This is the type of win that will likely drop the Cowboys in a few power ranking polls, but it really doesn’t matter. The Cowboys came off a week of distractions in the form of injuries and off-the-field matters to pull out a tough road victory that turned out to be very important. The 20-13 win reduces the Cowboys’ magic number for home field advantage throughout the playoffs to one. This means we are now big fans of Chicago and Detroit…and we still hate Washington.

With Terrell Owens, the Cowboys jumped out to a 14-0 lead. He was injured in the Cowboys’ second touchdown drive. Without him, Dallas struggled to score six more points. Latest news I’ve heard is that he suffered a high ankle sprain and will probably be out until the playoffs. The focus now shifts to Patrick Crayton and Sam Hurd, and the possibility of Terry Glenn returning may be more of a necessity than it was before.

Incidentally, I did not have access to NFL Network during the game, and being in St. Louis for the holiday, I could not listen to the Cowboys’ broadcast over the air. I was thus forced to flip back and forth between the Cowboys’ broadcast on Field Pass (which is usually about 30 seconds off of the live action), the NFL.com Game Center, and the parts of the game that were streamed over NFL.com. Dear NFL: To heck with your network.

Some notes from the game:

* Tony Romo dropped the first snap of the game, which sure looked like an omen, given the injured thumb and the backup center.
* For the first quarter and a half, the Cowboys really shut down the Panther offense. Carolina managed two first downs on its first three possessions.
* Marion Barber looked as if he would make sure that the starters could rest. His legs provided the muscle that moved the Cowboys 75 yards in 4:13 during the second quarter to set up their second touchdown. However, on that drive, Owens suffered the ankle injury while catching a pass on 3rd and 3 from the Carolina 9. That was the last time we saw T.O. during the evening.
* Although T.O. plays neither on defense or on special teams, the Cowboys’ other units fell apart briefly. Once again, the kickoff coverage unit gave Carolina the ball in great field position (near the 40 following a return by tight end Jeff King on a short kickoff after the second Dallas touchdown). The defense then gave up on a long run to DeAngelo Williams, setting up Matt Moore’s first career touchdown pass to Steve Smith.
* Dallas managed a field goal after the Carolina touchdown to extend the lead to 17-7, and then Anthony Henry picked off Moore to set up another Dallas drive late in the half. However, the Cowboys could not get into field goal range before the half.
* The Cowboys’ defense made a good stop on the Panthers’ opening drive of the second half. After moving the ball to the Dallas 1, Carolina was backed up to the Dallas 20 on the next several plays and was forced to kick a field goal. It cut the lead to 17-10, which was much better than 17-14 at that point.
* Although Romo made some poor throws, his only really big mistake was trying to hit Crayton on a deep post early in the fourth quarter. He was picked off by linebacker Thomas Davis, who was ruled down at the 3. The placement of the ball turned out to be good news for the Cowboys, though, who stopped Carolina on the next drive.
* The Cowboys chipped away at some yards following a Carolina punt from its own 5 with 13:24 left.
* The Panthers appeared to get a huge catch from Steve Smith with 7:08 remaining. Smith caught a ball between Ken Hamlin and Jacques Reeves, but the ball came loose when he hit the ground. The officials ruled the pass incomplete, and the play was upheld on review. That one will be debated next week for sure.
* Moore converted 4th-and-9 play from the Carolina 34 by hitting Smith on a 57-yard gain, prompting reminders of Mark Brunell hitting Santana Moss on a fourth down play when the Redskins beat the Cowboys 14-13 early in the 2005 season. This is fortunately not the 2005 season.
* Marion Barber secured the game MVP award– I think– with 24 yards that he gained on the Cowboys’ final drive. On a second-and-8 from the Dallas 25, I lost my live feed. Just as I got it back, I discovered that Barber had broken off an 11-yard run that iced the game. I was bracing for a last-second Carolina drive.

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Stats for the game:

* Dallas outgained Carolina 405 to 216 and held the ball for 39 minutes.
* Marion Barber gained 110 yards on the night, surpassing 100 for the first time since Thanksgiving and for the third time this year. Unofficially, he needs 19 yards against Washington to go over 1,000 for the season.
* Assuming that Owens’ regular season is over, his final stats are 81 receptions for 1,355 yards and 15 touchdowns. He finished four catches short of his 2006 total in receptions, but surpassed his stats in receiving yards and touchdowns. It is his best season since 2001, when he caught 93 passes for 1,412 yards and 16 touchdowns for the 49ers.

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Records

Three major team and individual records fell or were tied tonight:

(1) Tony Romo became the first quarterback in team history (you know, the team with Don Meredith, Roger Staubach, Danny White, Troy Aikman, and Chad Hutchinson) to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a season.

(2) This year’s squad joined the 1992 team as the only two with 13 wins. This franchise has some sort of affinity for 12-win seasons, having gone either 12-4 or 12-2 (prior to 1978) on nine different occasions.

(3) Owens finally broke Frank Clarke’s record for touchdown receptions (14) by hauling in his 15th of the season. Clarke, by the way, caught 47 passes for 1,043 yards in 1962, for an average of 22.2 yards per catch. Owens certainly wasn’t bad in that category, finishing with a 16.7 yard average.