IRVING – For most of the season, the Cowboys have been able to avoid the controversies that can tear teams apart.
Through all the episodes of Terrell Owens, the quarterback change, the Greg Ellis injury that has limited the defense, the Cowboys have kept a positive public face.
Until this week.
Fissures in team chemistry have appeared with one game to go, and the Cowboys' best chance to win the NFC East is gone thanks to Monday's 23-7 loss to Philadelphia.
After that game, Owens reiterated his wish for more passes his way, Terry Glenn called out the game plan, the defenders wondered aloud what has gone wrong with their unit, and owner and general manager Jerry Jones used the words "disgusted" and "pitiful" to describe what he had seen.
"Some people talk a big game and think that they are doing the team justice by pumping themselves up, and they go out there and basically get abused," cornerback Terence Newman said. "People need to stop talking and play."
Newman didn't specify who he was talking about or which side of the ball he was talking about, but tight end Jason Witten made the link to Owens.
"I think when Terence made his comment, I think he was probably talking about Terrell's comment," Witten said. "I think Terrell's a very outgoing person and always says those things, so it doesn't bother me. But whenever you're losing, it's always easier to get under people's skin, and I think that's what happened."
Coach Bill Parcells does not see a fractured locker room. He believes the comments were borne mostly out of the postgame frustration of a big game gone bad.
"When we left Oxnard and somebody says, 'You'll be in the playoffs,' how many of you wouldn't say, 'OK'? " he said. "I know where we are."
Quarterback Tony Romo said he did not have a problem with the comments made by Owens or Glenn. But they were the first signs of dissatisfaction with an offense that is still ranked fifth in the league and is averaging 26.3 points per game.
"Anytime your team loses, people are going to be upset," Romo said. "That's how this game is. There's just too many competitive individuals in this locker room to allow that to happen and say, 'It's OK.' Those are the guys you want on your team, the guys that are going to fight and be competitive and don't want to lose. We have a lot of guys like that."
Parcells has often said that his best teams would get into squabbles, but when Sunday rolled around things were fine. He said earlier this season that this team's sensitivity level is down and players feel like they can say whatever they want to each other.
When defensive ends Marcus Spears and Chris Canty got into fisticuffs with Marc Colombo and Cory Procter at practice, Parcells downplayed it. When Canty and Newman came to blows a few days later, he did not think much of it, either.
"We're not calling it the end of the world or Armageddon," Canty said. "We're still teammates. We still care about each other. You may have some arguments, but tell me which one of y'all didn't argue with your brother or sister growing up? That just happens, so we move past that, but we still care about each other."
A win Sunday against Detroit could mend the cracks that have developed and rebuild some confidence with the playoffs approaching.
"I don't know exactly what's going to happen, and neither do you or anybody else in this business right now, in the NFC," Parcells said. "No one knows. I'm looking at the opportunity. I think we have it. That's what you start out doing this for, to get the opportunity, and we have it.
"Are we going in with everything perfect? No. Is Seattle going in with everything going on? With everything perfect? No. How about the Giants if they're in there? Is everything going perfect for them? The team that's doing pretty good right now is Philadelphia, but they had them in the mortuary a month ago but they got it together. So there's no rule saying you can't get it together."
E-mail tarcher@dallasnews.com
