Jason Witten early in the game, the second offensive series actually, went out in to the flats and caught a pass from a scrambling Tony Romo. He was quickly hit by Oakland linebacker Rolando McClain. The hit made him leave the field and miss a few plays but the always tough Witten came back in and caught one more pass before calling it a night.
The hit even made Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones nervous.
“When I held my breath was when I saw Witten take that lick and it was the same play Tony got contorted,” Jones said. “Certainly after it was over, I said we’re probably getting to time to move on there with another quarterback in there.”
“Ideally, you’d like to have gone down and gotten one in the end zone, but the answer is no,” Jones added when discussing the disappointing offensive performance. “I really liked what I saw individually from the offensive line and I had a chance to sit with John Madden and watch the offensive line in the second half and that’s his specialty there, where he likes to look, and he saw some of our guys do good.”
Jason Witten though, according to sources cited by ESPN Dallas, will miss the remainder of the preseason and possibly the season opener September 5th against the New York Giants with an internal injury to his spleen.
Witten has been a constant source of production and reliability for the Cowboys catching 409 passes over 5 years with Romo quarterbacking the team and has amassed 4,824 yards receiving. With Witten out that leaves John Phillips as the starter for the season opener.
Phillips missed the preseason opener against the Raiders and has been out with an ankle injury. He hasn’t been the most productive only compiling 163 yards receiving over 2 seasons. The Cowboys also have James Hanna whom they drafted in the 6th round of this year’s NFL draft.