ARLINGTON, Texas -- If the sign of a good team is the ability to win when you're not at your best, then the Cowboys are a good team.
But boy, they sure looked like a bad one before pulling out a 20-17 overtime win over the Texans on Sunday.
Three turnovers, including two in the red zone, would have been cause enough to lose a game. The Cowboys compounded matters by playing ragged football late in regulation to blow a 17-7 lead.
"We're going to watch the tape and we're going to see a lot of stuff we don't like," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "But the mindset and the mentality, the demeanor and the fight and are all really good things."
You can say that when Dez Bryant makes a miraculous catch in overtime to set up Dan Bailey's game-winning field goal.
The spectacular finish made the Cowboys 4-1, but some of the stuff that came before shows there's still some 8-8 in this team.
"Being 4-1 is great, but we have a long way to go," quarterback Tony Romo said. "We made way too many mistakes in this football game. It could've cost you. We're lucky to get out with the win. I'm proud of the effort and the way it went, but we've got to correct some things.
"There were far too many things that don't allow you to win in this league that we did today."
The biggest thing was the inability to protect a lead. After the Cowboys went up 17-7 with 9:44 left in regulation, they allowed the Texans to march 76 yards in 13 plays.
The seven-minute drive only resulted in a field goal, but the Cowboys were more than happy to give the ball right back with an uninspired possession that took just 28 seconds off the clock.
A lot went wrong in those 28 seconds. On second down, the Cowboys somehow got a delay-of-game penalty coming out of a timeout. Then on third down, Romo threw to avoid the rush but the went nowhere near a receiver for a grounding penalty.
"Once the score was 17-10, we had a chance to seal the game in four-minute [offense], that was critical," Garrett said. "We didn't get that done."
The Texans got the ball back with 1:59 and scored quickly - almost too quickly. They left enough time for the Cowboys to get Dan Bailey, who never misses, a chance at a 53-yarder. He missed.
"Certainly when the defense went back out there after playing really, really well against this team all day long, we didn't get the stop when we needed it," Garrett said. "For them to tie it up at that moment certainly hurt us."
The defense got the stop it most needed in overtime. For one of the few times all day, a Cowboys defender, Jeremy Mincey, got in Ryan Fitzpatrick's face to force a bad throw on third down.
Fitzpatrick was never sacked and Arian Foster was allowed to ramble for 157 yards and two touchdowns.
Those are numbers that should stand out, but will likely be overlooked when the Cowboys' DeMarco Murray rushes for 136 yards and Romo throws for 324.
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The Cowboys themselves know about those negative numbers - including Murray's fourth fumble in five games - and will no doubt hear about them during film review.
You could sense in the postgame comments that as happy as the Cowboys are to be 4-1, they aren't happy with their play.
"We're controlling the game, we're possessing the football. We're running it, we're throwing it, we're doing a lot of good things but we're not cashing in," Garrett said. "Those things come back to get you."
They did come back to get them on Sunday, but the Cowboys were just good enough to play badly and win.
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
