IRVING, Texas - Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens has gotten into the Christmas spirit.

Despite last Sunday's disheartening loss to the Steelers, Owens is thankful for the Cowboys' current wild-card position and their opportunity to redeem themselves Sunday at Texas Stadium against the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

Owens, wearing a Cowboys-decorated Santa hat and a red, blinking Rudolph-the-Reindeer nose for good measure, touched on several topics Wednesday with the media.

Are you in the Christmas spirit today?

Owens: It's a time of celebrating Jesus Christ and for the kids. Everybody is expecting Santa to come down the chimney and get all the presents and all that good stuff. It's a good time just to be with family and friends. For a lot of the football guys around the league, it's a time for us to bond as well.

I'm just happy. Just happy to be here. Happy for the opportunity we've got this upcoming Sunday with the Giants. We had a tough one last weekend, but we've got to put that behind us and move forward.

Are you ready for Sunday's game against the Giants?

Owens: I'm always ready. This team is going to be ready Sunday despite what anybody says. I'm just happy. I'm not going to evaluate myself because of someone else's lack of talent or ability to stay in the league, speaking of (ESPN analyst) Keyshawn (Johnson) and some of those guys. We have a lot of nay-sayers. Obviously, this guy is still really jealous of me because I'm here and he's sitting in the booth talking about me and the Cowboys. We're going to take that as a little bit of motivation. We don't need whatever he says to motivate us. I think we're confident in this locker room to get the job done. We've been playing well for the last four weeks. We just came up a little bit short last Sunday. We're just looking forward to the game this week.

What did Keyshawn say?

Owens: I mean, you know, you hear it. If you're a reporter, you've heard what he had to say.

Were you disappointed in the offense's performance against the Steelers?

Owens: I'm very disappointed, because I know that we have the capable talent and ability on this team to play like we did three or so quarters as we did last Sunday. We've got to learn somehow, some way to finish ball games. Our defense played a hell of a game. They put us in position to win the game. As an offense, I take it personally because we let those guys down. I know this is a team sport. In order for us to win ball games, we need to put points on the board. The defense did their job as far as eliminating them getting into the end zone. I think they got in the end zone only because of what we didn't do on offense.

Do you think the offense will rally around that this week?

Owens: I think we can use that negative and the disappointment and all the anger as motivation for ourselves to go out and play better. I think everyone in this locker room is ready to do that.

What's the team's mood this week?

Owens: Jolly. Ready to rock and roll.

How is the cohesiveness of the offense?

Owens: Jolly. We're ready to roll.

I'm happy. As I said earlier, I'm very excited about the opportunities that we've got. We know that these next three games, starting with the Giants, we need to win those games in order to solidify ourselves as far as where we want to go, and that's obviously into the playoffs. There's really not any pressure. We know we can win. We've just got to go out there and eliminate the mistakes and all the things that have kind of been our Achilles' heel all year long and go out there and play football and we'll win.

Bradie James said he would rather get tested by quality teams down the stretch. Do you agree?

Owens: Oh yeah. I think that gives us a test of where we can be and where we want to be. I think if we finish out on a high note with these good, quality-caliber opponents that we have, that will let us know where we can be. We already have enough confidence in ourselves. But they're just going to prepare us for the playoffs. We're looking forward to the challenges and I agree wholeheartedly with what Bradie James had to say.

What are your thoughts on rookie running back Tashard Choice's performance?

Owens: I think he convinced a lot of people across the nation of his abilities, what he can do. We had all the confidence in the world. It didn't surprise us by any means. I think (ESPN analyst) Emmitt Smith is still trying to figure out his name. He said his name is 'Rashard' Choice. But we've been with him all season. We listen to a lot of those guys critique us and have their opinion about us. Speaking of Emmitt Smith and Keyshawn, those two need their own show, "Dumb and Dumber."

Even though you're displeased with some of the analysts' comments, you seem to be paying attention to the TV.

Owens: No I just hear about them a lot. I've got friends and family that watch TV. They don't get any ratings because of me tuning in.

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