Back on track? Cowboys still have familiar scent

DALLAS -- Maybe the fan exiting Texas Stadium said it best after watching his Dallas Cowboys hold on to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon.

"We might have won this game but we still look like -----," the fan yelled.

The Brad Johnson era better be short for the Cowboys. (Getty Images)

We have to use dashes for etiquette's sake, but you know what he meant. And he is spot on in describing this one.

The Cowboys, a Super Bowl darling of most before the season, came into Sunday having lost back-to-back games, leading many to speculate that they might be attending a funeral instead of a football game.

Death might be premature, but there was nothing in their 13-9 victory against the Bucs that would lead one to conclude the illness symptoms aren't still there, rather, just covered up for a week.

It took a late-game stand, forcing an incomplete pass by Jeff Garcia at the Dallas 18 with 13 seconds left to preserve the victory, but once the ball fell to the ground you could hear the collective sigh from the Dallas bench all the way in press box.

It's that type of month for the Cowboys, who are now 5-3. They lost two games on the road (one to a St. Louis Rams team they were heavily favored to beat), star quarterback Tony Romo went down for a month with a broken pinkie and coach Wade Phillips was torn apart by both fans and media alike.

"I'm the first one to know you can go from the penthouse to the outhouse in six days," Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said.

So the outhouse is where they've been the past two weeks, dealing with that horrid stink?

"As far as you guys and the fans go," Spears said. "It is a lot better in the penthouse, but sometimes that outhouse can make you appreciate things."

Had Tampa Bay punched it in for the game-winning score, the Cowboys' season might have been in the toilet for good.

Nobody would go as far as to say winning this one was a season-saving victory, but with a road game without Romo next week against the New York Giants, the Cowboys would have been staring at the possibility of a four-game losing streak square in the face.

Cowboys fans like to say the hole in the roof of Texas Stadium is there so God can watch his favorite team.