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SEATTLE (AP) -- The Dallas Cowboys found themselves in familiar territory Sunday -- on the wrong end of a last-minute comeback.

"We made key mistakes in the last couple of minutes there in defense and on offense," coach Bill Parcells said after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Cowboys 13-10. "My team fought hard, did the best they could. And we just made a couple mistakes there at the end."

It was over when ...
Josh Brown's 50-yard field goal sailed through the uprights to put the Seahawks up 13-10 with five seconds remaining.
Game ball goes to ...
Jordan Babineaux. The reserve cornerback swooped in to pick off Drew Bledsoe's pass for Terry Glenn and returned it to the 25 to set up Brown's game-winning field goal.
ESPN's take ...
There have been three games this season in which the Seahawks have proven they've turned around from last season. The first was against the Falcons, when they held onto victory; the second was against the Rams, which is a team they have many emotional scars from playing; and this Cowboys game was the third. This was a game where they were out of it for the better part of the contest, but the team held on and still found a way to win. Good teams find ways to win these types of games and the 'Hawks are officially one of those good teams. -- Eric Allen

Dallas owner Jerry Jones called it "as tough a game to lose as any game we've had, any game we've ever had."

Whatever, said the irascible Parcells.

"I'm not into a State of the Union after one of those kinds of games," the coach said. "We'll have to wait a while."

The Cowboys had the game in the bag until the nail-biting last 40 seconds, when Seattle tied the score at 10-10 on Matt Hasselbeck's 1-yard TD pass to backup tight end Ryan Hannam. The Seahawks then exploded with a newfound energy, and Jordan Babineaux intercepted Drew Bledsoe's sideline pass with 5 seconds left. Josh Brown kicked a 50-yard field goal as time expired to steal the victory.

"It hurts to lose a ball game like we did with the interception, but you know, people made mistakes," said Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman. "I'm pretty sure if Drew had that back, he probably would have done it differently."

Parcells isn't focused on reviewing the late-game collapse -- the second for the Cowboys this season. In Week 2, Washington scored two touchdowns in the final 3:46 to beat Dallas 14-13.

The coach said Sunday's loss was "tough to take...but we'll see where we go from here."

Where Dallas (5-3) needs to go is up, after the loss knocked them out of the NFC East lead, a half-game behind Washington, Philadelphia and the New York Giants. The frantic finish -- the opposite of the Cowboys' 10-point rally in the final 2 minutes here last December that beat the Seahawks 43-39 -- also denied the Cowboys their first three-game winning streak since October 2003, Parcells' first season in Dallas.

The thrilling turnabout was Seattle's third straight win and kept the Seahawks two games ahead of St. Louis atop the NFC West. They go into their bye week 5-2 for the sixth time in their 30-year history. Four times, they have made the playoffs after such a start. The fifth time, in 1986, they finished 10-6.

Seattle had to wait a while -- 57:59 seconds of game time, actually -- before its league-leading offense generated much. The Cowboys continually controlled the line of scrimmage by putting as many as nine defenders within 4 yards of the ball, even on passing downs. That left Shaun Alexander, the NFL rushing leader entering Sunday, mostly stuck in neutral.

During passes, Cowboys cover men continually hit receivers Joe Jurevicius, D.J. Hackett and Jerheme Urban -- Seattle's replacements for injured starters Darrell Jackson and Bobby Engram.

Alexander finished with 61 yards rushing on 21 carries. He gained 3 yards or less on 13 of his runs. His longest run was an 11-yard dash on the Seahawks' 81-yard drive within the final 2 minutes.

The Seattle offense, averaging 407 yards coming in, finished with 289.

"They had a lot of guys in the box," Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson said. "It was like beating your head against the wall."

Seattle tied it at 10 with 40 seconds left when Hannam caught Hasselbeck's pass.

Hasselbeck, 23-of-42 for 224 yards with the one touchdown and two interceptions, completed all four of his passes on the 81-yard march. A 22-yard pass-interference penalty on Dallas' Aaron Glenn with 1:40 remaining moved the Seahawks to the Cowboys 25 and in position for the score.

"Every drive we were in the huddle saying, 'Hey, let's make some plays' -- after a while, you get sick of hearing that," Hasselbeck said. "We actually had to go do it."

But when Dallas' Tyson Thompson returned the ensuing kickoff 39 yards, to the Cowboys 41 all eyes moved toward Dallas kicker Jose Cortez, who had earlier missed a 29-yard field goal after an errant snap. Then Bledsoe -- 13-for-24 for 136 yards and a 5-yard touchdown pass to Keyshawn Johnson in the first quarter -- put the attention on the unsuspecting Brown instead with his second interception of the day.

The kick redeemed Brown's miss four weeks ago, when he hit the left upright from 49 yards on the final play of regulation in a 20-17 overtime loss in Washington.

"I told him sometime in the season we were going to be in the exact situation, and he was going to make it," Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said.

"And he did."

Game notes

Alexander's 11-yard run on the final Seattle touchdown drive gave him 6,713 career yards, passing Chris Warren as the franchise leader. ... Dallas played without starting running back Julius Jones, linebacker Dat Nguyen and defensive end Kenyon Coleman. Marion Barber ran for 95 yards on 22 carries in Jones' place. The game attracted the second-largest crowd in the four-year history of Qwest Field, 67,046 -- despite the first in-game rain in stadium history.