Tony Romo hooked up twice on scoring passes with Roy Williams in the second half and the Dallas Cowboys shut down the No.1 offense in the NFL en route to a 27-13 victory over the Houston Texans.

The Cowboys had a 10-3 lead at the half before Romo found Williams on a 15-yard slant with 1:34 remaining in the third quarter and then found the much-maligned receiver on a 63-yard quick slant – the longest play of the season for Dallas – with 9:53 left for a 24-6 lead.

Romo completed 23 of 30 passes for 284 yards and Williams had five catches for 117 yards for the Cowboys, who prevented starting 0-3 for the first time since 2001.

Arian Foster ran for 106 yards on 17 carries, but Matt Schaub threw for just 241 yards and was picked off twice for Houston (2-1). The Texans were attempting their first 3-0 start in franchise history and came in averaging over 400 yards of total offense.

Dallas entered with two sacks and no turnovers forced, but had four sacks, recovered a fumble and held Houston to 340 yards. The lone Texans TD was scored with 1:15 left in the game on a 7-yard pass from Schaub to Kevin Walter.

Dallas controlled the ball for more than 18 minutes in the first half and got a 1-yd TD run from Marion Barber and a 49-yard field goal by David Buehler on the last play of the half to take a 10-3 lead. Romo was 10 of 13 for 113 yards in the scoring drives to end the half.