National Football League

Romo, Austin power Cowboys past Falcons

Published Oct. 27, 2009 12:50 a.m. ET

foxsports

The young backup who comes from nowhere to make big play after big play for the Dallas Cowboys is the storyline made famous by Tony Romo. Now, he's leading Miles Austin down that same path.

Austin proved his incredible performance in his first career start was no fluke by catching six more passes for 171 yards and two long touchdowns, sending Dallas to a 37-21 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday that the Cowboys hope shows they're no fluke, either.

Dallas (4-2) had been alternating wins and losses, needing overtime to beat Kansas City last time out. Now the Cowboys have consecutive wins and this was their first against a winning team.

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It also was their best overall performance, with Romo having fun without making any careless mistakes, the defense making Matt Ryan miserable and the special teams breaking the game open with a 73-yard punt return for a touchdown by Patrick Crayton.

Coincidence or not, Dallas is 2-0 since Austin became a starter. Could this turn into the same kind of boost the Cowboys got when Romo burst onto the scene in 2006?

Austin is an undrafted guy in his fourth season who'd done little more than special teams the first three years, all of which follows Romo's script. With Terrell Owens gone, the fast kid from Monmouth College showed he could be the new deep threat with a team-record 250 yards and two touchdowns against the Chiefs, and backed it up Sunday with touchdowns of 59 and 22 yards.

"He's definitely a big part of this offense," Romo said. "I'm glad to see all his hard work and effort is paying off."

Atlanta came in 4-1, matching the best start in franchise history, but former Falcons star Keith Brooking, DeMarcus Ware and the rest of the Dallas defense pestered Ryan into four sacks, two interceptions and two fumbles. He only lost one, and on the very next play Romo hit the long TD pass to Austin, which put the Cowboys ahead for good.

Ryan had gone 142 passes without a sack and had gone down only twice all season before Dallas got him on consecutive plays in the first quarter.