Trailing for the first time all day, 16-13, with 2:31 to play, Brady took the Patriots 80 yards in 10 plays. He completed nine of his 10 passes with the final one going to Aaron Hernandez for an eight-yard touchdown. Just 22 seconds were left on the clock.

The Patriots high-powered offense short-circuited all day thanks to four turnovers. Two were Brady interceptions.

Dallas wasn't all that sharp either but Dan Bailey's 26 yard field goal with just over five minutes left gave the Cowboys their first lead of the game, 16-13. The defense couldn't hold, however, with the game on the line as Brady engineered the two-minute drill to perfection.

Brady finished with 289 yards passing on 27-of-41 with two TD's and two interceptions.

This is Dallas' first lead of the game. The Patriots have been shut out in the second half.

The big play in the drive was a 33 yard pass-and-catch by the impressive Dallas receiver Dez Bryant.

The score came after a successful challenge flag protest from coach Bill Belichick. Welker was ruled out as he stretched for the goal line but clearly broke the plane of the goal line on review. The TD pass was the 276th of Tom Brady's career, moving him into 8th place all-time. It is also the 22nd straight game for him to connect on a TD pass, a Patriots record.

The Patriots took over and drove to the Dallas 14 yard line before being held. Stephen Gostkowski booted a 31-yard field goal to give the Patriots a 3-0 lead.

The Pats' scratched players include WR Julian Edelman, defensive backs Ras-I Dowling, Josh Barrett and Sergio Brown and linebacker Jerod Mayo.

Wright missed the end of last season with a concussion incurred on Nov. 21 against Indianapolis -- one he said took him roughly three-and-a-half months to overcome in the off-season. The concussion made simple tasks such as watching television or looking at a computer screen sickening for Wright.

"It's hard to watch TV. You get a motion-sick type of feeling. It's not comfortable. It's frustrating," Wright said. "The computer -- you can't do much of that. You're basically just trying to relax your brain most of the day to let it heal. At the same time, anxiety comes with that. When you're not able to do those things, your mind just wanders and goes all over the place. In my situation, as attuned to my body and my everyday routine as I am brings a lot of anxiety. This year, I'm able to control that a little better."

After working his way back, Wright suffered another concussion in Week One when an offensive lineman pulling in his direction chipped him on the side of the head.

"It kind of triggered a few things and turned into a little bit more than I thought at the time," said Wright. "I thought it was good and it was out of my mind. I was just happy to be back on the field. It was good to go through training camp and get back out there for a game in preseason. To be out there for the opener was great and to have something like that was frustrating to say the least."

It's a tough blow for New England's defensive line. Wright had accumulated 10.5 sacks in 14 starts from 2009-10, and he had a half-sack in the opening win over Miami before leaving.

Wright still contends he feels much better than he did after suffering the concussion last season. He figured he'd be able to return to the lineup soon as recently as last week, when he was practicing with the team. But not everything has gone away.

"I have had some troubles, and that's why we are where we are," he said. "I felt like I was going to be ready. Based off my concussion history, it was just the right decision to do what we did. I did not want to go on IR. That's the last thing I wanted to do."

Wright wasn't ready yet to discuss whether his playing career could be over.

"I'll make that decision with the doctors and coaches after the season," said the 29-year-old. "Right now my focus is on getting everything better and back to normal."

He also had some advice for younger football players.

"Pushing through getting hit on the field and being dizzy is not normal. Your brain is extremely important," Wright said. "You have no idea what your brain has to process to even stand up out of a chair. Kids and high school players can learn a lot if they keep their ears open. They need to look out for the other guys on the field. Football is a game of toughness; some guys may feel some minor pain or minor dizziness is OK. It's not. When it comes to your brain, it's very serious and it's nothing to play with."

Photo: Steve Milne, AP
Twitter: @TBritton_Projo

Green-Ellis was limited on Wednesday as well and didn't practice at all on Thursday.

Speaking before practice, head coach Bill Belichick said the status of his starting running back was very much up in the air.

"I don't know. We'll see how it is today and if he can practice today, he'll practice," Belichick said. "Whatever his availability is for the game then we'll take our best estimate of that and list it that way in the injury report. We'll see how it is today, I don't know."

Green-Ellis rushed for a career-best 136 yards last week on a career-high 27 carries.

Fellow running back Danny Woodhead is also questionable with the ankle injury that kept him out of last week's game against the Jets. Woodhead has been limited in practice all week.

Twitter: @TBritton_Projo

Yes, Welker grew up pulling for the Cowboys.

"The era of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin -- I was definitely a big fan," Welker said.

Those teams won three Super Bowls in a four-year stretch from 1992 to 1995. The 30-year-old Welker was just becoming a teenager at that time.

While there were plenty of fond memories of those days, there were some harder ones, too. Asked if he believed in the curse of the blue jerseys -- Dallas barely ever wears its darker tops -- Welker said it never concerned him.

"I was more concerned when D-linemen were trying to handle the ball," he said with a smile, recalling Pro Bowler Leon Lett's memorable struggles with ball control in Super Bowl XXVII and in a regular-season game the following year against the Dolphins.

In the Super Bowl, Lett was showboating into the end zone when Buffalo wideout Don Beebe caught him from behind to force a fumble at the goal line. In the Thanksgiving 1993 game versus Miami, Lett unnecessarily tried to recover a blocked field goal in the final seconds, giving the Dolphins' Pete Stoyanovich a second chance to win the game.

"They still won that [Super Bowl], so it wasn't too tough," said Welker. "The one in the snow where he kicked the ball, that was a little discouraging at the time."

Twitter: @TBritton_Projo

There is a long list of players who are listed as questionable, which means they are 50/50 for Sunday. The list is headlined by linebacker Jerod Mayo, who had been expected to miss several weeks after injuring his knee two weeks ago in Oakland. Mayo returned to practice on a limited basis Friday. Running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis (toe), who returned to limited practice today after sitting out Thursday, is also questionable.

The other questionables: cornerback Leigh Bodden (thumb), safety Sergio Brown (chest), cornerback Ras-I Dowling (hip), wide receiver Julian Edelman (ankle), defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth (back), tight end Aaron Hernandez (knee), defensive lineman Kyle Love (back), wide receiver Matthew Slater (ribs), tackle Sebastian Vollmer (back) and running back Danny Woodhead (ankle).

Safety Patrick Chung (hand) and linebacker Dane Fletcher (thumb) are probable.

For the Cowboys, kicker David Buehler (groin), guard Derrick Dockery (knee), fullback Tony Flammetta (hamstring) and defensive end Jason Hatcher (calf) are all out. Guard Kyle Kosier (foot) is questionable. Listed as probable are wide receivers Miles Austin (hamstring) and Dez Bryant (thigh), safety Barry Church (shoulder), running back Felix Jones (shoulder), safety Danny McCray (ankle), quarterback Tony Romo (ribs), cornerback Orlando Scandrick (ankle) and safety Gerald Sensabaugh (concussion).

The two are back healthy following Dallas' bye week -- something that the Cowboys haven't been able to say since Week One.

"They're both very good. They're different receivers but both big-play receivers. They're both good after the catch," head coach Bill Belichick said. "Obviously Dez had the punt returns last year and strong with the ball in his hands. Same thing with Miles - the reverses, the catch-and-run plays that he has. He's a very, very difficult guy to tackle."

Austin is a two-time Pro Bowler who caught 14 balls for 233 yards in the first two games of the season, including four touchdowns. He missed the last two games for Dallas with a hamstring injury.
In his second year out of Oklahoma State, Bryant has been hampered by a quadriceps injury.

"He's got, like a lot of these receivers, they have great reach and even if you have them covered, you really don't have them covered because of their length and their ability to either body-up the defender or just out-jump them or out-reach them for the ball," Belichick said of Bryant.

If it sounds familiar, well, the Patriots have their fair share of experience already this season opposing bigger wideouts such as Brandon Marshall and Vincent Jackson.

"It always helps that it's not the first time you've seen it," cornerback Devin McCourty said. "Going against different guys this season who have been those bigger-type of receivers, you can use some of what they did against us and how they played. I think the biggest thing is just the physical nature of the bigger receivers - most of the time they're bigger than the corners they're facing so they try to use that to their advantage."

"It's evident every week on SportsCenter that they're going to make some big plays," said Wes Welker. "As an offense, we've got to make sure we're coming back to try to put points on the board."

Twitter: @TBritton_Projo

The Bears used a third-round draft choice on Harrison, who is out of the University of Arkansas, in 2008. He played in 37 games from 2008 to 2010, starting nine of them, and compiling 55 tackles and 3 sacks.