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Owens helps Cowboys survive surge by Bengals

Oct 6, 2008 - 1:03 AM IRVING, Texas (Ticker) -- The Dallas Cowboys aren't interested in appearances, which is a good thing considering their sloppy effort in getting past the lowly Cincinnati Bengals.

Terrell Owens caught a 57-yard touchdown pass and helped the Cowboys survive a late surge by the Bengals in a 31-22 victory on Sunday.

Tony Romo threw the scoring strike with 11:56 remaining in the game to give the Cowboys a 24-16 advantage. With the catch, Owens tied Marshall Faulk for fourth on the all-time list for total touchdowns with 136.

"I'm sorry that I'm not sorry that we won," Romo said. "I think that's something that we have to fight around here is that if you don't win pretty it's not a positive. At the end of the year, it's going to be a W.

"You could look beautiful and pretty, but there's no guarantee it's going to stay that way. You don't get crowned champions for being the best-looking team right now."

Bengals running back Chris Perry fumbled at the Cowboys 40-yard line and Anthony Spencer recovered the ball with 12:36 left to set up Owens' score.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh recorded seven catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns - including a 10-yarder with 7:45 left to cut Cincinnati's deficit to 24-22.

Carson Palmer unleashed a fade pass toward the left corner of the end zone for a two-point conversion to forge a tie, but intended receiver Ben Utecht failed to convert.

"If you don't give up a big play, which they didn't, you're going to win the majority of the games," Houshmandzadeh said. "They didn't give up a big play and they beat us. Last week against Washington, they gave up big plays and they lost. If you eliminate big plays, you'll win games."

Romo, who completed 14-of-23 attempts for 176 yards, hit Patrick Crayton for a 15-yard TD with 1:52 left to secure the victory.

"We did a good job of not succumbing to the momentum," Romo said. "We're excited that we're finding different ways to win."

Jason Witten caught a 4-yard touchdown pass 2:48 into the second to give Dallas a 17-0 advantage, but Cincinnati then began its comeback.

"We were in a lull there in the second half," Witten said. "You want to come out and make a statement, but they didn't quit, either.

"I wouldn't say we're struggling. We still put up 17 points in the first half and ran for 180 yards. I wouldn't call that struggling."

Shayne Graham booted field goals of 41 and 31 yards and Palmer threw an 18-yard TD pass to Houshmandzadeh with 7:59 left in the third to cut the deficit to 17-13.

"I just finished telling those guys in that room that there is no consolation prize for losing," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "We kind of dug ourselves a hole and put the defense in a bad situation at the end of the football game. Some of the explosive plays today, we have to get those shut down."

Graham struck again for a 40-yard field goal just 58 seconds into the fourth to pull within 17-16.

Rookie Felix Jones broke free for a 33-yard rushing score with six minutes remaining in the first to extend the Cowboys' bulge to 10-0.

"I thought that was a real good win for us," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "We made mistakes, but we were able to overcome them and that's part of learning to win.

"I thought our guys played as hard as they could play. The bottom line is whether you win or not. We got lots of things to work and we're going to work like crazy to correct our mistakes. You still got to learn to win. Some teams would've lost this game because things weren't going well."