Terrell Owens made sure they did just that.

In a breakout performance that harkened back to the last two seasons when he routinely generated impressive numbers at Texas Stadium, Owens gained 213 receiving yards to propel the Cowboys to a 35-22 dismantling of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday that kept them in the thick of the playoff chase.

"There was an article in the newspaper this morning that said T.O. wasn't doing very good anymore," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said. "But you could see he's still got it. He's a fantastic player."

The Cowboys (7-4) are 2-0 since Romo returned from a broken right pinkie that sidelined him for three games. They've won consecutive games for the first time since they started 3-0.

With hapless Seattle (2-9) coming to Texas Stadium on Thanksgiving, the Cowboys are poised to enter December with plenty of momentum for a push to secure a wild-card berth. As it stands now, they're tied with Atlanta (7-4) and Washington (7-4) for the final spot with five games left.

"It would really kill me if we don't make the playoffs," owner Jerry Jones said. "It would be one of the big disappointments in franchise history."

But it's hard to imagine that happening should Owens continue to shine. His yardage total was the second most of his career, trailing only the 283 yards he gained in a 2000 game for San Francisco in which he caught an NFL-record 20 passes.

It also was the fourth highest total in Dallas history and the most by a Cowboys player since Tony Hill gained 213 against Philadelphia in 1979.

More importantly to Owens, it was his first 100-yard game since he had 156 against Green Bay on Nov. 29, 2007 and a stunning way to illustrate the claim he made last week to the NFL Network's Deion Sanders that the best way for the Cowboys to win a title is to get him the ball.

Owens also told Sanders the scheme employed by Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was holding him back.

"It's not that I can't play, it's the system in which I'm in," Owens said.

Owens claimed he scorched San Francisco because Garrett put in "some new wrinkles and tweaked the offense a bit."

"They unleashed me," Owens said of the coaching staff.

But Garrett said he didn't do anything differently and Romo pointed out the 49ers (3-8) were one of the few teams the Cowboys faced this season that didn't play press coverage against Owens. Unable to get off the line, Owens was held to 38 yards or fewer in the past five games.

"They didn't want to do anything special to take him out of the game," Romo said of the 49ers. "They ran a lot of coverages, but nothing that said, 'We're going to take him out.'"

Owens, who finished with a season-high seven catches, went from meltdown mode to masterful when he scored on a 75-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter to give the Cowboys a 7-6 lead and spark 32 unanswered points.

After stepping up in the pocket to avoid blitzing safety Michael Lewis, Romo released a ball Owens caught around the 20 and then took into the end zone with a determined jaunt that shook off two defenders.

Owens didn't stop there. He had receptions of 45 and 52 yards en route to the most receiving yards in the NFL since Philadelphia's Kevin Curtis had 221 in September 2007.

"I told you guys all along, it's not anything wrong with me," Owens said. "I can still play. When I get my hands on the ball, things happen."

Of course, it helps to have Romo throwing it. He was 23 of 39 for 341 yards and three touchdowns as the Cowboys scored their most points since notching 41 against Philadelphia in Week 2.

"When you score 35 points, a lot of it's got to be the quarterback," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said.

The Cowboys also got four field goals from Nick Folk, matching his career high. Patrick Crayton and rookie Martellus Bennett caught TD passes, and Carlos Polk blocked a punt for a safety, the first time the Cowboys have done that since 1992.

But nothing mattered as much as Owens' performance.

"The demise of Terrell Owens," Phillips said, "has been overly exaggerated."