Team of the Week: Dallas Cowboys

No team in football was facing the kind of pressure that was bearing down on the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. America’s Team was staring into the abyss, with only a four-fingered quarterback to pull it back from the edge.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys rescued their season from oblivion with a 14–10 win over the Washington Redskins as Tony Romo returned to action with a serviceable performance and the Dallas defense suffocated the Redskin offense in pitching a second-half shutout. Romo, fighting a broken pinky, unveiled a modified throwing motion that suffered only a couple of significant breakdowns — including a first-half throw behind Terrell Owens that was intercepted — and produced the winning touchdown, a 25-yard strike to Martellus Bennett in the fourth quarter. And a Cowboy team that had looked adrift without its offensive heart and soul found new life in the chase for an NFC Wild Card spot.

Romo went to battle wearing a splint on his broken pinky that not only forced him to adjust his technique but also required him to celebrate his game-winning touchdown pass with awkward left-handed high-fives.

“You really wouldn’t be reading the tea leaves right if you didn’t understand that it took a lot of work on his part,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, “to where he could put the pressure with the four (fingers) rather than the pressure with using the little finger.”

The result was a 19-of-27 passing performance that produced 198 yards, two interceptions and the TD pass to Bennett, who outjumped safety Chris Horton on the run to come down with the ball. Not spectacular passing numbers, but good enough. And exactly what Romo’s team needed after a sputtering 1–2 performance in his absence.

“We had to have this one,” Romo said. “I told the guys the time is now. It's a show-me game, we had to go out there and show ourselves and show each other that we can play good football.”

Taking pressure off Romo was a Dallas defense that was also welcoming back an injured stalwart, cornerback Terence Newman, who had missed five games with a sports hernia. Newman thwarted a drive with a second-half interception and applied lockdown coverage on Santana Moss, who was held to 29 receiving yards. “He was challenged, and I knew he was the type of guy who was going to meet a challenge,” Dallas coach Wade Phillips said of Newman. “Terence, you could tell in practice he was ready to go.”

Newman keyed a Dallas defense that held the Redskins to 228 total yards, sacked quarterback Jason Campbell three times and allowed no drives longer than 52 yards on the afternoon.

Once the Cowboys took the lead, they turned the game over to bruising running back Marion Barber, who gained 66 of his 114 yards in the fourth quarter as the ’Boys held the ball for 10:52 in the final stanza. It was only Barber’s third 100-yard game of the season, but it could portend a strong stretch run for a reinvigorated Cowboys offense.

The win, which gives the Cowboys a season split with their fiercest rivals, leaves Dallas and Washington tied at 6–4, hopelessly behind the 9–1 Giants in the NFC East but very much alive in the Wild Card race.

“Are we back to the old Cowboys?” Owens wondered aloud afterwards. “Who knows? But this is definitely a step in the right direction.”

The NFL's team of the week is selected each Monday in the Lighting It Up section presented by Lithonia Lighting. Previous winners: Vikings, Titans, Saints, Packers, Chargers, Giants, Dolphins, Chiefs, Cardinals.