GREEN BAY, Wis. — Tony Romo and the Cowboys only consolation is they avoided a shutout. For all but 38 seconds, one of the hottest teams in the NFC looked lost.
"We were on a roll winning four in a row," said Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking after Green Bay's 17-7 win on Sunday. "This is just a minor hiccup — that's the way you have to look at it."
With 10 penalties, three turnovers and just 61 yards rushing, it may take more than a glass of water and a few deep breaths to cure Dallas' woes.
The Cowboys (6-3) were in position to lock down the NFC East with a two-game lead with seven to play. Instead, Dallas maintains a one-game lead over the Giants and Eagles with four divisional games left.
"It's so disappointing because things were just there for us as we came out for the second half," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "Not to be able to execute, have the plays called back by penalties and not be able to do the things you want to do is just exactly how you lose this game."
Green Bay (5-4) only led 3-0 after three quarters, but sealed the win and remained afloat in the NFC wild card race with two fourth-quarter touchdowns — one capping a 15-play drive straddling the third and fourth quarters and the other by capitalizing on a questionable turnover.
"Getting to 5-4 was important," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "It's a good win versus a very good football team, a football team that has been playing very well. So, it definitely gives us a big nugget of confidence we can grab onto."
The Packers sacked Romo five times and allowed the Cowboys to convert only three of 12 third-down chances. It was Dallas' lowest output in the running game since gaining 44 yards in a loss to Washington last year.
The Cowboys also lost right tackle Marc Colombo, who had started 57 straight games, after he broke his left leg early in the game. He's expected to have surgery on Monday.
Romo went 24 for 39 for 251 yards, but threw one interception and lost a fumble that the Cowboys weren't happy about with just under 12 minutes to go and Dallas trailing 10-0.
Packers cornerback Charles Woodson, who was responsible for most of Romo's mistakes, sacked the quarterback on his blind side and stripped the ball. It appeared Felix Jones recovered and was down by contact, but he was also stripped by Packers defensive tackle Johnny Jolly and the ball was recovered by rookie linebacker Clay Matthews III.
Cowboys coach Wade Phillips challenged the play, but referee Jeff Triplette came back moments later and said recovery of a loose ball is not reviewable by rule.
"It was my mistake to allow him to start the challenge. I should have just talked him out of it before we started," Triplette told a pool reporter.
That didn't sit well with Phillips.
"They said because they ruled it a fumble all the way through, that I couldn't challenge it even though we recovered the ball and our guy was touched and he knew the guy was down," Phillips said.
The Packers scored moments later on Aaron Rodgers' 2-yard TD pass to Spencer Havner to give Green Bay a 17-0 lead.
"I think a lot of people were thinking this was going to be the end of the road for us and going to be a turning point for the negative for us this season," said Rodgers, who finished 25 of 36 for 189 yards. "But it was a big win for our team."
A big win even though the offensive line again failed to protect Rodgers, who took four sacks to increase his league-leading total to 41. Rodgers scored Green Bay's first touchdown on a 1-yard sneak, capping a season-long 15-play drive to put Green Bay up 10-0.
"I'm proud of the fact that when we needed a big drive ... we came up with it," Rodgers said.
Rodgers converted two third-and-long situations against a thin secondary on the drive and Phillips said Dallas lost three defensive backs to injuries during the series that put the Cowboys in a hole they couldn't overcome.
"We just shot ourselves in the foot with the mental mistakes," Romo said. "We just did too many things that that was out of character of this football team."
