The only thing that counts is results, and the only reason Jason Garrett is getting knocked around this morning for his fourth-quarter play calling is because the Dallas Cowboys lost. Had Tom Brady not taken the Patriots down the field and scored that last touchdown, everybody would be talking about the smart, conservative job Garrett and the Cowboys did to rein in headstrong Tony Romo and keep him from throwing crushing interceptions at crucial times. But Brady did, and the Cowboys lost, and so the narrative says Garrett was too conservative. That's how these things go, and it's not a pure second-guess because if you were watching the game, that's how it felt as it happened -- that they'd tried too little, given Brady the ball back with too much time left and were ultimately asking too much of a defense that had held Brady down all game long.

But perspective is elusive on Monday mornings in the NFL, and a step back should remind us that the Cowboys' season is far from over. The Cowboys, in fact, should be just fine if they keep playing football the way they've played it this year. They've got two wins and three tough losses, and while it's hard to escape the feeling that they should have won all five games, it's important to note the good things they've done, and the fact that the tough part of their schedule is out of the way. They have just two remaining non-division road games -- in December at Arizona and Tampa Bay. Their next three opponents have a combined record of 4-12, and six of their final 11 games are against teams that currently have losing records.

Now, that said, it's important that the Cowboys learn a lesson from what happened Sunday. The issue wasn't that they called three straight run plays after getting the ball back with a three-point lead and 3:36 left on the clock -- it's that they called three straight unimaginative run plays -- plays designed to do nothing but eat the required amount of time off the clock. The third-down false start by Tyron Smith (who had a rough game in the midst of an otherwise excellent rookie season so far) didn't help, of course, but did you get the sense it deprived Garrett of a chance to call a really creative, ambitious 3rd-and-13 play that would have picked up the first down and kept Brady off the field? No, neither did I.

The Cowboys are going to need to run the ball, but they need to figure out ways to run it. Felix Jones is laid up with a high ankle sprain? Whatever. They're deep at running back and designed to lean on that. There's been talk of trading Tashard Choice in advance of Tuesday's trade deadline, but the Cowboys would be smarter to keep him and come up with some plays for him. They ran it like crazy in the preseason with Jones and Phillip Tanner and whoever else was out there. What happened to all of those plays? They leave them in San Antonio? That box hasn't been unpacked yet?

Between Choice and DeMarco Murray, the Cowboys should be able to put together some semblance of a running game over the next few weeks, even with Jones out. The Rams, the worst team in the league at stopping the run, offer an excellent opportunity next week to try out anything Garrett wants to try in the running game, and he'd be wise to spend some time this week thinking some things up. Because when you get that fourth-quarter lead and you need to run to put the game away, it helps to do something other than bang it into the middle of your offensive line and see what they came up with.

The Cowboys' defense has been excellent. Their passing game, when Romo's not throwing it to the other team, has shown the ability to put points on the board with any team in the league. But they've held fourth-quarter leads in all three of their losses and been unable to ice the game by running out the clock. Sunday, that wasn't Romo's fault. It was Garrett's for not having better ideas for how to run the ball when the other team knows he's going to run the ball.

There's no reason to think these Cowboys can't win this division. First of all, it's not going to take 12 or 13 wins. You might be able to do it this year with nine or 10. They weren't supposed to beat the Jets in New Jersey or the Patriots in Foxborough, and they've yet to lose a game where they went in as the on-paper favorites. They have plenty of those games yet to come, and they're built to win them. They just need to keep sticking to what they're doing and add in a few creative run plays for their talented running backs. Surely, it's not beyond Garrett's abilities as an offensive coach to pull that off.