Tony Romo Injury: Did Dallas Cowboys QB Lose His Starting Job for Good?

In Brett Favre-esque style, Tony Romo rescued the Dallas Cowboys from falling to the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park yesterday.

Romo suffered two cracked ribs at the end of the first half of play but returned in the fourth quarter to exorcise his Week 1 demons. After his much hyped meltdown against the New York Jets, Romo drove his team down the field twice to tie and win the game respectively.

However, despite two miscues leading to interceptions by Jon Kitna, some of the win can be attributed to Kitna's drive that culminated with a touchdown pass to Miles Austin.

With the aforementioned rib injury surely ailing Romo, his status for Week 3 against the Washington Redskins is pending his CT scan later today. ESPN NFC East blogger Matt Mosley tweeted that he expects the Dallas quarterback to play through the injury.

It's hard to look past Kitna's mistakes during his limited play this weekend, but he did come in and provide the Cowboys offense with a spark they weren't showing while Romo was on the field. Perhaps this is due to coincidence with the fact head coach Jason Garrett most likely had a motivational speech ready at halftime. But regardless, without Kitna's touchdown Dallas is 0-2.

In my humble opinion, it would be hard to imagine Garrett replacing the face of the franchise with the journeyman backup regardless of how well he plays if Romo is sidelined for any number of weeks. But No. 9 has to continue to show more of the quarterback we saw in the fourth quarter in order to quiet the grumblings of his critics.

The Eastern Illinois alum has posted 687 passing yards with four touchdowns to start the season, which for most earns a pat on the back from the media (looking at you Cam Newton), but for Romo it's all about the wins and losses due to the star on his helmet.

Owner Jerry Jones has backed his veteran quarterback on many occasions while Garrett has worked with Romo for several seasons now in the Cowboys organization. It would be borderline shocking to see Kitna usurp the starting job somehow or see Dallas draft a quarterback in the early rounds of the 2012 NFL Draft.