NFL | Romo returns, so does Dallas

LANDOVER, Md. — For most of the night, Tony Romo — his pinkie in a splint, his passes fluttering and faltering — looked like nothing more than an improved version of Brad Johnson. But even a less-than-perfect Romo was a welcome sight for the reeling Dallas Cowboys.

His best pass of the night, a 25-yard beauty to Martellus Bennett for a touchdown, gave the Cowboys a fourth-quarter lead and eventually a desperately needed 14-10 victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday night.

"It was a good test for us," said receiver Terrell Owens, who until Sunday had grumbled about the ineffectiveness of the offense and how he was being used. "Are we back to the old Cowboys? Who knows. But this was a good step."

When Romo was out for three games with a broken finger, the Cowboys lost two of them, their offense ground to a halt and they plunged into mediocrity. Romo was not himself Sunday. He completed 19 of 27 passes for 198 yards but was intercepted twice inside the Redskins' 30-yard line. The Cowboys needed a pass breakup by another returnee from the MASH unit, cornerback Terence Newman, and the pounding running of Marion Barber to run the final 6 minutes, 40 seconds off the clock and preserve the lead.

But the victory boosted the Cowboys' record to 6-4. And despite a season of turmoil, it put them back in the playoff race, tied with the Redskins and the Falcons for the last wild-card spot in National Football Conference, one game behind the Buccaneers.

"We had to have this one," Romo said. "The time is now. It was an important situation where we could prove to ourselves that we could be resilient and play when it counts."

That is no guarantee that the season has been salvaged, though. Because his pinkie takes a beating with each snap, Romo may not return to his usual effectiveness until he can give it a longer rest. And the Cowboys' final four games are against Pittsburgh, the Giants, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Still, a loss would have been devastating to the Cowboys, and their relief and glee Sunday was palpable. The playoff race is where everyone expected the Cowboys to be at this point, including the team owner, Jerry Jones, who last week reiterated his confidence that the Cowboys would make the playoffs.

After the first three weeks of the season, the Cowboys looked like the best team in the NFL, and they were a popular pick to go to the Super Bowl.

If they fail to make the playoffs this season, it would rank as one of the biggest disappointments in franchise history, and it would create an offseason of upheaval that would most likely include the departure of coach Wade Phillips.

"There's no doubt there was tremendous pressure on this team to stay in the hunt," Jones said. "There are high expectations from everyone. It's rewarding to see this."

Romo's right pinkie was taped into a splint, and he was so limited that the game plan bore a striking resemblance to the one used by Johnson for the three games Romo was out, although Phillips said that the swirling wind had as much to do with the conservative play-calling as Romo's finger did.

"It's going to happen," Romo said about his bad grip. "But at the same time, I did some things I was happy with."