Lions benefit from Cowboys miscues

IRVING, TEXAS —  Done in by repeated mistakes from Tony Romo and a few more by Terence Newman, the playoff-bound Dallas Cowboys blew any chance they had at the NFC East title and lost, 39-31, to the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am. I really can’t,” Dallas Coach Bill Parcells said. “This is the low point for me in a long time.”

It was one of very few high points for the Lions (3-13), who could have locked up the No. 1 overall draft pick with a loss.

Detroit’s Jon Kitna completed 28 of 42 passes for 306 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception. He joined Scott Mitchell as the only Lions quarterbacks to throw for 4,000 yards in a season.

Roy Williams made receptions for the Lions’ first two touchdowns. His first scoring catch withstood a replay and the second came with two seconds left in the half. Mike Williams added another score -- his first of the season -- on a 21-yard, fourth-quarter pass play that put Detroit ahead for good, and Mike Furrey punctuated his 13-yard, third-quarter touchdown reception by firing the football into a plastic Cowboys logo behind the end zone, knocking it off the wall and putting a crack in it.

“I didn’t think the star would come down,” he said. “I didn’t want to do that. But all the guys enjoyed it.”

The Lions didn’t mind the Cowboys’ gifts either. The Dallas miscues began on the game’s first play when Newman’s penalty wiped out an interception return for a touchdown, and the problems continued to the end when Romo failed to scramble into the end zone from the six-yard line on the final play that mattered. In between, Romo threw an interception and lost two fumbles, Newman muffed a punt and their teammates added plenty more mental errors.

That Romo completed 23 of 32 passes for 321 yards, with two touchdowns, wasn’t enough. The Cowboys (9-7) have dropped three of their last four games, giving up 132 points during that span, the same amount they allowed in the previous eight games.

“We talked about playing with emotion,” said Newman. “I don’t think it was there.”