SEATTLE -- At full speed, there was no way Terrance Williams got his feet in bounds. The Seattle Seahawks were so unconvinced that they called for a replay challenge. The CenturyLink Field crowd didn’t think it was a catch, either.

The reaction on the Dallas Cowboys’ sideline was a little different. Sterling Moore had an incredulous look on his face. Staff members pointed to the spot. And the official emphatically signaled a catch, reaching his hands up toward the sky and down to his waist.

As the replay showed on the board, the dull reaction of the crowd told the story as much as the tiny black pellets that sprayed as Williams’ toes dragged along the artificial turf as the slow-motion replay played back and forth.

Somehow, someway the Cowboys had a 23-yard gain on third-and-20 from their 31 with the game in the balance and trailing by three points.

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• N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia



Three plays after Williams’ catch, the Cowboys had their go-ahead touchdown to continue their unexpected early season run of wins.

They stretched it to five straight with the 30-23 win against the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks on Sunday.

And Williams’ catch was the catalyst late in the fourth quarter as the Cowboys overcame themselves as much as they had to overcome Seattle.

“You have to make plays in the NFL, that’s the difference,” passing game coordinator Scott Linehan said outside the locker room, sipping a Gatorade. “You can go back and say five plays that were the difference in winning and losing games. None were bigger than Terrance’s catch.”

To get the pass to Williams, Tony Romo had to spin away from Bruce Irvin the same way he spun away from Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt last week. Then Romo had to climb up the pocket and glide to his right, all with his eyes down the field as defenders closed all around him.

He found Williams last week as well for a 43-yard touchdown on that spin move. This time it was an uber-important first down as the Cowboys won a game few expected them to win.

“I think when you turn and come out of movement, you just try and find guys,” Romo said. “You don’t just find Terrance, you find the defensive backs. You find where they are and then find out which guys are going to get a first down, which guys are not on your team.”

Romo saw Jason Witten breaking down the sideline and Williams cutting across the field, but he also saw a Seattle defensive back splitting the distance between the two and another behind Williams.

“So you put it over the first guy and away from the second guy,” Romo said, “and Terrance just did all the rest. He made a great play.”

Witten thought the ball was his for a moment but then saw Williams. Williams never saw Witten. Or the defensive backs. As he saw Romo scrambling, he scrambled as well, looking for a sliver of space. His focus was on the ball, not of an impending hit or even his feet.

“I’m kind of close to the sideline regardless, so I know the hands come first, looking the ball in,” Williams said. “And then you just got to make it natural, just sticking the feet there.”

Entering Week 6, teams were 1-for-55 on third-and-20 or more this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

“There aren't a lot of plays on the call sheet for third-and-[20],” Garrett said. “But Tony's just got such a feel in the pocket. When people are around him he can extend plays.”

For the rest of the drive, the Cowboys did not sniff third down. DeMarco Murray sniffed the end zone, picking up 46 of his 115 yards on three straight rushes, carrying cornerback Richard Sherman into the end zone for a 24-20 lead with 3:16 to play.

“Scott talked about that it’s going to be one of those games where it’s a 2-yard run, a 3-yard run and then they’ll pop out for 10 yards or 12 yards,” Witten said. “That was huge for our football team.”

Without Romo’s improvisation, Williams’ toes and those tiny black pellets, the Cowboys never would have gotten the chance.