Owens is in spotlight again

Terrell Owens had two touchdown receptions and the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 38-28, Saturday night.

Along the way, Owens created more controversy.

Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall said that Owens spit in his face on the first play.

“I lost all respect for the guy,” Hall said. “We were kind of walking face to face, walking back to the huddle, and he just hauled off and spit in my face.”

Although Michael Vick and Morten Andersen set NFL records, the Falcons (7-7) suffered a crucial setback in the NFC wild-card race.

Marion Barber clinched it for the NFC East-leading Cowboys (9-5), scoring on two runs after the Falcons had taken the lead.

Owens, who was kept out of the end zone by Hall when the two faced off in Week 1 of the 2005 season, made a one-handed seven-yard touchdown reception and then blew past Hall on a 51-year scoring catch.

Owens didn’t say whether he spit on Hall.

“He had a lot of words. I didn’t,” Owens said.

Vick tied a career high with four touchdown passes and set a season record for yards rushing by a quarterback with 990, surpassing Bobby Douglass’ mark of 968 with the Chicago Bears in 1972.

Andersen, 46, had four extra points to become the NFL career scoring leader with 2,437 points, surpassing Gary Anderson’s mark of 2,434.

It wasn’t enough to hold off the Cowboys, who went ahead to stay on a nine-yard run by Barber with 2 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.

Barber had a three-yard touchdown run with 2:18 remaining to clinch the victory.

Tony Romo, coming off his worst game since taking over as the starter for the Cowboys, completed 22 of 29 for 278 yards. He distributed his throws evenly -- Terry Glenn had five receptions for 96 yards, Owens caught five for 69 yards and Jason Witten had five receptions for 56 yards.

Vick completed 16 of 24 passes for 237 yards and had 56 yards in eight carries, but he had a pass intercepted by DeMarcus Ware and returned 41 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.

The four touchdown passes tied Vick’s personal best. He had that many in an overtime tie with Pittsburgh in 2002, his first year as a starter.

“We let it slip away,” said Vick, who left late in the game because of a groin injury. “I don’t know how, but we let it slip away.”