The condition of Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant’s back was an issue for much of last week as Bryant missed a practice amid reports that the team had concerns about disc problems.
Those reports were denied by both team and player, but there were more questions about the back after Bryant had just two passes thrown his way in Sunday night’s 49-17 loss to the Saints. Bryant, who caught one of those balls for 44 yards, said his back was fine after the game and that he wasn’t the man to answer questions about why the ball was going elsewhere.
“I just do as asked. That’s what I do. I can’t answer that,” Bryant said, via Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
The Saints devoted a lot of defensive attention to Bryant, double-teaming him on almost every snap and coach Jason Garrett pointed to that coverage as an explanation for the lack of targets. Garrett said the offense didn’t do a good enough job of making the Saints pay for doubling Bryant, which is certainly true but that’s not a good enough answer.
Teams are always going to devote extra attention to stopping Bryant and the Cowboys have to find ways to get the ball to him anyway. He’s too good a player to remain idle if the Cowboys are going to navigate the stretch run successfully.