There is no real belief that any other pass catcher can produce on third down. Remove Aikman and Smith from the scene, and, well, that's what we saw in the second half Monday as the Vikings rattled off 20 straight points despite some amazing ineptitude on their own part. So now it's Jason Garrett to the rescue, but don't expect him to relive his occasionally impressive past. This will not be a case of letting Smith and Irvin carry the load. At this point in his career, Chris Warren is a third-down back.
Reliable receivers are in awfully short supply.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this past week spoke of fearing something even worse than defeat in Minnesota. He said winning the game and losing a key player would be worse. NFC is feasible. The story in Dallas isn't going to be Gailey's play-calling. Not for a while, anyway.