'Boys win ugly

Tony Romo overcomes a back injury to complete seven straight passes to lead a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Washington Sunday afternoon at Texas Stadium.

Throughout the fourth quarter Tony Romo felt the throbbing in his back, the direct result of an accidental blow suffered while making a first-quarter tackle, of all things.

While he could block out the pain during most plays, he couldn't stop it from affecting most of his throws - at least, not until the game was on the line.

But given a break by a missed field goal, Romo scrambled for a first down, then completed seven straight passes, the last a 10-yarder to Patrick Crayton for a touchdown with 2:41 left that gave the Dallas Cowboys a 7-6 victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

"I've always felt like, no matter what is really wrong - as long as it's not a broken bone or something that's going to keep you out - just on the adrenalin of the game, you can always do it," Romo said. "That's just part of football, part of understanding that's the only way to play the game."

This was the second straight week the Cowboys (7-3) didn't score until the final minutes.

Washington overcame multiple injuries on both sides of the ball to lead 6-0 on field goals of 45 and 31 yards from Shaun Suisham. He missed a 39-yarder just before halftime, then a 50-yarder that would've made it 9-0 right before what proved to be Dallas' winning drive.

Ironically, those were Suisham's first two misses of the season.

Even after Crayton scored, the Redskins had a chance to pull out a second straight win. But Jason Campbell threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted with 1:46 left, then had a heave fall incomplete as time expired.

"To lose it like that in the end in a hostile situation, it's just so hard," Washington coach Jim Zorn said. "Yet, we hung in there. I believe this is a special team of players who will not just chuck things in being 3-7. ... We're going to look at our roster, patch it up and go again."

The Cowboys seemed headed for an early lead when Marion Barber led a run-filled second series. Then Barber fumbled inside the 20, Washington's DeAngelo Hall recovered and Romo brought him down. As Hall was falling, his knee conked Romo in the back.

Romo was so bad after that it was obvious something was bothering him.

He didn't complete a pass to a receiver until the final play of the third quarter. Dallas coach Wade Phillips was so desperate to get something going that he went for it on fourth-and-2 from the Washington 39 early in the fourth quarter. Romo threw an interception.

Suisham's second missed kick gave Romo one more chance, and he took advantage - despite having completed only eight passes up to that point. Facing third-and-3 from his 47 with 6:23 left and the Cowboys trailing 6-0, Romo scooted up the middle for 5 yards and a first down, then hit Miles Austin three times and Jason Witten twice to get to the Washington 10. On second down, Romo scrambled left to get away from trouble and had enough room to run most of the way to the goal line. But he saw Crayton shaking off his coverage and drilled a pass into his chest in the middle of the end zone.

"Everyone in the stands saw it coming," Phillips said, "and he put it right in there."