Dez Bryant Injury: Are Dallas Cowboys in Trouble vs San Francisco 49ers?

Now that it's official that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant will not play in this afternoon's game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Cowboys have a tough task ahead of them.

Dallas will need all the help they can get against one of the toughest Week 1 defensive squads, and losing a major playmaker like Bryant means one less consistent target for quarterback Tony Romo.

All hope isn't lost, of course. Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin is more than equipped to pick up the workload for Bryant, as is tight end Jason Witten. While the running game has lost some of it's bruising quality with Marion Barber going to Chicago, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice are a solid running back tandem.

The question mark for the Cowboys offense is Romo. Romo made some poor decisions in the team's loss last week to the New York Jets. Though he has accepted responsibility for them and ostensibly moved on, the fact remains that he can, and has, cost Dallas games.

San Francisco's offense shouldn't prove to be as much of a test as the Jets were last week, and the Cowboys were able to hold New York's rushing to just 45 yards, and it's tough to say that Frank Gore will fare much better against the team this week.

Quarterback Alex Smith will be without wide receiver Michael Crabtree this week, and though he wasn't much of a factor last week, neither was anyone else. Smith threw for just 124 yards against the Seahawks last week, and threw zero touchdowns.

The Cowboys have only themselves, and the 49ers defense, standing in the way of their first victory of the season.