New Orleans handed 1st defeat by Cowboys, 24-17

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A perfect record would have been lagniappe, as they say in Louisiana — a little something extra.

The history-making achievement the Saints and their fans really covet is a first Super Bowl appearance, which is all that’s left to accomplish now that Tony Romo and Dallas ended their December doldrums at New Orleans’ expense.

Drew Brees and the Saints are marching toward an unbeaten season no more after their frenzied rally fell short in a 24-17 loss to the Cowboys on Saturday night.

“This is going to sting for a while but we’ve got to be able to put this behind us,” Brees said, noting that the Saints remain in control to finish the No. 1 playoff seeding in the NFC. “It’s all about the next game.”

Romo threw for 312 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown to Miles Austin, and DeMarcus Ware punctuated his comeback from a neck injury with a game-sealing strip of Brees.

The loss by the Saints (13-1) left the Indianapolis Colts (14-0) as the NFL’s only unbeaten team this season.

“We’ll digest this,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “Nonetheless, it is what it is and we’ve got to get back to work next week. We have two important games in front of us and we’ll take that approach.”

The Saints’ start had New Orleans hoping its team could go 19-0 and win the Super Bowl after so many years of losing and heartbreak. It was seen by some as a symbol of New Orleans’ ability to come back better than before from the epic disaster that was Hurricane Katrina a little more than four years ago.

Brees had sensed all of that, and made no secret that he wanted the Saints to go for it.

“We feel like we deserved it and the whole city deserved it and we wanted to make it happen,” Brees said. “That’s probably the most disappointing thing about it.”

Instead, the Cowboys (9-5) overcame failures of a more recent nature, ending a two-game skid and proving they were good enough to beat the top team in the NFC in front of a charged-up, hostile crowd. They came to New Orleans 3-8 in December games in their last three seasons under coach Wade Phillips, who was finding himself increasingly on the defensive about his club’s ability to play well down the stretch.

Dallas dominated early, scoring on its first two possessions to take a 14-0 lead and went up 24-3 on Marion Barber’s second short TD run of the game in the third quarter. Then the Cowboys held on despite Nick Folk’s surprising missed 24-yard field goal shortly before the two-minute warning.

The high-powered Saints nearly pulled off what would have been the latest of several improbable comebacks.

Mike Bell’s 1-yard run made it 24-10 with 12:35 to go. Brees followed that by capping a seven-play, 70-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Lance Moore with eight minutes left.