Tim Cowlishaw: Cowboys must test Brandon Weeden soon, because Patriots sure will

It was not quite conspiratorial but something maybe approaching that level as Jason Garrett and others talked about Brandon Weeden’s first start of the season _ a hint of incredulity that anything about the type of passes Weeden had thrown was even open for discussion.tmpplchld Garret just thought he was incredibly efficient. Owner Jerry Jones told us the team definitely had something it could work with.tmpplchld What the Cowboys have for most of the next two months is what every NFL team wants to avoid _ a backup quarterback needing to win games.tmpplchld You can survive a week or two with your ace on the sidelines. Going half a season and still reaching the playoffs is hard, and we saw evidence of that Sunday.tmpplchld Three backups started NFL games due to injury. I am not including Ryan Fitzpatrick who replaced Geno Smith after he was cold-cocked in the Jets locker room in August. We’re talking about teams forced to change on the fly here.tmpplchld For New Orleans, Luke McCown of the ageless McCown Bros. got the call and threw for more than 300 yards at Carolina. Not good enough. The Saints lost.tmpplchld Chicago turned to Jimmy Clausen who, well, at least managed a turnover-free day at Seattle. Most teams don’t stand a chance with their starting quarterbacks in Seattle. With Jay Cutler’s backup at the helm, the Bears vanished quietly in the second half.tmpplchld For Dallas, Weeden completed 22 of 26 passes. You can’t ask for more than that. Heck, you can’t even ask for that. But once the running game died, the effectiveness of his check-down passes to backs in the middle of the field went south, too.tmpplchld Another backup, another loss.tmpplchld This may be a league that relies on efficiency and on the avoidance of turnovers. But it helps if your quarterback can make a big play or two as well. Weeden continued a disturbing trend of his brief career here Sunday.tmpplchld He threw more interceptions (one) than touchdowns (zero). That’s not necessarily a crime in itself _ a quarterback could be passing his team all the way down the field to the 2-yard line and then turning it over to a running back to score the points. But in Weeden’s 22 starts in Cleveland and Dallas, he has delivered more TD passes than interceptions five times (22.7 percent).tmpplchld In 125 NFL starts, Tony Romo has produced more touchdown passes than interceptions 83 times (66.4 percent).tmpplchld That’s not to put Sunday’s loss solely on Weeden’s shoulders. The Cowboys defense is capable of playing at two extremes, and we saw the worst of it Sunday. But with that in mind, here’s another bit of confusion that the Cowboys’ post-game remarks generated.tmpplchld Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones lit this team up Sunday. He lined up all over the field and the Cowboys couldn’t find him _ 12 catches, 164 yards, two touchdowns.tmpplchld The Cowboys all tipped their caps to his greatness.tmpplchld I would ask why the Cowboys didn’t focus more on Jones but, as Garrett said Monday, “Julio Jones is someone we went into the game trying to take out of the game.”tmpplchld So they tried. Didn’t go so well.tmpplchld How many times have we heard that opposing defenses took Dez Bryant away with their coverage, simply by rolling a safety to his side? The simplest things seem to cause the Cowboys offense to go running the other direction.tmpplchld As far as Weeden’s reliance on short passes to Lance Dunbar, Garrett said Monday this was a product of the Falcons and their soft zone coverage that mimics Seattle’s (Head Coach Dan Quinn was the Seahawks’ coordinator).tmpplchld So on the one hand Atlanta copies Seattle’s defense, and so that didn’t allow Weeden to attack the defense with deep throws. On the other, the Cowboys mostly bowed down to the greatness of Julio Jones.tmpplchld There’s an incongruity here, and perhaps it came from a team shell-shocked by the Falcons running off 25 straight points Sunday afternoon.tmpplchld Next week will provide a different test. We know Rob Ryan’s beleaguered Saints defense is going to blitz more and come after Weeden. And maybe that simply means another 10 catches for Dunbar, but, at some point, the Cowboys are going to have to see if Weeden can get the ball downfield to the wide receivers, not simply to Beasley on a short crossing route.tmpplchld The man has been called “a gifted passer” by Jones himself. Whatever part of that statement wasn’t merely owner hyperbole, the Cowboys need to start showcasing those gifts before New England gets to town in two weeks.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 The Dallas Morning Newstmpplchld Visit The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld