The Dallas Cowboys are hoping the loss of DeMarco Murray won't derail their season.

It looks like a trip to London may have been the catalyst to ending the hopes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers .

Two teams looking for answers meet Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium with the Cowboys trying to avoid a third straight loss and the Buccaneers on a seven-game slide.

Dallas (7-6) dropped into a first-place tie in the NFC East with the Giants after blowing a late 12-point lead in Sunday's 37-34 home defeat to New York. The Cowboys had a tying field goal blocked at the end, marking the second straight game they have failed to convert one at the close of regulation.

Perhaps a bigger loss happened in the first quarter when Murray fractured his right ankle. Murray, averaging 137.4 rushing yards over the Cowboys' last five victories and on pace to become the franchise's first 1,000-yard back since 2006, has been placed on injured reserve.

Felix Jones , who gained 106 yards on 16 carries Sunday, becomes the starter again. The Cowboys signed journeyman Sammy Morris on Monday.

"DeMarco has been a big part of this offense and big part of this football team," quarterback Tony Romo said. "We are lucky to have a guy like Felix, obviously, who can step in."

Dallas could have put a stranglehold on the division had it won Sunday. The Cowboys still would win the division by capturing their final three games, and can even win it by losing to Tampa Bay (4-9) and winning the last two.

"We still control our own destiny," coach Jason Garrett said. "I think our players understand."

The Buccaneers last dropped eight in a row during a season in 1987, when they lost their final eight games. Tampa Bay missed the playoffs at 10-6 last year and began 2011 with a 4-2 mark before an Oct. 23 loss to Chicago in London started this skid.

The losing has put third-year coach Raheem Morris' job in jeopardy.

"It's great for you guys to scare my family half to death and talk about that stuff all throughout," Morris said. "But for us, man, it's a mentally tough business. It is move on. It is next opponent. It's next man up. It's the Dallas Cowboys . ... For me, a chance to ruin Jason Garrett's season, and let you talk about him."

Tampa Bay seemed to have a budding star on its hands in 2010 in Josh Freeman , who had 25 touchdown passes and just six interceptions. That ratio has dropped to 12 TDs and a league-high 18 interceptions this year.

Freeman returned last Sunday after missing a game with an injured throwing shoulder, but the results were disastrous as the Buccaneers fell 41-14 at Jacksonville.

Tampa Bay has allowed the most points in the NFC (370) and has lost four times at by least 19.

"You might think guys might be kinda down," Freeman said. "Like I said, we're upset about losing. Guys are coming to work and they've been wanting to do something about it to correct it."

Freeman is relishing the chance to go up against a Dallas defense that allowed 510 yards last Sunday for the highest total by a Cowboys opponent in five years.

"Dallas is kind of on the bubble right now, what are they, 7-6?" Freeman said. "So I can't think of anything happier than to go out and get a win this week and that may put a damper on their hopes."

Sunday's lackluster defensive showing ruined a strong performance by Romo, who threw four touchdown passes for the first time since 2007 and recorded his fifth 300-yard effort of the year. Romo's passer rating is a career-best 100.6 for the NFL's fourth-highest mark, and he's fifth in the league with 26 TD passes.

The Cowboys are headed back on the road, where they have played three overtime games and two others decided on scores within the final 30 seconds.

Garrett's clock management has come into question after some of the close games. He called a timeout before Dan Bailey missed a 49-yard field goal attempt at the end of regulation in a 19-13 OT loss at Arizona on Dec. 4 and also let some extra time elapse last weekend before calling a timeout with the Cowboys on defense late in the game.

"The nature of our team is we've played a lot of close games," Garrett said. "We've won maybe half of them and we've lost some other ones. You have to look at situations, see what happens, some way, somehow process it, learn from it and hopefully go forward."

Dallas has won the last three meetings with Tampa Bay. Romo needed only 16 completions to throw for 353 yards and three scores in the last matchup, a 34-21 win Sept. 13, 2009.

Cowboys build early lead, then coast to victory

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Tony Romo made it look easy, shredding Tampa Bay's secondary at will and helping the Dallas Cowboys get back on track in the NFC East.

"This was an important game," Romo said after throwing for three touchdowns and running for a fourth first-half score Saturday night to lead the first-place Cowboys to a 31-15 rout of the struggling Buccaneers.

"Really the playoffs started for us; that's the way we approached it. Guys came out with great energy and it was a great week of practice. We just had to go forward."

Dallas stopped a two-game losing streak in which it blew fourth-quarter leads to allow a seemingly solid grip on the division lead slip away.

The victory gave the Cowboys (8-6) a half-game lead over New York. Although the Giants hold a tiebreaker advantage after beating Dallas 37-34 last week, the Cowboys can claim the division title and host a playoff game by finishing with wins the next two weeks over Philadelphia at home and the Giants on the road.

"I think it showed our character, our resolve, what we're made of," Dallas linebacker Keith Brooking said. "It was obviously doom and gloom around Valley Ranch for the past couple of weeks - kind of the world was caving in on us. But we just kept fighting and kept plugging away, and we still control our own destiny."

The Bucs (4-10), meanwhile, lost for the eighth straight time and played a miserable first half that certainly didn't do anything to help coach Raheem Morris make a case for keeping his job.

Romo threw a pair of 8-yard TD passes to Miles Austin and Dez Bryant in the first quarter, then finished a seven-play, 89-yard drive with a 9-yarder to Laurent Robinson to make it 21-0 with just under 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter. Romo increased the lead to 28 points on a quarterback sneak in the closing seconds of the opening half.

"I thought he just had a good feel for what we were doing against what they were doing," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "I thought he got back quickly and got the ball out of his hands, and when he had to move and make plays, he was able to do that too. He made a lot of big plays and not many bad plays."

Tampa Bay managed just one first down and was outgained 279 yards to 55 in the first two quarters, yet found a way to make it more interesting in the second half.

The Bucs, who had yielded 69 consecutive points dating to the second quarter of the previous week's 41-14 loss at Jacksonville, finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter when rookie Adrian Clayborn sacked Romo from behind, forcing a fumble that linebacker Dekoda Watson returned 4 yards for a TD for a much-needed spark.

Josh Freeman 's 13-yard TD pass to Dezmon Briscoe and a two-point conversion throw to Kellen Winslow cut it to 31-15 heading into the final quarter.

The Cowboys have led in the fourth quarter in five of their six losses, however there wouldn't be a late collapse this time. Tampa Bay turned the ball over on downs twice in the last 6 minutes, and Sammy Morris picked up a first down inside the Bucs 10 to give the Cowboys an opportunity to run out the clock.

"Too little, too late," Morris said about Tampa Bay's comeback. "Not enough ... at the beginning. You can't dig holes like that for yourself."

Austin's TD midway through the first quarter was set up by Tampa Bay's NFL-leading 32nd turnover, a fumble by Freeman on the fifth play of the game.

The Tampa Bay quarterback scrambled 25 yards on third-and-5 to march the Bucs near midfield, but the opening possession of the night came to an abrupt halt on the next play when Freeman took off again for a 7-yard gain and was stripped of the ball at the Cowboys 44.

Linebacker Bradie James recovered and it took Romo seven plays to get Dallas in the end zone for the first time. The Cowboys marched 69 yards in 10 plays on their next possession, with Romo finishing the drive by finding a wide-open Bryant in the back of the end zone to make it 14-0.

In three career games against Tampa Bay - all lopsided victories - Romo has thrown for 908 yards, 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. He was 23 of 30 for 249 yards and was sacked twice Saturday night.

"I was just finding guys who were open and the guys do the rest," Romo said. "I thought the offense played good as a whole."

Felix Jones , back in the starting lineup after DeMarco Murray broke his right ankle last week in a 37-34 loss to the Giants, broke a 38-yard run on the drive leading to Robinson's TD and finished with 108 yards on 22 carries - his second straight 100-yard performance had 67 yards rushing on 12 carries at halftime.

Freeman, making his second start since missing a game because of an injured throwing shoulder, was 17 of 27 for 148 yards and no interceptions. He led the Bucs in rushing with 37 yards on four attempts and was sacked three times, once by DeMarcus Ware , who notched his 16th of the season.

Thanks to a large contingent of Cowboys fans, the Bucs played before a sellout crowd at home for just the second time in two seasons. Judging by all the blue and white jerseys scattered throughout the 65,000-seat stadium, at least half the house appeared to be rooting for Dallas.

The Bucs have lost eight straight following a 4-2 start that included wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta. The skid has Morris on the hot seat just a year after the NFL's youngest head coach led his team to a surprising 10-6 finish that heightened expectations coming into this season.

Tampa Bay finishes up with games at Carolina and Atlanta. Freeman said Morris' status is out of his hands, but that he and his teammates intend to give maximum effort the rest of the way.

"If you're not going out and giving everything you have for these last two games, you don't really deserve to be out there," Freeman said. "You've got to take some pride in what you're doing."

Notes: Tampa Bay CB Aqib Talib started after sitting out the previous week because of a sore right hamstring, however he aggravated the injury in the first half and did not return. ... By building an early lead, the Cowboys essentially took leading rusher LeGarrette Blount out of Tampa Bay's lineup. Blount, who rarely plays in passing situations, was limited to 21 yards on nine carries. ... Morris finished with 53 yards rushing on 12 attempts for the Cowboys.

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