Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer 8y

Jerry Jones: It's 'logical' Cowboys QB decision will be known early next week

IRVING, Texas -- Unless the Dallas Cowboys want to play the secrecy game, who starts at quarterback against the New York Giants Oct. 25 should be known early next week.

Speaking on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday morning, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said it would be “logical” to say the determination of reps at next week’s walk-through after the team returns from the bye or at the Oct. 21 practice will demonstrate whether Brandon Weeden or Matt Cassel would start against the Giants.

The Cowboys are evaluating the position -- as well as others -- after their third straight loss without Tony Romo, who is out until Nov. 22 at the earliest with a broken collarbone.

“I just think what our jobs is as coaches is always try to do the right thing for our football team,” Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said Monday. “Every decision is based on that, and this is no different than that.”

While Weeden is not fully to blame, the Cowboys offense has become stagnant and was unable to generate much in Sunday's 30-6 loss to the New England Patriots. It was the first time since Week 3 of the 2011 season the Cowboys failed to score a touchdown in a game. The offense had six three-and-outs in the first half and Weeden averaged 4.8 yards per attempt with 188 yards on 26-of-39 passing.

Jones said the lack of the big play has hurt the offense. In the three games with Weeden as the starter, the Cowboys have only six pass plays of 20 yards or more. They had just one against the Patriots, on a fourth-quarter completion to Cole Beasley for 21 yards.

On The Fan, Jones likened the lack of the big play on offense to the lack of takeaways by the defense.

“I think you have to have some of those on a drive, in my mind, to hold the clock and to basically have some success,” Jones told the radio station. “You've got to have some bigger plays in drives to be trite, and that's what I would hope that we could get from the quarterback, is throwing some big plays. If you really look at it, we've done a good job on the turnover aspect of it. We had the last two in the second half the other day. But apart from that, we've done a good job on turnovers. I think the other thing that it shows you is, you know, this business of playing it really close in the league in this day and time doesn't necessarily get the win.”

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