True to Form, Cowboys Tantalize Fans With Late-Season Signs of Life Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr beat Raiders receiver Jacoby Ford to a pass for an end-zone interception in the fourth quarter. ARLINGTON, Tex. - The Dallas Cowboys should know better than to take success for granted. Mired in mediocrity for several seasons, they have teased and tortured fans while manufacturing playoff runs late into December. It has all proved a mirage, glossed over by the glamour of the America's Team brand and the flashiness of AT&T Stadium and its gigantic video board. The Cowboys again find themselves at that critical juncture after beating the Oakland Raiders, 31-24, a Thanksgiving Day launch point that puts them in firm control of their playoff chances. The victory means Dallas is alone in first place in the N.F.C. East, a half-game ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles. Behind three touchdown runs by DeMarco Murray, the Cowboys (7-5) inched two games above .500 for the third time in three years. Dallas was 8-6 each of the past two seasons and was poised to reach the postseason. But both times, they finished with consecutive losses, a failure to close that will loom over expectations for their last four games. "Yeah, but you have to be careful about taking a global point of view," Cowboys Coach Jason Garrett said when asked if he liked how his team was positioned. After a lackluster first half, the Cowboys looked more like the team that ended the Giants" four-game winning streak on Sunday. Tony Romo engineered two balanced and efficient drives and finished 23 of 32 for 225 yards and a touchdown. The Cowboys" running attack suddenly became a two-pronged effort, with Murray gaining 63 yards on 17 carries and Lance Dunbar providing 82 yards on 12 attempts. "More than anything you've just got to keep stacking wins together and see where you're at at the end," said Romo, who was playing with an illness that hit him Wednesday night. I think we're playing some of our better football right now. Defensively, the Cowboys came up with a signature stop, stifling a fourth-quarter Raiders scoring chance on Brandon Carr's interception in the end zone. Matt McGloin completed 18 of 30 passes for 255 yards for the Raiders (4-8), but he was mostly grounded in the second half as the Cowboys tightened their coverages. "We had the mentality that we can't lose this game," DeMarcus Ware said. If we lose this game, it's back to being the old team, up and down. We're in a good position. But we can't get comfortable at all. We lose one game, we're back to Square 1 again. Dallas took control with its first two possessions of the second half. Trailing by 21-14, the Cowboys went 87 yards in 10 plays, scoring on Romo's 4-yard pass to Dez Bryant. They followed that with a 65-yard, 9-play drive and took a 28-21 lead on Murray's 7-yard run early in the fourth quarter. The Raiders ground out a 21-14 halftime lead largely by converting 7 of 9 third-down chances and holding a possession edge of 7 minutes 22 seconds. Rashad Jennings scored on a pair of 1-yard runs, the second putting Oakland ahead, 21-7, with two minutes left in the second quarter. The Raiders" game plan also included keeping the rookie quarterback McGloin in a comfort zone of safe play calls, and he responded with 146 yards on 11-of-15 passing in the first half for a rating of 103.8. Romo was 11 of 20 for 124 yards but could not manufacture a big play or complete a pass to Bryant or Jason Witten until midway through the second quarter. The Cowboys showed up for their annual Thanksgiving game four days after an emotional victory over the Giants, and with an opportunity to nudge ahead in the N.F.C. East heading into a 10-day break before their next game at Chicago. But Dallas stumbled around offensively, managing only 53 total yards, until it put together a 73-yard drive on its last possession of the first half. Murray scored on a 4-yard run with 10 seconds remaining to gain some traction against an Oakland defense that held the Cowboys to 12 yards rushing and 8 first downs in the opening half. The Raiders were energized from the start, taking a 7-0 lead after Greg Jenkins returned Terrance Williams's fumble on the opening kickoff 23 yards for a touchdown. Kaelin Burnett had ripped the ball free just as Williams's knee appeared to hit the turf, causing a chorus of boos from the announced crowd of 87,572 as the replay was shown from several angles on the stadium's video board. Jenkins helped squander Oakland's momentum late in the first quarter. He pinned the Raiders against their end zone by fair-catching a punt at the 5-yard line, and on first down McGloin fumbled the snap. Kyle Wilbur recovered the ball at the 2-yard line, and Murray scored on the next play to tie the game at 7-7. The Cowboys sit, once again, at two games above mediocrity and with a schedule that seems in their favor. They will face the struggling Bears and the fading Green Bay Packers, followed by division games against the Washington Redskins and the Eagles in a Dec. 29 season finale in which a playoff berth might be at stake. Also at stake: whether or not the Cowboys will tease or torture their fans once again. "We did start slow," Carr said, "but this team, it's starting to get to the point where there is no panic anymore."