The Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins to complete a 2011 NFL sweep over their biggest rivals. With the win Dallas moves closer to the division leading New York Giants while Washington falls further down the pack. Here is a look at the stars of the game for the Cowboys.

Tony Romo(notes)

Romo was almost perfect against the Buffalo Bulls, and while his completion percentage was down, he was still perfect when it came to turnovers. After being much maligned for throwing too many interceptions, specifically against the Detroit Lions, he has now gone three games in a row without an interception. He has thrown 12 touchdowns and only two interceptions since the Lions game and is playing great football. Despite what anyone says, Romo is as responsible as anyone for the Cowboys success right now.

DeMarco Murray(notes)

Felix Jones(notes) made his return, and while some thought he would end up as the starter again, Murray kept the job. Murray ran 25 times for 73 yards while catching a team high six passes for 32 yards. Murray now has 747 rushing yards on the season and has become prominent in the passing game as well with 16 receptions for 115 yards in the last three games. Murray is the Cowboys’ starter now and Jones will just have to deal with his spot service.

Dez Bryant(notes) and Laurent Robinson(notes)

While Jason Witten(notes) led the team in receiving yards, most of it came on one reception and he was held down the entire first half of the game. However, Bryant and Robinson combined to catch seven balls for 102 yards and two scores. As a combined force, they helped Romo the entire game and Robinson should remain a solid force in this offense as long as Dallas retains him.

Dan Bailey(notes)

Dallas finally has a kicker they can trust. Bailey has not missed a field goal since Week 2 and has only missed one so far in his rookie season. In the Redskins win, he hit the winning field goal in overtime and was also perfect on his extra points.

Dallas Defense

For the third week in a row, Dallas’ defense struggled, giving up a lot of passing yards to Rex Grossman(notes). Luckily, the return of Sean Lee(notes) has locked up their run stuffing defense again. Tashard Choice(notes) came out wanting to prove himself, made a big run for nine yards on his first carry of the game and showed off to the Dallas sidelines. He finished the game with six carries for seven yards.

While they gave up the big passing plays, the Dallas defense also forced two fumbles and Orlando Scandrick(notes) intercepted Grossman once. The defense also sacked Grossman three times with Ware getting his 14th of the season. Gerald Sensabaugh(notes) led the team with nine tackles and one of the forced fumbles.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has followed the Dallas Cowboys since he was a child, his favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s. Through the great years of the ’90s and the hard times of the ’80s, Shawn never turned his back on America’s Team.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

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As is typical of NFL pre-season action, the Minnesota Vikings showed some reasons for optimism on Saturday night when they hosted the Dallas Cowboys. They also showed a few reasons for concern, and the result was a 23-17 loss to the Cowboys in the first event held at the Metrodome since the roof collapsed back on December 12.

For the better part of the first half, the Vikings controlled the line of scrimmage against Dallas’ first-string. Adrian Peterson looked. . .well, like Adrian Peterson, putting up 81 yards on 14 carries. Peterson’s running directly set up the Vikings’ first touchdown, as Donovan McNabb executed a perfect play-action fake to Peterson and hit a streaking Bernard Berrian for a 49-yard touchdown pass to give Minnesota an early 7-0 lead. The Cowboys would come back in the second quarter with a pair of touchdowns, one coming off of the return of a blocked Ryan Longwell field goal attempt. Longwell connected on a field goal before the end of the first half, and the Cowboys were able to take a 17-10 lead into the locker room.

The Vikings got a pretty good scare late in the first quarter of play. Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo hit tight end Jason Witten on a pass in the right flat, and cornerback Antoine Winfield came up and put a textbook tackle on Witten to hold him to a very short gain. However, Winfield remained down after the play was over, and it appeared as though one of the players the Vikings could most ill-afford to lose had injured his left shoulder. Fortunately, it turned out to be nothing more than a stinger, as Winfield was shown laughing with teammates on the sidelines shortly after the incident, allowing defensive coordinator Fred Pagac and the rest of Vikings nation to breathe a little bit easier.

Not everything was great for the Vikings. . .McNabb had a pass intercepted by Dallas safety Gerald Sensabaugh on a deflection in the second quarter, and the Vikings did allow Romo to complete 75% of his passes. Overall, however, the Vikings fared well against the Cowboys. Bill Musgrave’s new offense had a great deal of success, with McNabb completing nine passes to his wide receivers, including the long touchdown to Berrian.

The Vikings’ final pre-season game will happen on Thursday night at the Metrodome, as they will play host to the Houston Texans. None of the starters will see any really significant action, and word is circulating that rookie Christian Ponder, who saw very little time in the game against Dallas, could start the game on Thursday night. From there, it will be on to San Diego and the start of the 2011 NFL regular season.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was sharp. San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers was sharper. And the most accurate guy of all was Chargers coach Norv Turner.

Rivers led San Diego to scores on two of his three drives, then Turner helped his team score another touchdown with two successful challenges on a single series in the Chargers’ 20-7 exhibition victory over the Cowboys on Sunday night.

Rivers got better as he went along — from a three-and-out to a field goal on a drive that fizzled at the 7-yard line to going 5 for 5 on a 61-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Randy McMichael.

Rivers finished 8 of 11 for 92 yards.

Billy Volek took over on San Diego’s next series and the Chargers (1-1) went 81 yards for another touchdown. Turner kept the drive going by getting an interception erased by video review — the right heel of Cowboys safety Gerald Sensabaugh narrowly landed on the sideline — and by getting a 15-yard touchdown run for Ryan Mathews on a play initially declared out of bounds inside the 1.

“We’re continuing to improve, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” said Rivers, whose stat line indicates otherwise. He went 5 of 6 for 87 yards during the exhibition opener against the Seahawks.

Romo was 8 of 12 for 58 yards, plus a little bit of what the Cowboys (1-1) love to see — a scrambling 6-yard touchdown pass to a sliding Jason Witten — and hate to see — an interception on a deep throw he never should have made.

Dallas’ Felix Jones gained 56 yards on seven carries.

Burress catches TD pass

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Plaxico Burress saw the ball coming his way and everything started to move in slow motion.

He stretched his arms, grabbed the pass over his shoulder and fell into the end zone for a touchdown. After being away from the league for nearly three years, Plax was back.

“Everything feels normal,” Burress said. “It feels like football. To be honest, it feels like I never left.”

Burress caught three passes for 66 yards, including a 26-yard reception for a touchdown, in his first game since 2008 to help the New York Jets beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-7 in an exhibition.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” the 34-year-old Burress said. “I’m just getting started.”

Signed last month after serving 20 months in prison on a gun charge, Burress made his debut with the Jets (1-1) a memorable one.

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez finished 12 of 20 for 173 yards and two TDs, the first a 16-yarder to Santonio Holmes.

The Bengals (0-2) struggled as rookie Andy Dalton, a second-round pick from Texas Christian, threw two passes that were intercepted and led to Jets scores. Dalton was 8 of 19 for 86 yards.

“It wasn’t good enough,” Dalton said. “I have to come out and play better.”

Notes

• The mayors of San Francisco and Oakland called for an end to violence at sporting events after two men were shot outside a 49ers-versus-Raiders exhibition game Saturday at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park in what police said were separate incidents.

One victim was in serious condition at San Francisco General Hospital after being shot several times in the stomach and another was recovering from less serious wounds after the attacks in a parking lot. The 49ers won the game 17-3.

Police interviewed witnesses and are looking for suspects.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan issued a joint statement saying violence at stadiums will not be tolerated.

• Coach Jim Harbaugh said he is confident the 49ers will work out a fair new contract for Frank Gore, 28, a two-time Pro Bowl running back.

Harbaugh dismissed reports Gore is unhappy with negotiations, calling it “water-cooler talk.”

• Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who left school after a scandal involving illegal benefits, is considered the top available player in Monday’s supplemental draft.

League officials have ruled Pryor must serve a five-game suspension imposed by the NCAA.