Tony Romo done for the season, Cowboys quarterback diagnosed with fractured

The Dallas Cowboys lost starting quarterback Tony Romo to a likely season-ending collarbone injury just one week after he returned to help the team snap a seven-game losing streak.

Romo, who throws with his right arm, suffered a broken left clavicle in Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles and would go to miss seven games, which all resulted in losses.

With six seconds left in the third quarter, Romo was sacked by the Panthers’ Thomas Davis.

In five games for the Cowboys this season, Cassel is completing 63 percent of his passes throwing for 902 yards, an average of 180.4 passing yards per game, with five touchdowns and five interceptions.

They came after safety Kurt Coleman had picked off Romo’s second pass of the game and took it back 36 yards for the first points of the contest.

“I’m just very disappointed in not giving our team the chance to win today”.

Carolina quarterback Cam Newton turned in a stellar performance, connecting on 16 of 27 passes for 183 yards and rushed for 45 yards and a touchdown.

“You have to step in and try to fulfill that role”, Cassel said after leading Dallas’ only touchdown drive against the Panthers.

Following an embarrassing 33-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Thanksgiving, the Cowboys fell to 3-8 and in all reality their playoff hopes are done.

“We wouldn’t let Tony play if he wasn’t ready to play physically”, coach Jason Garrett said after the game.

The team remains undefeated with a 11-0 season record.

Romo went on injured reserve with a designation to return after the first injury, and the Cowboys couldn’t win without him. He would have a young quarterback in the system to replace Romo one day and he wouldn’t have to pay a heavy price to get him.

“I figured, ‘Why put (the defense) in a bad spot and I really do mean that”, Rivera said. Romo was clutching his left clavicle, the same bone he fractured earlier this year. He missed the final 10 games of the 2010 season with the injury.

“We’ll look at certainly where we are at our backup quarterback position, which probably if I could redo some of the thinking there this year, that would be the first place I’d start looking in my mirror”, Jerry Jones said. He threw for 136 yards, going 12 of 26, and lost two fumbles.

While Romo’s shoulder is done, there are questions of whether or not the Cowboys rushed Romo back to make an ill-fated run at a division crown, when in reality the odds of the Cowboys getting there, just seemed far too unlikely of a task for them to complete.