Thursday's NFL Roundup

IRVING, Texas (AP) _ Steve Spurrier will have to wait at least another month to deliver the game ball he promised Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder. <br><br>Roy Williams returned an interception 5 yards

Friday, November 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

IRVING, Texas (AP) _ Steve Spurrier will have to wait at least another month to deliver the game ball he promised Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

Roy Williams returned an interception 5 yards for a touchdown and Joey Galloway strutted into the end zone with a go-ahead 41-yard touchdown catch, sending the Dallas Cowboys past the Redskins 27-20 Thursday and continuing a lopsided turn to their once-bitter rivalry.

Dallas (5-7) has beaten Washington 10 straight times, the last seven since Snyder bought the team. The Cowboys are only 33-48 against the rest of the league during that span, which began in November 1997.

When Spurrier was hired in January, he said during his introductory news conference that he would give Snyder a game ball from the team's first victory over the Cowboys. A clip of the comment was played inside Texas Stadium just before kickoff, drawing boos that quickly turned to cheers when the screen turned black except for the words, ``Not Today Steve!''

It looked good for Washington when Danny Wuerffel threw his third touchdown pass for a 20-10 lead early in the third quarter. Then the Redskins (5-7) missed an extra point, and little went right for them the rest of the way.

Now their coach and owner will have to wait until the season finale Dec. 29 in Washington for another chance to end the skid against their NFC East rivals.

Emmitt Smith ran 23 times for 144 yards, his largest total since Dec. 10, 2000, when had 150 against _ of course _ the Redskins. He had seven runs of at least 11 yards and passed the 17,000-yard mark for his career.

Patriots 20, Lions 12

DETROIT (AP) _ Antowain Smith ran for 80 yards and a touchdown, and Tedy Bruschi returned an interception 27 yards for a score to lead New England past Detroit.

The Patriots (7-5) have won four of five games _ after losing four straight _ to pull within a half-game of AFC East-leading Miami. Troy Brown caught 10 passes for 111 yards.

The Lions (3-9) have dropped four in a row and lost consecutive games on Thanksgiving Day for the first time since 1992-93.

After Jason Hanson's fourth field goal cut Detroit's deficit to 20-12 with under 10 minutes left, the Patriots ran out the clock by driving from their 19 to the Lions 2.