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Column: Against all expectations, it’s Cowboy up in the NFL

Cowboys linebacker Rolando McClain celebrates after he intercepted a pass late in the second half of a 30-23 victory over the Seahawks on Sunday in Seattle.
(Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)
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Tony Romo, with his jagged peaks and valleys, will always be a centerpiece of Dallas Cowboys conversations. And DeMarco Murray has been so hot lately he could bring any water cooler to a boil.

But the biggest surprise of the NFL’s shocker team this season isn’t the quarterback or running back. It’s what’s happening on the other side of the ball.

Amazingly, almost inexplicably, Dallas has a defense.

That’s the rub-your-eyes takeaway in the wake of the Cowboys’ 30-23 victory at Seattle, just the second home defeat for the Seahawks in the Russell Wilson era. The Cowboys have won five in a row, their longest winning streak since 2007 when they finished an NFC-best 13-3.

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“Rod Marinelli has just done an unbelievable job with a defense that was so maligned a year ago,” former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson said by phone Monday of the team’s defensive coordinator. “That defense was atrocious last year.”

And that’s being kind. The 2013 Cowboys gave up a franchise-high 6,645 yards, third-most in NFL history. This year’s version is missing the three best players from that group — defensive linemen DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher, now in Denver and Washington, and linebacker Sean Lee, done for the season with a knee injury.

Somehow, the ragtag remainders have come together and formed a unit that’s significantly stronger than last season, a defense that has outplayed its No. 15 ranking.

“You watch them now and they fly around,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, a Fox analyst for the game at Seattle. “They give unbelievable effort. Just put on the tape and watch them play, and you never would have guessed that this was a unit that was a liability going into the season.”

Aikman, who quarterbacked Dallas to three Super Bowl victories, said in a phone interview that he had no expectation that these Cowboys “would be an overly competitive team” this season, he too putting it kindly. He thought they would do well if they simply w weren’t embarrassed in the hostile confines of CenturyLink Field.

“Everyone looked at that game as, well, can these Cowboys prove they’re a legitimate team? Can they at least stay in the game?” he said. “They got down, 10-0, in that environment and were unfazed by it. They came back and really dominated the game. It wasn’t even close. It was an unbelievable performance, and I know from experience that those types of games can carry you a long, long way. Dallas is as confident a team as there is in football right now.”

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Then, there’s the play of Romo and Murray. They form the backbone of the fourth-ranked Cowboys offense, one that has generated an NFL-best 160.3 yards rushing per game.

Murray, who gained 115 yards against Seattle’s top-ranked run defense and leads the league with 785 yards, has rushed for at least 100 in each of the first six games. The only other player to accomplish that feat? Hall of Famer Jim Brown, in 1958.

Johnson raved about the play-calling of Dallas assistant Scott Linehan.

“For years, everybody — the media, the fans, the so-called experts — said the Cowboys needed to run the ball more,” Johnson said. “Scott has done that with DeMarco Murray, and then with his game plan against Seattle he opened it up and was throwing to [running back Lance] Dunbar out of the backfield, and he spread them out a little bit. And yet when he really needed to at the end he was able to run the ball with Murray again.”

No more Lone Star load resting squarely on the shoulders of Romo.

“Romo has always had great stats, but he seemed to have a critical error in some of the big ball games,” said Johnson, also a Fox analyst. “Well, with this running game they have now, Romo doesn’t have to feel like he has to make every single play. That’s what he had to do in the past. So now he’s able to make the plays when they need the plays, and when he chooses to make the plays, rather than having to carry the whole football team.”

After being picked off three times in a season-opening home loss to San Francisco, Romo has thrown 10 touchdown passes with two interceptions. And at 3-0 on the road, the Cowboys are the NFL’s only team with an unblemished record away from home.

The schedule favors the Cowboys’ continuing to gather momentum. On tap are three consecutive home games, against the New York Giants, Washington and Arizona. The Giants were shut out by Philadelphia on Sunday night, 27-0, and lost star receiver Victor Cruz. The Redskins’ only victory came in Week 2 against Jacksonville, which is still winless. And Arizona has played well, but the Cardinals’ quarterback situation has been a week-to-week dice roll.

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Then again, teams can get in trouble by eyeing the schedule and checking off victories on paper.

“Humility,” Aikman warned, “is just a week away.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesfarmer

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