National Football League

Weeden disappoints in opportunity to lead Cowboys' offense

Published Nov. 2, 2014 5:53 p.m. ET

foxsports

ARLINGTON, Texas - Brandon Weeden looked about as bad Sunday as Tony Romo's back feels.

Starting in place of an injured Romo, Weeden was a miserable 18-of-33 passing for 183 yards with two interceptions against Arizona.

His numbers would have looked a lot worse without a meaningless 80 yards passing and a touchdown on a garbage-time drive. By then the Cardinals had the game well in hand on the way to a 28-17 win.

This wasn't the Weeden we saw on Monday night. Then, Weeden was pressed into duty when Romo injured his back against Washington. Weeden led the Cow-boys to 10 points on two drives before Romo came back into the game.

Sunday, Weeden had a 10-0 lead to work with before everything fell apart. A 58-yard Tyler Patmon interception return put the Cowboys up 7-0 before Weeden took the field.

When he did, he helmed a 10-play, 49-yard drive that resulted in a 52-yard field goal by Dan Bailey. Needing that many plays to set up a long field goal fore-told the struggle that was to come.

"You can't turn the ball over, and that is on me," Weeden said. "I was inconsistent. Some good at times, some not good enough at times...In order for this offense to go, I needed to play better at certain times."

Weeden was billed as the most prepared backup in the NFL, thanks to Romo taking Wednesdays off. That's in addition to a preseason in which Romo made only a cameo appearance.

With so many practice snaps under his belt, it was mystifying to see Weeden lock on to receivers and telegraph throws. He appeared to have no chemistry with any of the receivers other than veteran tight end Jason Witten, who had six catches for 62 yards - and two tackles. Witten saved touchdowns on an interception and a blocked field goal.

"I knew it would be a challenge," owner Jerry Jones said when asked to judge Weeden's performances. "I would have liked for him to get some third and fourth options because we had them. That would have made a big difference out there. But again, that's a lot to expect in this situation."

Weeden could not get the ball the Cowboys' biggest playmaker, Dez Bryant, whose frustration showed in his demeanor as the game wore on. Weeden targeted Bryant eight times without success before finally connecting twice on the final drive, including the three-yard touchdown pass.

"It takes time. I didn't play at all with him in preseason," Weeden said of his lack of chemistry with Bryant. "Tony and Dez, they've been doing it a long time. They know each other like the back of their hands."

Fittingly, Bryant declined to throw up his trademark "X" sign after the meaningless touchdown. It didn't deserve an X, but Weeden probably deserved an F for failing to pilot an offense that has so many weapons.

Granted, Arizona's highly-regarded secondary had something to do with that. As did the Cardinals' blitzing, which pressured Weeden and held running back DeMarco Murray under 100 yards for the first time this season.

"As a starter or a backup, when you are given the opportunity to play, you've got to make the most of it," Weeden said. "Like I said, I didn't play 80 plays of bad ball, just not enough good ones to overcome it."

With Romo out, the obvious strategy would have been to let Murray and the offensive line carry the offense. That wasn't going to work Sunday for two reasons. First, the Cowboys' offensive line was missing two starters. Second, a big reason the Cardinals are 7-1 is that they load their defense to stop the run.

"You need to be able to chase them out of it by being effective and efficient in the passing game," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. " We didn't do that consistently enough throughout this game and that hurt us."

But Weeden had too many poor throws and too many instances of obvious miscommunication to give Arizona all the credit for his struggles. Weeden, who started 20 games over the last two seasons, should have given the Cowboys more production through the air.

Arizona's lead was just 14-10 going into the fourth quarter. If Weeden had been able to exploit the Cardinals' blitzes just a little, the failure to convert on fourth-and-one with 9:30 left wouldn't have taken all the air out of the Cowboys.

"We need to be more effective when they're playing that style of defense," Garrett said. "We were getting single-high looks (one deep safety) really, across the board. You need to be able to stand in there and throw it and catch it and move the ball that way, and then come back and be balanced in the running game."

Weeden couldn't provide that balance. Not even with him getting practice snaps on Thursday and Friday, too.

Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire