Dallas Cowboys: Five Reasons to Keep Watching the 'Boys This Season

After Monday night's loss to the Giants and Tony Romo expected to miss 6-8 weeks with a broken collarbone, the season is over for the Cowboys. Some may still be positive about the season, but it's over. So for those who still want to watch the Cowboys instead of going to a farmers market with your girlfriend on Sundays here are five reasons to keep watching (six if you count not wanting to go to the farmers market).

1. Dez Bryant and Sean Lee

Dez Bryant will continue to get the ball and score. The Cowboys might not put up many points with Romo out, but one thing Jon Kitna realized on Monday night was that he doesn't have to throw the most accurate pass for Bryant to get to it and score. He's also a beast in the punt return game and will get another return TD before the season is over. 

Keith Brooking isn't the same guy he was last year, which is evidenced by him getting blocked out of plays all season and being on highlight reels for getting blown up. At some point the Cowboys will need to take a better look at his replacements in Lee and Jason Williams. Lee played with the first-team defense last week and if the Cowboys keep losing you could see Lee and Williams playing together with the starters. 

2. Wade Philips and Jason Garrett

Wade Phillips keeps saying that he won't quit and neither will his team, and if he wants any chance to keep his job, the Cowboys need to show that by winning. Although Romo is out for eight weeks, the talent on the offense is still there and the entire defense is still there. So the Cowboys should still be able to compete if nothing else. 

That depends on Phillips. If he can get them to believe and to play like it and get a few wins when they're expected to lose, it could go a long way to keeping some faith in the Cowboys season and keeping his job. 

He got their penalties under control for at least a week, now he needs to work on the mistakes. 

Jason Garrett is also auditioning to keep his job. With all the Cowboys' weapons on offense, he has to find a way to get Jon Kitna in a position to make plays. He also has to find the Cowboys running game to take some pressure off of Kitna. 

Garrett won't be able to give up on the run anymore and put the game in the hands of Kitna. So hopefully Garrett will find more ways to get the running game going and to get Kitna to make some plays downfield. 

3. Backups

Bryant and Lee aren't what I would call backups since they play a lot. However there will be some backups that could see more playing time in the future.

With Kosier still out and Holland injuring his groin last night Phil Costa saw a lot of action last night. Sam Young could also see some time if injures keep piling up on the line.  

Safeties Akwasi Owusu-Ansah and Barry Church could also see an increase in playing time once the Cowboys fall out of playoff contention. 

4. Draft Placement

If the Cowboys continue to lose they'll be looking at a high draft pick and while they have a lot of starters in place, there will be some changes next season. There will be a lot of talk about what side of the ball the Cowboys should use that pick on. Another option would be to trade down in the draft for more picks.

5. They're Still Your Team

Although the Cowboys are 1-5 and Romo is out for two months and things don't look to be getting better any time soon, they're still your team. 

Things were a lot worse just a few years ago when Dave Campo was running the Cowboys to three straight 5-11 seasons; at least this team has a small chance of turning things around instead of being dead from the word go.