged up Packers’ secondary if Al Harris (spleen) continues to be hobbled (although word is Harris might play). The Packers meanwhile, have not had much success running the ball this year with Ryan Grant, which is unfortunate given that Indy’s main defensive weakness is stopping the run. If Green Bay can’t get the running game going, they’ll again rely on QB Aaron Rodgers to make big plays to wideouts Greg Jennings and Donald Driver in the passing game. This is a huge game for both teams, especially for the Colts considering they’re currently looking up at the 5-0 Titans in the AFC South.

Upset Watch: Jets (3-2) at Raiders (1-4), 4:15 PM CBS
It’s incredibly hard to back the mess that is the Oakland Raiders right now, but they still have a ton of talent on their roster and the Jets have been awfully inconsistent this season. One week they look like playoff contenders and the next they’re getting drummed. Even though they walked away with a victory, New York didn’t play that well against Cincinnati and Brett Favre continues to turn the ball over. The Jets haven’t been able to run the ball successfully of late either, managing just 66 yards per game in the last three weeks. If Oakland is going to pull off a victory in Tom Cable’s home debut, they’ll need to run the ball effectively themselves. Because clearly QB JaMarcus Russell isn’t ready to lead this team on his own yet.

Intriguing Matchup: Cowboys (4-2) at Rams (1-4), 1:00 PM FOX
The biggest question on everyone’s minds (especially fantasy owners) is whether QB Tony Romo will play or not. Despite breaking his pinkie finger in the loss to the Cardinals last week, all indications are that Romo will in fact play. He’ll have a new weapon to throw to in Roy Williams, who the team recently acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline. But not only will it be interesting to see how effective Romo can be with a broken finger, it’ll also be intriguing to watch the many personalities the ‘Boys have on offense now that Williams and T.O. have to share looks in the passing game. Dallas has not played well since their Sunday night win against the Packers early in the year and the Rams proved last week in a win over the Redskins that they won’t be pushovers now that Jim Haslett is running things.

Other Notable Games:
Saints (3-3) at Panthers (4-2), 1:00 PM ET FOX
While everyone is focusing on the East being the best division in the NFC, the South doesn’t have any teams below .500 right now. Some still believe the Saints are the best team in the division and they’ll get the opportunity to prove it this week in Carolina.

Browns (2-3) at Redskins (4-2), 4:15 PM ET CBS
What was the bigger fluke from Week 6 – the Browns beating the Giants or the Redskins losing to the Rams?

Titans (5-0) at Chiefs (1-4), 1:00 PM ET CBS
The Titans get to put their undefeated record on the line this week in Kansas City and fortunately for them the Larry Johnson-less Chiefs shouldn’t provide much of a challenge.

This isn’t the most concrete of sources (you’ll see the uncertainty in the quote), but the Dallas Morning News blog says that Romo could be re-evaluated this week and potentially play sooner rather than later.

Wade Phillips said Romo would throw in practice today and his status could be re-evaluated. At least that is what I think Phillips said while dodging most of the questions, supplying non-answers. He’s really good at that.

If true, this is obviously huge news. We’ll wait for confirmation.

ESPN.com is reporting that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo could miss up to four weeks because of a broken pinkie finger.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has a broken pinkie on his throwing hand and will be out four weeks, a team source told ESPN’s Michael Smith.

Romo initially was diagnosed with a pinkie sprain in Sunday’s 30-24 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

Veteran quarterback Brad Johnson, the Cowboys’ holder on kicks, is Romo’s backup.

The Cowboys have lost two of their last three games after starting the season 3-0.

For a team that just lost to the Arizona Cardinals, this is crippling for the Cowboys. Their offense is going to look quite different with “Elbow Pads” Johnson in there. That’s not to say that Johnson is going to be a complete waste (he does have plenty of weapons around him), but all of a sudden Dallas looks incredibly vulnerable.

Ouch! The upside is that owners with Tony Romo are probably doing pretty well record-wise, so maybe they can weather the storm for four weeks. Then again, maybe not. Brad Johnson seems like the easiest move to make, though there’s no guarantee that he has enough left in the tank. He’s a vet, however, and he’s walking into an offense with a ton of weapons. Trent Edwards is out there on a few waiver wires and he has nice matchups in Week 7 and Week 9. Matt Cassel has nice matchups the next two weeks but it looked like he’d post big numbers against a shaky Chargers defense and was unable to have any success. Matt Ryan is on bye this week, but looks like a decent start the following three, while Marc Bulger has three nice matchups in the next four games (though he hasn’t shown much of anything this season).