NBC 5 and Blue-Star's own Newy Scruggs has reported that Marion Barber, who went down in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's loss to the Giants, will miss one to two weeks with a quadriceps injury.
This is a blow for the Cowboys, to be sure, but it could have certainly been worse. The play in question saw Barber come up lame on a run that might have resulted in a Cowboys touchdown otherwise; instead, Barber pulled up, hobbled for about five yards before crumpling to the turf at Cowboys Stadium.
Lucky for Dallas, there are three immensely talented running backs on the roster; with Barber down, Tashard Choice and Felix Jones should see increased carries. Both have looked promising thus far, making timely contributions behind Barber, who has been the team's horse on offense.
Still, one would be hard-pressed to overlook what Barber's done over the first two games. Barber has looked, pretty much unquestionably, as good as he has since 2007, the last time he went to the Pro Bowl. In 32 carries over the first two games of the year, Barber has amassed 203 yards and 2 touchdowns, while averaging 6.3 yards a carry.
Suffice it to say, depth or not, this is a sizeable loss for Dallas, the magnitude of which wasn't lost on Barber's running mate, Choice.
"First, I hate to see him go down, I hate to have to play for one of my teammates getting hurt," said Choice. "I didn't know he was gonna score on that game, I saw that on sportscenter -- he had a heck of a game. He looked good, on a roll. [It will be] interesting to see how it's gonna turn around this week."
