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IRVING, Texas -- For the second time in four years the New York Giants have won a Super Bowl and the Cowboys are left wondering, ‘Why can’t that be us?’

Well, for a variety of reasons and not being good enough is at the top of the list. Too often the reasons for the Cowboys’ failures are put on hard-to-define things like chemistry, lack of heart, mental toughness and leadership. Those reasons mask the real issue: talent.

But what the Giants’ victory Sunday against New England in Super Bowl XLVI does is give the Cowboys hope. And just about every other team in the league, too.

You don’t have to be the best team through a 22-week grind to win the Super Bowl. You don’t have to roll through the regular season, like the Cowboys of the 1990s did, and roll through the playoffs. That’s not this NFL anymore.

This NFL is about getting hot at the right time and riding the wave.

That’s what Pittsburgh did in 2005. That’s what the Giants did in 2007. That’s what Arizona did in 2008 when it nearly beat Pittsburgh. That’s what Green Bay did in 2010. That’s what the Giants did in 2011.

That’s what the Cowboys have not been able to do.

The Cowboys’ December/January woes have held this team back. Wade Phillips dismissed it as happenstance. Jason Garrett doesn’t put much stock into the calendar.

In a way Phillips and Garrett were/are right. The Cowboys need more players to be successful. Not a roster-full and not necessarily superstars either. The Cowboys need to lift up the middle and bottom parts of the roster so when they lose a player they can still win games the way New York did when it lost guys in 2011.

Twice the Cowboys had chances to end the Giants’ season and didn’t. They had a 12-point lead with 5:41 to play at Cowboys Stadium on Dec. 11 and lost, 37-34. If Tony Romo and Miles Austin connect on that third-down pass, the Giants don’t make the playoffs, Eli Manning is not in the Hall of Fame discussion yet and Tom Coughlin might not have a job anymore.

So are the Cowboys close to being a Super Bowl team?

It depends on how you want to define “close.” In one sense they are not close because they have consistently not measured up when it has mattered most. In another they are close because being a flawed team is not fatal to one’s Super Bowl hopes.

MOBILE, Ala. -- Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said it was hard to watch the NFC and AFC championship games without his own team involved.

Yet, Jones believes the difference between his Cowboys and the New York Giants, who face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI is Eli Manning taking advantage of his supporting cast.

Jones loves his quarterback Tony Romo and still believes he can deliver a championship. Yet in the two regular-season losses the Cowboys suffered to the Giants, and the stretch of games the Giants won to salvage their season, Manning was the difference.

“I don’t want to take anything away [from them] but the big difference was Eli came up here and started what seemed like a pretty significant [stretch]," Jones said of Manning's play toward the end of the season. "But the quarterback play with Eli was the huge difference. But I was pretty impressed with how they’re defense played the last three or four ball games.”

Manning’s team had lost four consecutive games until a Dec. 11 meeting at Dallas. When it was over, Manning threw for 400 yards and led the Giants on a go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter. Romo drove his team into field goal range but a potential game-tying field goal was blocked at the end of regulation resulting in a 37-34 loss.

In the regular-season finale, with the winner clinching the final NFC playoff spot and the NFC East title, the Giants jumped out to a 21-0 lead as Manning threw touchdown passes of 74 and 10 yards.

A comeback by the Cowboys fell short and they lost, 31-14. The Giants finished the regular season winning three of their last four games.

It seems as if Manning has elevated his game again, at the best possible time and that’s impressed Jones who is watching the postseason from home.

“That’s tough to take watching those teams play,” he said of the both conference title games. “It was good watching, AFC and NFC [Sunday], really great ball games, of course always not a fun day, from my prospective watching those games.”

Jones still believes in the core group of players he has who can help Romo push his team to a title. He was just impressed with how Manning did it late in the season and hopes for Romo to do it in the near future.

IRVING, Texas -- With the New York Giants making it Super Bowl XLVI, Cowboys fans can only help but wonder what keeps their team from making deep post-season runs after middling regular-seasons.

Most of the blame will fall on owner and general manager Jerry Jones. (Cue the Jerry needs to get a football guy in there). Or Jason Garrett (Cue the he iced his own kicker, which is ridiculous if you analyzed the situation in Arizona. And Baltimore’s John Harbaugh should have called timeout before ex-Cowboy Billy Cundiff yanked a 32-yarder that would’ve tied the AFC title game.) Or Tony Romo. (Cue the he always chokes when it matters).

But if you want to get past that, look at the pass rush.

That’s why the Giants will play New England and why the Cowboys are home.

The statistical comparisons are not completely fair because the Giants play a base 4-3 and the Cowboys play a base 3-4, but given the amount of nickel defense the Cowboys employ they are in a four-man line more than 50 percent of their snaps.

The Cowboys had 42 sacks in the regular season with 19.5 coming from DeMarcus Ware. The Giants had 48 sacks in the regular season with 16.5 coming from Jason Pierre-Paul.

Ware accounted for 46.4 percent of the Cowboys sacks. Paul 34.4% The Giants had three other players with at least five sacks: Osi Umenyiora had nine and Justin Tuck and Dave Tollefson had five each. The Cowboys had one: Anthony Spencer had six. Jason Hatcher had 4.5 sacks.

Giants’ defensive linemen accounted for 40.5 sacks. Cowboys’ defensive linemen accounted for 10.5.

Put a lot of that discrepancy on the different schemes, but it’s not illegal to have a 3-4 end/nose tackle to sack a quarterback.

If the offense is about the quarterback, then the defense is about the pass rush.

The Giants are proof of that.

IRVING, Texas -- Cowboys’ fans had better hope Jerry Jones was not watching the New York Giants beat Green Bay on Sunday to advance to the NFC Championship Game.

If he was, then they better hope he didn’t watch that game and come away with the feeling that the team he owns and general manages is close to being in the same spot as the Giants.

Ever the optimist, it’s difficult to not hear Jones say to anybody, “We had a 12-point lead on these guys with 5:41 in the fourth quarter at our place, we’re right there.”

It’s that sort of validation that has doomed the Cowboys here in recent years.

After losing to the Giants in the 2007 divisional round, the Cowboys looked at that as a one-time issue because they shut it down late in the regular season when they clinched homefield advantage.

In 2008 they missed the playoffs by a game and they pointed to Tony Romo’s three-game absence because of a broken pinky finger.

In 2009 all was well with the playoff win against Philadelphia and the 34-3 defeat at Minnesota was merely part of the process the team has to take to advance in the postseason.

In 2010 it all came crashing down, costing Wade Phillips his job after a 1-7 start. But Jason Garrett righted the ship and took them to a 5-3 finish and the three losses were by a combined seven points.

Jones put the failings of the defense on Phillips and believed Rob Ryan would turn things around in 2011. The defense was better in part because it could not be worse.

If two coaches of different 3-4 defenses could not make it work well enough, then it’s the personnel.

At least that's how Jones should approach this offseason, which brings us back to the New York win Sunday at Lambeau Field.

The Cowboys had a chance to be in the position of their NFC East rivals but could not beat the Giants at Cowboys Stadium on Dec. 11, 2011 or at MetLife Stadium on Jan. 1.

Undoubtedly Jones – and those who will believe the Cowboys are “this close” to being a true contender – will point to the missed connection between Romo and Miles Austin in the first meeting and the 44-yard catch by Victor Cruz in the second meeting on third-and-7 after the Cowboys cut a 21-0 deficit to 21-14 as the only parts that separate the Cowboys from the Giants.

Or he might look at the Oct. 16 game against New England as positive reinforcement. The Cowboys had the Patriots, who will play in the AFC title game against Baltimore, on the ropes, but saw Tom Brady deliver a late game-winning touchdown drive in a 20-16 affair.

Jones can’t be fooled again.

For the Dallas Cowboys, the season ended where it began several months ago -- at MetLife Stadium.

As poorly as Jason Garrett's squad had played this season, it still had a chance to win the NFC East and host a first-round playoff game if it could defeat the New York Giants on a chilly, rainy Sunday night. For the Cowboys, this game was going to come down to two issues: Could they control the Giants' wide receivers from making big plays, and could they block the front seven to allow Tony Romo and his receivers to attack the secondary?

On both fronts, the Cowboys failed, finishing 8-8 and out of the playoffs.

Newman struggles for all to see

Terence Newman's struggles were obvious to anyone who watched the game. Watching Newman, you saw someone who was playing with no confidence whatsoever. His technique was poor, and the harder he tried the worse he played.

Newman's downfall started even before the pass to Victor Cruz out of the slot on third-and-1. With the Giants facing a third-and-9 from their own 5, Eli Manning took the snap and began to scan downfield. Tight end Bear Pascoe delayed his route to help block DeMarcus Ware, then released up the field to the flat. Newman was in a zone drop to the outside and saw that Manning was going to check the ball down to Pascoe in the flat. Newman drove on the route but two yards away from Pascoe ducked his head and then lunged at the Giants tight end. On the same side of the field, Orlando Scandrick was shoved inside and out of position. Pascoe was in the open field with Newman then jumped over the cornerback, who was in no position to make a tackle and prevent a first down.

On the pass rush on Manning, Jason Hatcher got free on a twist stunt but was a step late arriving on a potential sack. Gerald Sensabaugh and Abram Elam drove Pascoe out of bounds after he gained the first down. Two plays later with the Giants facing a third-and-1, Rob Ryan stayed with his base defense. The Giants would spread the Cowboys out. Tight end Travis Beckum was wide right and covered by Elam. Cruz was in the slot to the left side and covered by Newman. Hakeem Nicks was wide left, picked up by Mike Jenkins on the outside. Pascoe stayed on the left side to help block Ware, who was rushing to that side. At the snap, Beckum drove across the formation. Newman was lined up 2 yards off Cruz. Manning looked at Cruz all the way -- the receiver drove up the field at Newman and got him on one leg, then broke hard to the outside. Sensabaugh was in coverage on Pascoe but when he stayed in to block he turned his attention to the outside and started in the direction of Newman and Cruz. Cruz was now four yards up the field as he caught the ball from Manning. Newman and Sensabaugh were both in a trailing position on the outside. Jenkins, like Scandrick, was shoved to the inside by Nicks.

Cruz went up the sideline clear of Newman and Sensabaugh with both in chase. The receiver has too much speed, with the Cowboys unable to run him down as the Giants score the first touchdown of the day.

The Cowboys had fought their way back and were down only seven in the fourth quarter. The Giants had the ball on their own 28 with 9:45 left. Ryan went with the dime package to match the Giants and their three receivers. Scandrick was matched up with Cruz out of the left slot. Sensabaugh was the safety to that side of the field. At the snap, Sensabaugh began to work his way to the middle and was at a depth of 20 yards. The Cowboys used "Man Free" coverage -- man coverage with a single safety in the middle of the field.

Scandrick jumped to the outside, which allowed Cruz a free release to the inside and a vertical path down the field. Sensabaugh read Manning, saw him looking to his right and begins to work that way. On the rush, Jay Ratliff got a nice push up the field but his back was to Manning. Ratliff was unable to get his arms around Manning because he was rushing backward up the field. Manning felt Ratliff and spun to his left, where only Hatcher was rushing. Ratliff, Ware and Spencer were trapped to Manning's right. Hatcher couldn't react quickly enough as Manning fired downfield. Cruz was to the inside of Scandrick, who didn't find the ball until it was already in the receiver's hands. Sensabaugh was late arriving to the play as Cruz caught the ball with Scandrick on his back, killing any momentum that the Cowboys had on defense.

Romo slips up on interception

On offense, the numbers for Tony Romo indicated that he had a productive game, but it might have been one in which he struggled the most with eye level and finding receivers downfield.

One of Romo's strengths is his ability to see routes develop and make those throws to open targets. I really do not believe that Romo's bruised hand was a factor in the way he played, but I do think the rush made him check the ball down more than trying to make those throws downfield.

The one thing that Romo had been able to do is protect the ball and not turn it over with interceptions. In the third quarter with the Giants holding a 21-7 lead, Romo made a mistake when he didn't see safety Antrel Rolle in the middle of the field covering Jason Witten. On the play, Robinson lined up wide left and Austin was in the slot left. Witten was the tight end in line on the left. Romo was in the shotgun, with Felix Jones lined up to his right.

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At the snap, Witten chipped on Jason Pierre-Paul as Doug Free fell down. Miles Austin ran the out and Robinson on the slant. Witten sat down in the middle. Romo's eyes were to the right looking at Bryant, who was open at the sticks on the curl. Witten worked back to the outside. Romo was still looking at Bryant but didn't make the throw. He came back to Witten but didn't see Rolle to the tight end's right. Romo fired toward Witten, but Rolle slid in front for the interception.

Cowboys give it one last shot

The Cowboys have struggled the most in protection when teams run twist stunts. In this game, the Giants were able to get two sacks on blitzes that the Eagles ran last week. On their second sack on a third-and-4 the Cowboys used an empty formation, and the Giants countered with man coverage. At the snap, Justin Tuck drove inside on Kyle Kosier to pick off Tyron Smith, who was knocked off his block. Osi Umenyiora came clean around Smith and Kosier was unable to adjust back to the inside to pick up Umenyiora, who lined up for a shot at Romo. Romo wants to throw the ball inside to Witten but has to pull it down and take the sack.

Again, it was a stunt run by the Eagles last week that the Giants studied and they got the same results.

Not all was bad for the Cowboys offensively. With the Giants up 21-7 and 10:32 remaining, the Cowboys drove to the Giants 5 facing a second down. Romo brought the offense to the line with Robinson wide left, Witten slot right with Austin outside of him and Bryant far to the right side. Jones was lined up left to Romo in the gun. In the pre-snap, Romo saw that he was going to get a blitz from his left side and no safety in the middle of the field. Romo walked forward behind Phil Costa and bent down to signal to Robinson to run the slant. At the snap, Robinson ran the perfect slant as Jones picked up the blitz inside, allowing Romo the time he needed to throw a strike to Robinson without any pressure and cutting the Giants' lead to just seven, but that would be the Cowboys' final score of 2011.

The last beat writers recap of the 2011 season is here. We know you're excited.

Here we go.

*The Cowboys made an interesting decision to make cornerback Frank Walker inactive for the Giants game. With Walker out it meant the Cowboys stayed with Orlando Scandrick, Mike Jenkins, Terence Newman and Alan Ball as the only corners. When Jenkins went down with his shoulder injury, it reduced the number of corners available to defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. The move to sit Walker was to give Ball extended playing time. The Cowboys want to see if he can be a third corner in the future. He failed to recover a fumble and was flagged for a pass interference. Ball ended the game with three tackles. He struggled in pass coverage and raised more issues about the secondary going into the offseason.

*It's easy to say Doug Free needs to switch from left tackle to right tackle. He's going to face elite pass rushers on the right side as well. But there were times this season, and especially in the Giants game, where he didn't seem strong enough to contain the pass rush. Free might need more of the offseason program than anybody on the offensive line. It's not so much to gain weight, he's listed at 323 pounds, but to pick up strength in the upper body.

*Tony Romo said he got a pain injection for his throwing hand that was swollen on the top near the wrist. But after Romo got his shot, prior to kickoff, his hand was numb and had trouble feeling the ball in warmups. Romo missed wide receiver Dez Bryant, who ran the correct route on a third-and-four during the first possession. Romo didn't have a good grip on the ball, and we wonder if that's due to his hand having issues or he just messed up. Romo threw maybe two bad passes the entire game, the pick over the middle in the second half was bad, but not every throw is going to be perfect.

*Jason Hatcher had one of his better games on Sunday night. The line for Hatcher: Three tackles, half a sack and two quarterback hurries. Hatcher seemed to play faster this year and with more power. He emerged as the best defensive end on the team and when you think about the players who were signed after the lockout, his was the best move.

*In what might be their last game together, inside linebackers Bradie James and Keith Brooking combined for eight tackles, two tackles for loss and one pass breakup. ... Good to see Bruce Carter get some first half snaps with the first-team. It's a sign of things to come. ... Whatever the Cowboys do in 2012, they need to find a returner in the punting and kicking games. Dwayne Harris, Dez Bryant whoever. It doesn't matter, but the team needs to find somebody to do it and develop into this area. ... Romo was sacked six times on Sunday night. He seemed skittish in the pocket and that's not good sign with the season on the line. ... Punter Chris Jones had a net average of 38.8 with two inside the 20, really three if not for Ball's mistake of downing one at the four after he was penalized for stepping out of bounds on the return. ... The Cowboys finished the game with zero interceptions and two missed chances at loose balls. Sad.

IRVING, Texas -- Because of his talent, the plays he has made in his short time with the Cowboys and his uniform number, Dez Bryant faces higher than normal expectations than other players.

Bryant finished with 63 catches for 928 yards and nine touchdowns in his second season. Bryant started 13 games and played in 15 after he was limited to 12 games as a rookie in 2010.

“I felt like I did OK,” Bryant said. “I feel like it could’ve been 10 times better.”

Bryant talked about improvement he can make this offseason.

“There’s always room to get better,” Bryant said. “I just feel like everything: more film watching, more route running, more ball drills.”

But Bryant was not about to complain about a lack of passes thrown his direction. His six catches Sunday vs. the New York Giants tied his second-best game of the season. He did not have a 100-yard game on the year.

“Like I said earlier in the season we’ve got a lot of great players on this team,” Bryant said. “When your number is called you do your job. I feel like everybody done their job for the most part. I’ve just got to look at it this way: it’s a team game. This is not golf. This is not tennis. This is something that you play with a group of guys.”

Bryant was praised by the coaches during the year for his growing maturity and attention to detail, but he reportedly faces a lawsuit from a company seeking $50,000 in payment. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said the money has been paid.

“If he says it’s been paid that means it’s been paid,” said Bryant, who did not take more questions on the subject.

NEW YORK -- The New York Giants' victory over the Dallas Cowboys earned the highest overnight rating in the six-year history of Sunday night football on NBC.

According to data released Monday by The Nielsen Company, the Giants' 31-14 win to capture the NFC East crown got a 17.1 overnight rating and a 27 share, 36 percent higher than last year's Week 17 game between the Rams and Seahawks to decide the NFC West.

The previous high Sunday night overnight high was for Cowboys-Jets in Week 1, 16.9/27.

Overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets, covering nearly 70 percent of the country. Each overnight rating point represents about 735,000 TV homes. The rating is the percentage of all homes with TVs, whether or not they are in use. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

Rabid Reaction: Our series of knee-jerk-styled, emotional overreactions from Ben Rogers of 103.3 FM ESPN's Ben and Skin Show. He's known to get way too excited over even the slightest of developments with the teams he grew up with in the DFW. Proceed with caution ...

We didn't have the pleasure of knowing a deep Cowboys playoff run this year, but I’ve spent some time following the adventures of Jerry, Stephen and Spalding Jones. I was raised on Cowboys football during the jewelry-producing Staubach and Aikman eras, so I have a very clear impression of the kind of glorious run that we’re here to bury today.

The 2011 Cowboys season started with such high hopes. Gone was Wade Phillips and his relaxed, friendly lemonade salesman style of leadership. In his place was a red-headed cyborg robot with the most coveted scantron in the classroom.

But in the end, Jason Garrett’s knack to finish other people’s complicated chalkboard formulas -- that only one or two others could -- ultimately gave credence to the theory that he is quite possibly little more than a very intelligent Valley Ranch janitor, potentially capable of being best friends with Ben Affleck.

But despite Garrett’s distinct ability to bore an entire room of reporters into medical grade comas with repeated monotone mentions of watching tape, all three phases and the process on a weekly basis, the Cowboys' offense racked up the second-most yards in franchise history with the worst offensive line in the history of organized football. So clearly the offense was not to blame here

When the season started, Rob Ryan’s enormous belly offered tremendous promise of big things to come. However, in the end, it proved to be little more than a human beer refrigerator and gas-powered balloon muffler. For it was truly nothing more than fruitless hot air coming from this Ryan, and all Ryans for that matter. Were it not for the intoxicating allure of his balsa wood-based bold talk, many of us would have wisely protected our fragile Jerry Jones trampled football hearts.

But because of his completely unsubstantiated and never-backed-up swagger, we believed. Rob Ryan sold us a box of disgusting rotten vegetables, and we couldn’t wait to eat them up as if it was the finest produce in the country. And for that mistake, we all feel tremendous sorrow today as the 2011 Cowboys season rests forever in the Jerryworld-sized coffin metaphor before us.

And so we say goodbye to Terence Newman, perhaps the worst cornerback in the history of the forward pass. Goodbye Anthony Spencer, master of ordinary. Goodbye Martellus Bennett, beacon of underachievement. Goodbye Bradie James, creator of the tackling piggyback ride. Goodbye Keith Brooking, linebacking Bill Bates.

The 2011 Dallas Cowboys season died a cold, wet, miserable death last night in the far-away Meadowlands. But in truth, this franchise has been on life support for a decade and a half. Jerry Jones is the worst GM in football, but he is going nowhere. And because of that, nothing will change.

Perhaps during this quiet time we can spare a special thought and offer our sympathy, our love and our support to Cowboys fans, their families and loved ones -- and most importantly, to Tony Romo. You, sir, are not to blame for any of this. This violent, bloody football death falls directly on the head of one Jerry Jones -- the all-time QB and we're-doing-it-my-way bully of this never-ending disaster called Jerry Jones-brand Dallas Cowboys football.

Rest in peace, 2011 Dallas Cowboys. You will not fool us again in 2012.

After going through our analysis (postmortem?) of what went wrong with the Cowboys in their loss to the Giants, we're interested in your take.

How would you fix the Cowboys? Which players have to go; which players show promise. Would you make any alterations to the coaching staff? How about the front office? You know Jerry Jones is the owner, and that won't change. But would you shell out the cash for a GM? For an offensive coordinator?

Don't hold back. Let us know what you'd do differently to get the Cowboys back to being a fixture in the postseason.

Our takes:

* Jean-Jacques Taylor: Late-season swoon shouldn't come as a surprise.

* Calvin Watkins: Defense has to change; talent alone won't cut it.

* Tim MacMahon: Terence Newman just can't cut it anymore.

* Todd Archer: Fair or not, perception won't be kind to Tony Romo until Cowboys win.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Cowboys didn't seem ready to play from a mental standpoint on Sunday night against the Giants.

The Cowboys were down 21-0 before mounting a comeback at Met Life Stadium that ended in the fourth quarter.

"I mean they obviously were charged up," wide receiver Miles Austin said of the Giants' energy. "But regardless of how charged up it is, it's our job to go our and execute and we didn't do that."

Numerous times during the game, players were yelling either at each other, the referees or just in the air. Outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware took his helmet off after a play and was screaming. He got to the sidelines and was approached by backup linebacker Victor Butler, who was pushed back slightly by Ware.

Ware sat on the Cowboys bench and was given encouragement by defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and other players. After a long completion late in the game, cornerback Orlando Scandrick was yelling at no one. Nose tackle Jay Ratliff also yelled after a few bad plays.

The frustration level was high and the emotion the Cowboys showed only came after they started to get behind.

Saturday night coach Jason Garrett gave an emotional speech that cornerback Terence Newman said was the best he's heard in football.

"Yeah, it's frustrating and it's not a good feeling," Austin said.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- For some players, like Jason Witten, Tony Romo and Bradie James, it feels like they have been asked the same questions and given the same answers to the same question: what happens to the Cowboys late in seasons?

“It’s hard to get to this point,” Witten said. “It’s nine years for me. I know it better than anybody. It’s hard to get here and ultimately what it’s about is what you do from this point on when teams get to the postseason. That’s what you play for. All of the other stuff doesn’t mean a thing. Just shocked, disappointed to see this opportunity and let it slip. That’s what we live for as players. As a leader on this team, I’m at a loss for words. It’s hard to get to this point.”

The Cowboys lost four of their last five games to fall out of first place in the NFC East and a playoff spot to third place in the division.

“It’s tough to explain,” said James, who is a free agent in 2012. “You want to be playing your best ball. We all know that. Going into the playoffs if you have the opportunity, December is really when it does count and we weren’t able to put it all together. I hate it. We’ve got such good guys on this team and different things will happen after this. We just didn’t settle down in the first half man. I mean … we were just about there trying to be the guy, wanting to be the hero and these are the games you dream about. But you’ve got to settle down and be yourself. We were able to do that in the second half but it wasn’t enough.”

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Cowboys season is over at 8-8 following a 31-14 loss to the New York Giants in a win-or-go-home game Sunday night at Met Life Stadium.

We look at who played well and who didn't in our weekly Stock Report.

STOCK UP

Laurent Robinson. All he does is make plays. Sunday night the No. 3 receiver had four catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns. He finished the season leading the team in touchdown receptions at 11. He battled through hamstring and shoulder issues most of the season and the Cowboys patience was rewarded for it.

Tony Romo. He played with a bruised hand that received an injection just before kickoff. Romo threw just one interception, but on the night completed 29 of 37 passes for 289 yards and two scores. He was sacked six times and he seemed skittish at times when in the pocket. But he remained calm during the deficit and rallied the team to within a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Jason Hatcher. He was a very active defensive end Sunday night. He finished with five tackles, but had half a sack and two quarterback hurries. Hatcher played the run well and was a driving force along the front. If the Cowboys are thinking of moving any defensive linemen off the team, Hatcher isn't one of them.

STOCK DOWN

Terence Newman. The veteran corner might have played his last game with the Cowboys. It was a bad performance which ended with him getting checked for a concussion. He struggled in man and zone coverage and just didn't play with much confidence. He doesn't have the speed to keep up with Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks. He was inconsistent in open field tackling.

Doug Free. The left tackle struggled against Jason Pierre-Paul and anybody else that came his way. Spin moves, bull rushes and swim moves messed Free up. He didn't seem athletic enough to handle speed rushers and at times the game seemed too fast for him.

Jason Garrett. Newman said the Saturday night speech at the team hotel was the best he's heard in football. It didn't translate to on the field. His team got behind 21 points early and while it didn't quit on him, the one thing Garrett cares about, wins, eluded him.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Linebacker Keith Brooking hasn’t made a decision about retirement, but he’s realistic enough to know that the choice could be made for him.

“This doesn’t feel like my last game,” Brooking said after the Cowboys’ season ended. “But I’ll be 37 next year. I’m sure people will be just knocking down my door to sign me.”

Brooking, a five-time Pro Bowler with the Atlanta Falcons, punctuated that thought with a frustrated, self-effacing laugh.

Sean Lee’s emergence as a star bumped Brooking into a reserve role this season, the first time since his rookie year in 1998 that he hadn’t been a starter. His three-year deal with the Cowboys is up, as is Bradie James’ contract, and a replacement is waiting in the wings in second-round pick Bruce Carter.

“I feel like I can play and we’ll see how that goes,” Brooking said. “I had a great time here. Obviously, we didn’t finish, we didn’t do what I thought we could do as a football team, but I love these teammates and they mean a lot to me. I met some really good guys here, some friends that hopefully I’ll talk to for a very long time, and I can’t thank the Jones family enough for bringing me here and allowing me to be part of this unbelievable franchise.

“I just wish we could have finished the deal, but we couldn’t do it.”

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- After falling behind 21-0, the Cowboys had to play perfectly to come back and beat the New York Giants.

They didn’t do it on either side of the ball and a fourth-and-1 play when the Cowboy were down 21-7 early in the fourth quarter played a big role.

Coach Jason Garrett opted against a field goal try with 14:00 to play in the game because he sensed momentum.

“We were down two touchdowns at that time and we’d been moving the ball really well,” Garrett said. “We thought it was a good opportunity to cash in and get a touchdown at that point and make it a one-score game with the time we had left.”

But Tony Romo was stopped on the quarterback sneak. Romo called for a measurement and thought the officials moved the ball back a smidge from when he got up from the pile.

“The call comes from the sideline,” Romo said. “I agreed with the call. Obviously we would’ve liked to have gotten it. It’s an easy thing to second guess now.”

Ultimately all it cost the Cowboys was time on the clock because they scored less than four minutes later to make it 21-14 but time was a precious commodity in a game like Sunday’s.