Cowboys control, muddle NFC East race at once

	Roy Williams' hit on Brandon Jacobs forced a fumble at the Dallas 1 with 1:18 remaining. AP

IRVING, Tex. -- Well this clears everything up.

Check out the NFC East standings today and you'll see it for yourself. A clear delineation between the haves and the have-nots. Almost a caste system, as it were.

There's first-place Dallas, back on top in a division it once owned for decades, and then there's everybody else. Could it be any more definitive? I mean, c'mon, the Cowboys own a half-game lead with a mere 11 weeks remaining in the regular season. Anybody here adept at figuring out a magic number using fractions?

OK, so we overstate to make a point, with the point being, we still don't know much of anything about the race in the NFC East. Other than it's suddenly the closest, most intriguing, well-balanced division in the NFL. Dallas sits alone at 4-2, with the Giants, Philadelphia and Washington all a half-step behind at 3-2. None of the league's other seven divisions feature a foursome of winners. Only the NFC East, which so far has been dramatically stronger than anyone had a right to expect.

The resurgent Cowboys were the division's only winners in Week 6, but even that should come with something of an disclaimer. Dallas beat the Giants 16-13 in overtime at Texas Stadium on Sunday, but it was a win that should have come far easier than it did.

The Cowboys statistically dominated Eli Manning and the rest of the G-men, but thanks to four turnovers (three fumbles and a Bledsoe interception) and a pair of missed field goals, Dallas didn't secure the win until inconsistent kicker Jose Cortez banged home a 45-yarder at the close of its first overtime possession.

Ugly? Heck, yes. But effective, given that the Cowboys have now made it through their first trip around the division and still find themselves with that tenuous half-game advantage.

"That was a critical overtime win for us,'' said a sweaty, but relieved Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, long the team's postgame big-picture guy. "A game like this could really prove valuable throughout this season. In six games, I feel like this team has seen most everything that can happen to it. We've played through a bad game [the last-second loss to Washington at home on Monday Night Football], and we've fought back to win some big games.

"I know this: I would have flat taken where we are coming out of training camp. I'm like everybody else. When I look at it in the morning, I like to see Dallas up there [in first place]. But it's too early to start thinking much about that.''

It is not, however, too early to say this: While the headlines and the hype so far in Dallas this year has been about the offense, and the instant chemistry between the newly reborn Drew Bledsoe and his veteran receivers, the best news of all is that the D is back in the Big D. The Cowboys have themselves a honest-to-goodness defense again, and it should keep them in the thick of the NFC playoff race all season long.