American Football: Terence Newman returned an interception for a touchdown and Tony Romo played mistake-free football as Dallas beat Carolina 21-7 on Monday night in the NFL.
Just eight days after Romo had thrown three costly interceptions in an agonising 33-31 defeat by the New York Giants, he set about putting things right.
He completed 22 of 33 passes for 255 yards as the Cowboys marked the first Monday night game in their new €800 million stadium with a win. But more importantly, he didn't turn the ball over.
Romo didn't need to be spectacular as the Cowboys racked up 212 yards on the ground even without the injured Marion Barber.
Felix Jones provided the spark with 94 yards on just eight carries while Tashard Choice adopted Barber's closing role to rumble for 82 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
The game was scoreless for almost 29 minutes as both team struggled to get on track offensively.
But the Panthers sprang into life to break the deadlock late in the opening half.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme hit tight end Dante Rosario for a 25-yard gain to the Dallas 25-yard line, and repeated the trick a play later to give Carolina a 7-0 edge.
Dallas came out firing in the third quarter and a 40-yard scamper from Jones down to the Panthers 10 set up a 24-yard Nick Folk field goal and got the Cowboys on the board.
And they took the lead late in the third period when Choice went in from five yards out to finish off a 58-yard Dallas drive, highlighted by a 23-yard strike from Romo to wide receiver Roy Williams.
Another Folk field goal - this time from 19 yards out - then padded the lead to 13-7 and capped a 14-play, 73-yard Dallas drive.
Delhomme had thrown four interceptions in the season-opening loss to Philadelphia, and another key mistake deep into the final period here ensured victory for Dallas.
His short pass was picked off by Newman, who returned it 27 yards for the game-breaking score. Choice's run for a two-point conversion made the final margin of victory 21-7.
The Cowboys rise to 2-1 with the win, while the Panthers drop to 0-3.