Murray’s 179 yards power Cowboys to romp over Bears

Associated Press

CHICAGO

The Dallas Cowboys look like a team that’s ready for another first-place showdown.

DeMarco Murray ran for a season-high 179 yards and a touchdown, Tony Romo threw for three scores and the Cowboys beat the Chicago Bears 41-28 on Thursday night.

The Cowboys (9-4) made it look easy for most of the night against a struggling team that lost star receiver Brandon Marshall to a rib injury.

Dallas clinched its first winning season since 2009, but is looking for more, with an NFC East title and first playoff appearance in five years in sight.

Led by Romo and Murray, Dallas rebounded from a blowout loss to the Eagles on Thanksgiving and pulled within a half-game of them with another meeting in Philadelphia next week.

The Cowboys took a 14-7 halftime lead and scored 21 unanswered in the third quarter before the Bears (5-8) rallied in the fourth.

With that, the Cowboys improved to a league-best 6-0 on the road, where they have won seven straight since a blowout loss at Soldier Field on a bone-chilling night last December.

Romo, who has been bothered by a bad back, kept checking down and completed 21 of 26 passes for 205 after struggling against the Eagles.

Murray, the league’s leading rusher, carried 32 times.