ARLINGTON, Texas - On a night where he made several plays from start to finish, the one that will be remembered the most was probably his easiest.
In fact, Terence Newman called himself downright lucky on his game-clinching interception for a touchdown Monday night against the Panthers.
"The quarterback just threw it right to me," Newman said. "It was a lucky play on my part. I think Igor (Olshansky) would've caught that and scored."
OK, so maybe he's downplaying it just a bit to suggest a 315-pound lineman could've made that play.
I do know this, no lineman, no safety and probably only a handful of cornerbacks in the league could've held Steve Smith in check the way Newman did here at Cowboys Stadium, where the Cowboys responded with a 21-7 win over the Panthers.
Say what you want about the defense getting more pressure, or the 212 yards of rushing by the second and third tailback or the bounce-back game of Tony Romo, who didn't make a ton of plays for his team, but none for the Panthers.
But to me, this game was won by the cornerbacks, especially Newman, who had one job on Monday: stop Steve Smith.
Oh, and that's the Panthers' version of the double-S, a much-more proven and talented playmaker than even the Giants' Steve Smith, who still torched the Cowboys for 150 yards last week.
As good as that Smith was last week, this Smith was supposed to be better.
And he was. But Newman was much better, too. In fact, it was easily Newman's best game this season - not for the touchdown late, which was really just the icing on the cake, but for what he did the previous 55 minutes.
Yes, Carolina has a couple of solid running backs and if they get hot, the Panthers can really run it down your throat. But for the most part, they have one weapon, and it's been the same guy for about six years now.
Steve Smith is the most explosive player the Panthers have and still one of the NFL's best receivers.
But wherever he went Monday, Newman was right there. Call T-New a left cornerback if you want, but on this night, he followed Steve Smith. Left, right and in the slot, wherever the Panthers' Pro Bowl receiver went, Newman was pretty much right there. And that includes down the field, too.
Now before we get too crazy and use that often-overused term of "shut-down corner," let's be honest here. Newman had some help. Not every play, but safety Ken Hamlin did play over the top a little bit. And there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't matter how good of a cornerback you are, if you're going to chase Steve Smith for four quarters, you better get some help.
But you better bring your A-game, too. Give Newman an A+. It sounded like Smith was willing to.
"He did a good job . . . Terence did a good job all day," said Smith, who took full responsibility for the final touchdown for adjusting the route although Jake Delhomme had already thrown the slant. "Jake was expecting me to cross his face. I should've crossed. I guessed the route and I shouldn't have. They had a very good game plan and they stuck to it. On that play, I was very impatient. (Newman) was playing Cover Two and he was taking the inside away."
Back to the interception in a moment, but Newman was taking away more than just that pattern to Smith, who ended up with four catches for 38 yards, although just one for 15 yards in the second half.
This isn't the first time the Cowboys have asked Newman to shadow another receiver and he's done it before with Smith, tailing him most of the 2005 game in Carolina, when Smith actually got so frustrated for catching just one pass that he ended up getting ejected when he shoved an official after Newman threw him to the ground on a tackle.
Now Newman did have a rough night against Smith during his rookie season in the Wild Card game in 2003 when Smith made several big plays on him.
Newman covered him most of the night in the 2007 game in Carolina and he also shadowed Washington's Santana Moss last season when Newman was coming off a four-game absence after undergoing sports hernia surgery. That was probably Newman's best game of his career.
Monday night's game is certainly up there, too.
Cornerbacks gets challenged pretty much every single play. But when his coaching staff does it, simply by giving him that assignment, it seems to take his play to a new level.
"It's a huge challenge and I like it," Newman said. "It's a chance to go up against the best. "He's a great receiver. He's still one of the best receivers out there. We definitely respect each other. We've had some good battles and we're just going to keep doing it."
Score this night for Newman, who agreed with the notion that Monday was a "bounce-back" game for him personally.
"Yeah it was . . . it was huge," Newman said. "Before the game, we talked about how our defensive line and linebackers did their job last week and how we didn't do our job. So I told them, âHey, it's on us. We've got to shut these guys down.' We let this team down last week and we had to make up for it this week."
Newman had allowed two long pass plays in the first two games this season, but he said it felt good to get one back with the interception - whether it was lucky or not.
And the way it was set up, it was eerily similar to last week's loss to the Giants. The Cowboys were up six and the Panthers had the ball with 5:57 to play, 90 yards from a go-ahead touchdown. But this time, Newman made sure it had a different ending.
"Basically, I was just trying to get a jam on him," Newman recalled of the interception when he was covering Smith."I got a hand on him and he tried to re-direct and I don't know if it was a called slant but that's what the quarterback threw. I just looked inside and saw the ball coming - it was just a lucky play on my part."
Lucky or not, Newman hasn't always made that play. If there's been a real knock on his game, it's that he hasn't made that huge play in the clutch. Sure, he can cover the best of them, but interceptions to seal or win the game just haven't come his way.
Personally, I think it's the main reason he's only been to one Pro Bowl and not more. However, it's plays like Monday night's that get you those individual honors. Not saying Newman is headed back to the Pro Bowl this year, but game-sealing interception returns on national television certainly don't hurt.
But that was just the "lucky" part of Newman's night. His best effort was answering the challenge of stopping Carolina's most dangerous player.
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Nick Eatman - 
