FINAL: Dallas 24, Minnesota 14.

12:15: Romo completes a couple of passes, but misses on consecutive passes to Witten on 2nd and 3rd down and medium, so Dallas is forced to punt. He made some interesting throws on that drive, and would have had a huge gain on that third down play had Witten caught it, because he was behind the defense and would have had plenty of room to run.

The punt takes a nice roll, going alll the way down to the Minnesota 9 to put the Vikings in poor field position yet again. McBriar has punted three times today for an average of 53.8 yards, and all three punts have gone inside the 20.

11:51: On the first play, Jason Hatcher knocks the ball loose from Peterson, and Bradie James recovers the ball at the Minnesota 22. If Dallas can get in the end zone here, that would all but seal the victory.

11:01: The drive stalls with the Cowboys being unable to go nowhere, actually lose yardage on a third down sack that puts them back at the 28, but Folk drills the field goal to put Dallas up 10. Given that the Vikings haven’t quite been able to crack the Cowboys defense today, that might be enough to breathe easy.

9:28: On 2nd and 3, Jackson finds Troy Williamson for 21 yards, and the Vikings, like they have in their last couple of drives, are moving the ball close to midfield. Bend, don’t break time again for the Dallas defense.

8:17: On second down, James sacks Jackson, which is the first sack of the day for the defense. James is having an excellent game, as he has nine total tackles (six solo, three assists).

On third down, the pass is incomplete, and once again, the defense comes up with the stop when they need to. However, the offense will be up against it, as the punt goes out of bounds at the 1. A few first downs would go a long way, as the Vikings only have one timeout, and are down two scores with time running out.

6:32: The Vikings make a relatively quick stop, limiting Barber on two runs and then forcing an incompletion from Romo on third down. Minnesota should get the ball back in pretty good field position, so, it’s not over just yet.

6:21: The Vikings get the ball at the 45 after McBriar’s punt, but go incompletion, incompletion, sack on the drive, and instead of oging for it on fourth down, will punt on fourth down, and Crayton makes the fair catch at the 19 with five and a half minutes to go. Once again, a couple of first downs could finish it off.

4:00: Barber goes for four yards on each of the first two plays, then busts a 21-yard run to get a crucial first down. That might do it, but one more would be good.

2:30: And there it is, as Barber gets loose again, running hard and getting inside the 30 on a 24-yard run on a 2nd and 6 play. The Vikings are forced to take their final timeout, and that should wrap it up. Barber now has 89 yards on 15 carries, with 57 of those yards coming on this drive.

2:00: Barber goes for two yards on the final play before the two-minute warning, taking his total to 91 yards and taking the clock down to the two-minute mark.

1:00: Barber gets stopped for a two-yard gain on third and 7, and the Cowboys take a timeout with 28 seconds to play. They don’t need to kick the field goal, and just give it to Barber on fourth down. He gets only two yards on the play, and will finish four yards short of the 100-yard mark.

Jackson gets sacked by Ellis on the first play of the drive, and for some reason, he decides to spike it to give the Vikings one more play. That ends with an inconsequential pass completion, and it’s all over from Texas Stadium, as the Cowboys overcome a couple of first-half mistakes and a 14-7 halftime deficit, and score 17 points in the third quarter en route to a 24-14 win.

The Dallas defense did an excellent job of limiting the Vikings all day, and the Cowboys got significant plays on offense and special teams to carry them to their sixth victory in seven games, which keeps them alone in first place in the NFC East. The Giants beat the 49ers today to go to 5-2, and the Redskins held off the Cardinals 21-19 to go to 4-2, while the Eagles gave up a touchdown to Chicago in the final seconds to lose 19-16 and drop to 2-4. The Eagles will be Dallas’ next opponent, as the Cowboys will travel to Philadelphia following next week’s bye week.