Is the touch sensor located in the digitizer?

Hi i recently replaced my ipod touch 2nd generation screen since it was broken. I replaced the screen with a new one and the left side of the ipod touch(1,4,7 number area) does not respond to touch. i noticed when i took off the screen to retry that there was a rip in the ribbon cable. is my problem then in the rip in the cable, or in the lcd part of the ipod. my main question is is the touch sensor part of the digitizer or the lcd? and if i buy a new digitizer and be more careful could this solve my dead spot problem?