IRVING, Texas -- Chris Perry didn’t have to be told anything or asked anything. He felt like he had the game in his hands, only to have it punched away by Tank Johnson.

Perry’s fifth fumble of the season’s five games (and third lost) couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Bengals. After the Bengals pulled to within a point at 17-16 in the fourth quarter, the team recovered an onsides kick, putting momentum square on the side of the Bengals.

“We were going down to score,” said quarterback Carson Palmer. “We felt they couldn’t stop us and they really hadn’t stopped us. There wasn’t a guy that didn’t think we weren’t going to go down and score.”

Palmer and company certainly looked like it – he hit T.J. Houshmandzadeh for six yards on first down and then went to Chad Ocho Cinco for nine yards and a first down at the Cowboys’ 37. The next play was Perry around the left end. Wrapped up by Tank Johnson, the Cowboys’ defensive tackle knocked the ball out of Perry’s hands, recovered by Dallas linebacker Anthony Spencer.

“Every time you tackle somebody, you try and force a fumble,” Johnson said. “I just went for the ball and it came out. I had probably the worst game in my life and the big play so I guess it kind of evens out. I saw where he had the ball at and when I tackled him, I went for the ball. I didn’t know if it came out or not, but when I saw it rolling, I was like, ‘we got it!’”

Perry lost a crucial fumble last week in the loss to the Browns and said it was a mental lapse, something he had to work on. His tune didn’t change on Sunday.

“I got away from the fundamentals of carrying the ball and I fumbled it,” said Perry, who finished with 31 yards on 13 carries. “I just didn’t take care of the ball and it cost us the game.”

Palmer wouldn’t go that far – noting his interception on the first play from scrimmage and several other plays that just didn’t bounce the team’s way, but the fumble certainly didn’t help.

“There’s a number of reasons we lost. A number of turnovers, a number of bad plays, one fumble definitely didn’t decide the outcome of this game,” Palmer said. “When we don’t play perfect, we’re not going to win a football game.”

The Cowboys took advantage, scoring on their second play after Perry’s fumble on Terrell Owens’ 57-yard touchdown to make it 24-16. The Bengals answered with a touchdown of their own, but after missing the two-point attempt, Dallas scored again to end the Bengals’ upset hopes.

“We had control of the game and then I helped us lose control,” Perry said.