Atlanta ? Michael Vick and Morten Andersen set their records.

Terrell Owens and the Dallas Cowboys, meanwhile, snared something more important – a crucial victory.

Owens hauled in a couple of touchdown passes, Marion Barber scored on two punishing runs and the Cowboys protected their NFC East lead with a 38-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday night.

Dallas (9-5) bounced back from a 42-17 home loss to New Orleans to bolster its playoff hopes. It was a devastating defeat for the Falcons (7-7), who had climbed back into the NFC wild-card race with two straight wins and overcame an early 14-0 deficit in this one.

Owens, who was kept out of the end zone by Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall when the two faced off in the 2005 opener, took care of that blemish. Owens made a seven-yard touchdown reception with a brilliant one-handed catch, then blew past Hall to haul in a 51-yarder.

T.O. toasted both scores with the same gesture. He faced the crowd with his arms outstretched – that’s the ‘T’ – then clasped his hands in a circle above his head – that’s an ‘O.’

And this being T.O., there just had to be some controversy along the way. Hall said afterward that Owens spit at him on the third play of the game when the cornerback was jawing relentlessly at the Dallas receiver.

“He had a lot of words. I didn’t,” Owens said. “I just wanted to come out and prove I’m a guy to be reckoned with.”

Vick tied a career high with four touchdown passes and eclipsed Bobby Douglass’ 34-year-old record for most rushing yards in a season by a quarterback. He has 990 yards, breaking Douglass’ mark of 968 with the 1972 Chicago Bears.

“It means a lot. It’s s everything I’ve worked for in my career,” Vick said.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get the win, but it’s a milestone.”

Dallas receiver terrell owens (81) eludes Atlanta's DeAngelo Hall (21) for his second touchdown. The Cowboys upended the Falcons, 38-28, Saturday in Atlanta.

Andersen, meanwhile, became the leading scorer in NFL history. The 46-year-old kicker booted four extra points, giving him 2,437 points for his career and breaking Gary Anderson’s mark of 2,434.

It wasn’t enough to hold off the Cowboys. Barber put them ahead for good on a nine-yard run with 21â2 minutes left in the third quarter, leaving Chris Crocker sprawled on the turf.

Barber added a three-yard TD run with 2:18 remaining to clinch the victory.

“We had to regroup,” Owens said. “We showed some character when we came back.”

Tony Romo, coming off his worst game since taking over the starting job, completed 22 of 29 for 278 yards. He spread it around – Terry Glenn had five receptions for 96 yards, Owens caught five for 69 yards and Jason Witten pulled in five passes for 56 yards.

Vick had one horrible pass, which was intercepted by DeMarcus Ware and returned 41 yards for a touchdown on the first play of a wild second quarter. Otherwise, the Atlanta quarterback played well, completing 16 of 24 for 237 yards and running eight times for 56 yards.

Also, he didn’t. The four touchdown passes tied Vick’s personal best from an overtime tie with Pittsburgh in 2002, his first year as a starter.

“We let it slip away,” said Vick, who went out late in the game with a groin injury, casting doubt on his status for next week’s game against Carolina.

Still smarting from their blowout loss to New Orleans, the Cowboys started this one like they wanted to do the same thing to the Falcons.

Dallas jumped ahead on Romo’s first TD pass to Owens, who pulled the ball in with his right arm before falling out of bounds with Hall all over him.