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ARLINGTON, Texas -- The patriarch of one of Americas great sports families, Calvin Hill, was standing outside the Dallas Cowboys locker room shaking his head in wonderment. He was comparing the rookie quarterback Dak Prescott to the 1971 version of Hills old teammate, Roger Staubach, who won a Super Bowl that season?after taking over as Tom Landrys guy.Roger was 29, said Hill, a four-time Pro Bowl running back, and this kid is 23. Roger wasnt ready to play continually in his first year [in 1969]. Dak? Im amazed at this young guy, amazed at his presence in the pocket.Amazed at Prescotts ability to make something out of nothing against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, when the quarterback spun left out of trouble in overtime and found a wide open Jason Witten in the end zone for the Cowboys sixth consecutive victory.Dak reminds me of Roger in terms of being able to extend the play, Hill said, but he also reminds me some of [Tom] Brady in how he manages the game. I dont think Dak managed it well tonight, but [Jim] Schwartz is a really good defensive coordinator for Philadelphia. That front put so much pressure on Dak and yet he never lost his composure.For a change, Prescott didnt play a clean ballgame. He made some throws against Philly that, frankly, looked like fourth-round throws. But this is good news for Dallas, and maybe even better news for the NFL. The Cowboys won even when Prescott walked into AT&T Stadium with his B-minus game, which means the Cowboys are for real as a Super Bowl contender.And when the Dallas Cowboys are in the championship mix, the league benefits in a big way.Its like the Yankees, Hill said. Theres so much passion around the country for and against them. The Cowboys are back, we have two young stars in Dak and Ezekiel Elliott, and thats good for the National Football League.Of course Hill is biased. He put together back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in the franchises Americas Team era, and he works as a Cowboys consultant in player development. But as the father of Grant, a two-time national basketball champ at Duke who lost his near-certain place among the NBAs all-time greats to injury, Hill knows a thing or three about winners, and how much sports needs marquee programs like the Blue Devils, the Yankees, and the Cowboys.Hill was a student at Yale in the 60s?when the Cowboys first started to win, when he would join his classmates in front of a frat house TV to watch Don Meredith and Bob Hayes. Looking for Bullet Bob to catch a bomb, Hill said.Those were the days, my friend. Into the 70s, football fans up and down the Eastern Seaboard would wait breathlessly for lesser 1 p.m. games to end to watch the Dallas Cowboys in the 4 p.m. national game or, better yet, the marquee game on Monday night.Now youve got NFL games on all the time, Hill said through a sigh. Thursday night, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night, and sometimes you have teams in these night games that nobody really follows except their own fans. We used to have national teams. The Redskins of George Allen and Joe Gibbs. Landrys Cowboys. Its been a long time for the Cowboys, but having a national team back is good for the sport.The sport needs it now like never before. Ratings are down and uninspiring play is up. Peyton Manning has left the building, Aaron Rodgers isnt winning big, Russell Wilson isnt running, and Cam Newton and Andrew Luck are losing. Brady and the New England Patriots could use a little help, you know. They cant carry this business on their shoulder pads forever.The Cowboys are arriving in the nick of time. They havent won the big one in two decades; in fact, theyve only won three playoff games in that period. But now they have a monster offensive line and a rookie running back, Elliott, who summons the memories of the signature Dallas backs before him, the likes of Hill, Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith.They have Dez Bryant, who returned from injury Sunday night to catch the tying 22-yard touchdown pass from Prescott late in the fourth quarter and to finish with 113 big-play yards on four catches. They have old man Witten, who wasnt a factor against the Eagles until he needed to be in overtime.They have the 135th player chosen in Aprils draft, Prescott, who did enough to beat the No. 2 player chosen in the draft, Carson Wentz. Prescott was smacked around by Philly before he reminded everyone why he should keep Tony Romo on the bench even when Romos healthy enough to play.In a recent conversation with ESPN The Magazine, the Dallas coach who started Romo in 2006, Bill Parcells, described the calls for Prescott to become the permanent starter a rush to judgment. The Hall of Fame coach explained that a half-dozen games represented a painfully small sample size, and that Prescott first needed to stare down a late deficit, some real adversity.He hasnt thrown four interceptions yet, Parcells said, and then had the press and the fans getting restless and the players looking at him sideways, and maybe his nose is broken too. Thats when you find out about a quarterback.Prescott survived his brutal end-zone interception near the end of the first half, and needed a 30-yard run by Chris Jones, the Dallas punter, of all people, to get through the night.But the great ones -- or the great ones-to-be -- find ways to score more points than the other guys one way or another. When this 29-23 victory was complete, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called it one of the best wins Ive ever been a part of and declared Prescott the starter for the next game against Cleveland.I know that Romo can make chicken salad out of chicken whatever, Jones said, but so can Dak.Calvin Hill, always cutting a dignified figure, put it like this:I think were learning how to win.The Dallas Cowboys are back in business, which is always good for the business of the NFL. Cheap Nike Air Max 270 Ispa . -- Stanfords Kevin Danser knelt on one knee and hardly moved on the sideline as Michigan State celebrated its Rose Bowl victory and his Cardinal teammates made their way to the locker room. Nike Air Max 270 Sale Outlet .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. http://www.max270cheap.com/nike-women-s-air-max-270-black-white-ah6789-001.html . - The Washington Redskins have cut defensive lineman Adam Carriker and punter Sav Rocca. Nike Air Max 270 Just Do It Black . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Air Max 270 Wholesale . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions were in a familiar spot, down a few points with time running out -- only this time, they couldnt get the ball back.Thats the problem with putting yourself in that position too many times.There would be no Matthew Stafford-led comeback at the end of Sundays 20-13 loss to the Houston Texans. Instead, the Lions fell back to .500, which seemed appropriate given how many of their games could have gone either way. Detroit hasnt had a game decided by more than seven points this season.Despite last weekends loss, the Lions (4-4) are certainly in a better spot than at this time last season, when they had dropped seven of their first eight games. This season, Detroit has recovered from a 1/3 start, so the second quarter of the schedule went considerably better than the first.We had a 3-1 quarter. We had a little hiccup at the end, coach Jim Caldwell said Monday. Were getting ready to start all over again just in terms of our next quarter coming up against obviously a very tough opponent. So what I tell you is that weve made some improvement.The Lions play at Minnesota on Sunday, the last game before Detroits open date. At the midway point, the Lions are certainly in the playoff race, but in all four of their victories, the winning points came in the final two minutes. They were certainly cutting it close.Against the Texans on Sunday, Detroit kicked a field goal with 2:53 left to pull within a touchdown. After an unsuccessful onside kick, the Lions couldnt stop Houston, allowing two first downs that let the Texans run out the clock.Obviously, we wanted to get on the field, it just didnt work out, wide receiver Golden Tate said. Weve got to do a better job of not putting our team in that situation, where we need to be playing from behind like that.ddddddddddddhe Lions held Houston to only 23 yards rushing in the first half before allowing 82 in the second, and although the Texans didnt score much after taking a 14-0 lead in the second quarter, they moved the ball enough to hold on for the win.I just think there were some situations there where they just did a little bit better job at the end than we did, Caldwell said. They blocked us up in a couple situations and maybe a couple situations where we missed a tackle here or there. There were a few things, there wasnt just one thing. They did a better job down the stretch.Detroit beat Indianapolis in its season opener on a field goal with 4 seconds left, and its victory over Washington two weekends ago came on a touchdown with 16 seconds remaining. The Lions have had some close losses as well, but their defeat against Tennessee was the only one in which the lead changed late. Theyve been on the right side of most of their exciting finishes so far, and it was always fair to wonder if that would be sustainable.Stafford has been very good, and the addition of receiver Marvin Jones has helped Detroit withstand Calvin Johnsons retirement, but its going to be hard for the Lions to reach the postseason if they need last-minute comebacks in so many of their games. That was one of the main lessons from the loss to Houston.Youll have games like that against good defenses that play well against you, Caldwell said. You know, you may not light it up every single time, but we certainly expect to be a little bit more potent than we were.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '