IRVING, Texas — A month into this season, the Dallas Cowboys have mastered mediocrity.

They’re 2-0 against teams that haven’t won, 0-2 against teams that haven’t lost.
They’re 2-0 when Tony Romo holds onto the ball, 0-2 when he turns the ball over.
They’ve won once by throwing and once by running. Their defense keeps getting better, but isn’t good enough to carry them, especially not with DeMarcus Ware still seeking his first sack.
Looking for one thing they’ve done really well all four games?
“I still think our special teams are playing solid for us,” coach Wade Phillips said Monday.
Being stuck in the middle is nothing new for Dallas. Since starting 11-1 in Phillips’ first season replacing Bill Parcells, the Cowboys are 12-12, or 12-13 if you count a playoff loss.
After failing to make the playoffs last season, things were supposed to be different this time. With three-fourths of the season to go, that could still happen, but something’s going to have to change.
“We are good enough to win, but we are not good enough (to win) making too many mistakes,” Phillips said.
Phillips noted that Dallas beat Tampa Bay and Carolina by at least 10 points and went down to the wire in losses to New York and Denver. That’s either encouraging or agonizing, depending on your perspective.
The Cowboys lost to the Giants on the final play of the game, blowing a lead they’d just regained and spoiling the debut at their fancy new stadium. Against the Broncos, they didn’t trail until there was 1:46 left and had two short throws into the end zone that could’ve tied it in the closing seconds.
“You’re kind of like, `OK. Where are we? What is our identity?”’ linebacker Bradie James said. “Our identity is we’re 2-2. In order for us to continue to win and not be an up-and-down team, we have to win those tough games. That’s just it.”
Next up is winless Kansas City, then a bye.
Still, progress needs to start somewhere, starting with an offense that was supposed to be versatile but now looks like it can’t figure out what to do. They have two touchdowns in their last 22 possessions and the top two receivers are a running back and a tight end, which is starting to revive talk of whether they’d be better off with Terrell Owens still around.
“It’s time for us to really check ourselves now and say, `Hey, look here, regardless of what it’s going to take, we have to come out and we have to start winning these games ugly at the end and be consistent,”’ receiver Patrick Crayton said. “We’ve got too good of an offense to even put our defense in a situations to where they’ve got to carry us.”
The Cowboys ran for more than 200 yards in their second and third games, and were off to another strong start Sunday, riding the legs of Marion Barber and Tashard Choice to a 10-0 lead after one quarter. But Dallas ran only seven times in the second half.
Part of the problem was Barber’s thigh injury flaring up. Still, Crayton spoke for many fans when he wondered aloud Monday about why offensive coordinator Jason Garrett didn’t have Romo hand off more in the third and fourth quarters.
“We’ve got five freaks of nature up front that are calling for us to run the ball, you would think you’d listen to those guys,” Crayton said. “We’re trying to grind it out and get an ugly victory. We’re on the road against a 3-0 football team with the No. 1 defense and we blew them out of the water to start the game off, don’t deviate away from that.”
Another questionable decision was Romo throwing those last two passes to Sam Hurd, his No. 4 receiver, even though Champ Bailey was covering him on both plays. Hurd has 28 receptions in his four-year career; Bailey has 44 career interceptions.
Romo threw three long touchdown passes in the opener and had another TD toss the next week. Now he’s gone two straight games without a touchdown pass, the first time that’s happened since he became a starter in 2006.
On Sunday in Denver, and again Monday in Dallas, Phillips emphasized that the club must stick together. He’s confident they will.
“Our team is going to keep fighting, keep working harder, keep trying to do the things it takes to get better, and we’re going to do that getting ready for this next ball game,” he said. “This team has worked a long time and very hard to stop believing in what we’re doing, stop trusting each other. We’re going to work at it and get better and do something about it.”