By JAIME ARON
AP Sports Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas(AP) -- Leading, but not by much, Tony Romo and
the Dallas Cowboys were desperately in need of a big play.

Jake Delhomme helped them make several.

Terence Newman returned an interception 27 yards for a
lead-stretching touchdown with 5:07 left, then rookie linebacker
Victor Butler got two sacks and forced a fumble on the next
series, sending Dallas to a 21-7 victory over the Carolina
Panthers on Monday night.

Considering the Cowboys were coming off a last-second loss in
the opener of their $1.15 billion stadium, a crowd of 90,588 was
especially tense until the defense put the game away. The
biggest sigh of relief likely came from team owner Jerry Jones.

"It certainly does feel good," Jones said. "The way it went so
early, it just felt like maybe we ought to check this thing out
for Grim Reapers living in the back someplace."

Dallas (2-1) trailed 7-0 at halftime and was booed by fans.
Although the defense was playing well and running backs Felix
Jones and Tashard Choice were easing the load on Romo, the
quarterback was being so careful to avoid the mistakes that
doomed the Cowboys the previous week that the offense struggled
to turn long drives into points.

When Romo threw a pair of incompletions from the 1-yard line
midway through the fourth quarter, Dallas was up by only six
points. Then Newman stepped in front of a pass to Steve Smith,
darted toward the right corner of the end zone and dived in.
Butler capped the night with his pair of sacks and the turnover,
giving the Cowboys three of each after not having any of either
over the first two weeks.

"Everybody on the outside was pressing the panic button, but not
us," linebacker Bradie James said. "We knew we had a bunch of
ball left to play. There was still a lot of time to improve."

The Panthers sure hope so.

After going 12-4 and winning their division, they're 0-3 and
headed into a bye week. This is their worst start since 0-7 in
1998 and Delhomme has seven interceptions, seven sacks and two
fumbles.

"We have lots of football left," coach John Fox said. "We're not
even a quarter through the season. We've had three-loss skids
before. We have to stick together."

Smith insisted Delhomme wasn't to blame for the game-breaking
mistake. Fox said a slant was called and Smith said he changed
the route.

"I put Jake in a bad situation," Smith said. "The bottom line is
that I (hurt) Jake."

Delhomme was 22 of 33 for 220 yards, but here are the only
numbers that mattered: Carolina's six second-half drives ended
with four punts, an interception and a fumble.

The effort showed what Cowboys coach-defensive coordinator Wade
Phillips thought his unit was capable of doing. They showed they
could stop the pass in the opener, then showed they could stop
the run in the second game. This time, they put it all together,
with Mike Jenkins coming up with a first-half interception and
Jay Ratliff getting the season's first sack.

Their only blemish was a 90-yard drive just before halftime that
put the Panthers up 7-0. Even with that, Carolina had only 271
yards and 15 first downs. The Panthers were 1 of 8 on third
downs.

"Before the game we talked about how our defensive line and
linebackers did their job last week and how we didn't do our
job," Newman said. "So I told them 'Hey it's on us. We've got to
shut these guys down.' We let this team down last week and we
have to make up for it this week."

Dallas was without running back Marion Barber because of a
bruised thigh, but hardly missed him as fill-in starter Felix
Jones broke off plays of 16, 18 and 20 yards on the first two
drives. Yet Romo failed to turn them into any points and the
Cowboys went into halftime without any points and hearing a lot
of boos from a crowd that was louder than last week, even though
there were 15,000 fewer people, because the retractable roof and
end-zone doors were closed.

Romo was 22 of 33 for 255 yards with no touchdowns and no
turnovers. He didn't throw many deep balls, rarely threw into
traffic and often looked for his security blanket, tight end
Jason Witten (nine catches for 77 yards) as he regained his
footing following the second-worst passer rating of his career.

"It's all about improving and doing it on the field," Romo said.
"That was my sole focus this week, to understand why I did
certain things and not make those mistakes again, and come out
and be a better quarterback and help this team win."

Jones finished with 94 yards on only eight carries, and another
20 yards on a pass before leaving with a strained left knee in
the third quarter.

Choice had 82 yards on 18 carries, including a touchdown. He
also caught four passes for 36 yards.

Dallas' Nick Folk ended a streak of 16 straight field goals by
missing a 40-yarder on the opening drive, but made kicks of 24
and 19 in the second half.

Notes: Carolina's Dante Rosario came in with three catches for
31 yards, but had three catches for 58 yards on the scoring
drive, including a 25-yard touchdown catch. ... Dallas has won
eight straight regular-season games against the Panthers since
1998, although Carolina won a playoff meeting in 2003. ...
Carolina's DeAngelo Williams had 63 yards on 11 carries, but
Jonathan Stewart ran three times for minus-1 yard.