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Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Once they stopped beating themselves with penalties, the Dallas Cowboys took command of the NFC East by riding their biggest stars: Tony Romo and Terrell Owens.

Romo hit Owens on two of his four touchdown passes and Dallas opened a big lead in the division by ending the Giants' six-game winning streak with a 31-20 victory on Sunday.

"If you want to call it swagger, yes we have the confidence that we know we can go out and beat teams," said Owens, who broke the game open with second-half TD catches of 25 and 50 yards. Owens finished with six catches for 125 yards, his third straight 100-yard game.

With the win, the Cowboys (8-1) opened a two-game lead over the Giants (6-3), a three-game edge on Washington (5-4) and a four-game margin on Philadelphia (4-5). Dallas also swept the season series with New York, so it has the tiebreaker should they finished tied.

"It's another step along the journey that we're trying to go through to get where we want to go," said Romo, who completed 20-of-28 for 247 yards. "A win like tonight just adds to your confidence. When you do something like this, you have a chance to do something special."

The last time the Cowboys started a season at 8-1 was 1995, the last time they won the Super Bowl.

With seven games left, the Cowboys also are tied with Green Bay for the best record in the conference. The two will play in Dallas on Nov. 29.

For the Giants, their best hopes for a playoff berth seemingly are a wild-card spot.

"It does put us behind the 8-ball," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "If you ever play pool, I've seen people make shots from behind that 8-ball. That's what we are looking at."

Romo also threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Tony Curtis in the first quarter and a 20-yarder to Patrick Crayton just before halftime, starting a string of three straight touchdown drives.

Nick Folk added a 44-yard field goal.

Eli Manning threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey, who tied his career high with 12 catches for 129 yards. Reuben Droughns scored on a 1-yard run and Lawrence Tynes kicked field goals of 40 and 26 yards.

The second field goal came after New York had Brandon Jacobs' potential tying touchdown run early in the fourth quarter nullified by a questionable holding penalty on guard Chris Snee against Roy Williams.

"I didn't think I held him, but you have to go with the call," said Snee, who originally thought Dallas was being called for a penalty.

Until that point, the Cowboys were the ones hurting themselves with undisciplined errors. Four penalties in the first half gave New York 10 points and had Dallas heading to the locker room tied at 17.

The Cowboys were called for three penalties on the Giants' opening TD drive. The one everyone will remember was a taunting call against linebacker Kevin Burnett with the Cowboys ahead 17-14 in the waning seconds.

VERNON BRYANT / DMN

Dallas Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin (26) intercepts a pass from New York's Eli Manning.

Jacobs had just been stuffed on a run from his 35 and Burnett yapped at him. The 15-yard walkoff moved the ball to the 50 with 12 seconds to go. Manning found Shockey for 29 yards to set up a 40-yard field goal by Tynes that tied the game.

"Once it's over, you have to learn from your mistakes," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "We couldn't harp on that. We just told them it was nothing-nothing. We've done it all year. The second half is ours."

The Cowboys' defense, which sacked Manning five times and intercepted him twice, stopped the Giants on the opening possession of the half and then Romo and company took over.

The go-ahead 25-yard touchdown pass came on a play where T.O. ran past cornerback Sam Madison and was wide open. It capped a 12-play, 86-yard drive on which the Cowboys converted three 10-plus-yard situations, the last a 13-yard pass to Crayton on third-and-11 from the New York 38. Owens scored on the next play.

Owens ran by safety Gibril Wilson on the long pass.

"If he gets moving, he's tough to catch up to," Romo said. "I just tried to give him some air and let him go get it."

Romo's other touchdown passes were just as easy against an improved defense that gave up 45 points in Dallas in the opener.

His 15-yard pass to Curtis on the opening series came after he broke containment on a pass rush. Just before reaching the line of scrimmage, he saw a wide-open Curtis in the corner of the end zone.

Manning, who was 23-of-34 for 236 yards on a day he threw mostly short passes, tied the game with his TD pass to Shockey.

Folk's field goal gave Dallas a 10-7 lead before Wilson's interception set up a 60-yard drive Droughns capped with his run.

Crayton gave the Cowboys a 17-14 lead with 20 seconds to go with a 20-yard catch and run after breaking a tackle by cornerback Aaron Ross.

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By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
tarcher@dallasnews.com

Terrell Owens

PHILADELPHIA – When Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Keith Davis and Bradie James were selected captains by their teammates at the beginning of the year, Terrell Owens jokingly self-appointed himself the Cowboys' fifth captain.

Until Sunday, however, Owens never made it to midfield for the pregame coin flip. But there was a not-so-coincidental change when the other team happened to be the Philadelphia Eagles.

About the only thing Owens did wrong against his former team Sunday was lose the coin toss.

With Owens playing a leading role he so desperately wanted to play in his return trip to Lincoln Financial Field last season, the Cowboys left Philadelphia with a 38-17 victory to hit the season's midway point with a 7-1 record.

Owens caught 10 passes for 174 yards, both personal bests with the Cowboys, and had a decisive 45-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

"I thought anytime a guy's been at another place, they really get motivated to play and not for revenge or anything, just to show that they can play," said coach Wade Phillips, who appointed Owens a captain.

Sure.

Before practices last week, it was Owens who glad-handed nearly everybody on the team during stretching. After practices, it was Owens who spoke to the players.

Maybe it wasn't revenge for Owens, but Sunday's win was sweet.

"He's going to sleep well tonight if he sleeps at all," said quarterback Tony Romo, who threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns in his first game since signing a six-year, $67.5 million contract extension. "He didn't talk much during the week, but I know this one meant a lot to him. … If you know T.O., you know he was passionate about this game, this team and this organization."

Admittedly Owens' first trip to Philadelphia a year ago as a Cowboy was a disaster. He caught only three passes for 45 yards and was mocked by a raucous crowd after a drop, and the Cowboys lost, 38-24.

But on the first drive Sunday, he converted a third-down chance with a 23-yard catch three plays before Julius Jones gave the Cowboys a 7-0 lead with a 2-yard run.

By halftime Owens had more catches (six) and yards (84) than he had in two games – and two losses – against the Eagles in 2006.

In the third quarter, Owens put the game away with the 120th touchdown catch of his career.

Lining up in the slot, Owens was able to break free off the line of scrimmage with safety Brian Dawkins blitzing off the edge. With the middle of the field wide open, Romo found Owens with a quick throw, and he broke one tackle on his way to the end zone.

But the fans who booed him so lustily had no reaction to his bird-flap celebration. Instead, they mostly sat in stunned resignation.

"I told you there was a lot of love in those boos," Owens said not long after the 42nd 100-yard game of his career. "As you saw, I didn't get that many boos."

While not as historic as his 20-catch, 283-yard game against Chicago on Dec. 17, 2000, while with San Francisco, the victory was as personally satisfying for Owens as any he has had in his career.

"I just wanted to show those guys this is what I do," Owens said. "When I was here, I made plays and nothing is going to change."

The TD was the 19th Owens has put up in his 24 games as a Cowboy, a number that Witten equaled with a 20-yard over-the-shoulder grab from Romo with 4:28 to play in the third quarter for a 35-10 lead.

Before Witten – who later lost his helmet during a career-long 53-yard catch in the fourth quarter – could get to the sideline, Lincoln Financial Field began to empty. Even though more than a quarter remained, the faithful knew there would be no comeback.

MICHAEL MULVEY / DMN

Terrell Owens (81) runs for the end zone to complete a 45-yard pass play.

Not with the way Romo, Owens and a stifling defense played Sunday.

"It's a tough place for the Dallas Cowboys to play," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "It's always been that way. It was that way when we were winning world championships. So to come here and win, I think it does say something very positive about our future this year."

With the win, the Cowboys improved to 7-1 for the 10th time in team history and the first since 1995.

More important, the victory kept the Cowboys in a dead-heat with Green Bay for the NFC's best record and a game ahead of the idle New York Giants, whom they visit next week.

The 38 points was the most the Cowboys have scored against Philadelphia since a 41-22 strike-game win in 1987 and the most in Philadelphia since a 42-7 victory in 1971.

"This," Owens said, "is just a taste of what this team can do."

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