Mr. Positive?

Cowboys coach Bill Parcells has become Mr. Positive. Sounds just like him, right? But in the wake of the Christmas Day flop against the Eagles, Parcells is staying positive in a town he says that is full of negativity right now surrounding his team.

"If I'm negative about it then I'm afraid my players will be," Parcells said.

He later added, "I'm not ready to put the flowers in the hearses yet."

Parcells is focusing his attention on building a positive attitude, as the Cowboys approach their regular-season finale Sunday against Detroit.

"If I don't have hope, who does," Parcells asked.

But there's not much positive after the Cowboys have fallen from being tied for the No. 2 seed in the NFC to the No. 5 spot as a wild card team. Parcells points to the fact this is a playoff team with a chance to get to the NFC championship and how others would envy their position.

"It's not that I'm not alarmed," Parcells said. "I'm concerned, but I'm not going to come out here with the final game of the season going into a tournament -- a chance to play in the championship -- and looking like 100 miles of a bad road. I'm not going to do that."

Parcells also defused some of the post-game comments after the loss to the Eagles. Receiver Terrell Owens complained about his lack of involvement and fellow receiver Terry Glenn criticized the offensive game plan.

Cornerback Terence Newman also complained that certain players, possibly including offensive players, were doing more talking than backing it up with their play.

"I would say it's a lot of post-game frustration," Parcells said. "That's what I attribute it to."

Unbeknownst to Parcells, however, Newman didn't back down when he talked again to the press on Wednesday.

"Some people just talk a big game and they think that they are doing the team justice by pumping up themselves and doing a lot of that when the reality is they come out and just get abused," Newman said. "People need to just start playing and stop talking so much."

Tight end Jason Witten said Owens was one of Newman's targets.

Owens leads the Cowboys with 79 catches for 1,063 and a NFL-high 12 touchdown receptions. He also has an NFL high 14 dropped passes and has been the source of weekly drama in the Cowboys locker room in addition to Owens' constant complaints about his role in the offense. He did so again following the Eagles game.

"I think Terence, when Terence made (his) comment, he was probably talking about Terrell's comment," Witten said. "I think that Terrell is a very outgoing person and he always says those things. That doesn't bother me. But whenever you lose it's easy to get under people's skin and I think that's what happened."

Said linebacker Bradie James: "We can't think about 'it's falling apart.' If we start thinking that it's falling apart, then that's what it's going to do. Sometimes when you lose, you point fingers. But it's about us in the locker room. We've got to continue to keep pressing on and get it going."

SERIES HISTORY: 21st meeting. Dallas leads the series 11-9. The Cowboys won six of the first seven games in the series and have won the last three meetings. Sunday is only the fourth time these teams have met at Texas Stadium since the 1977 season, but the teams met in Dallas each of the last three seasons. Eight of the 20 games have been decided by a touchdown-or-less. Two of the series games have occurred in divisional playoff games, with each team winning once. The Cowboys have a 7-1 record against the Lions in Dallas, including a 4-1 mark at Texas Stadium.