HOUSTON -- There must have been some sort of esoteric beauty in the scrap heap of athletic tape, elastic bandages and braces that littered the floor of the Dallas Cowboys' locker room here late Sunday night.

How else to explain all those players camped in front of their locker stalls, heads lowered, eyes riveted to the carpet?

Oh, yeah, that embarrassing 19-10 loss to the expansion Houston Texans, right? Yeah, that might explain why many of the Dallas players looked like zombies in the aftermath of what arguably stands as the most devastating defeat in franchise history. And why there were so few explanations for a defeat that figures to stick in a lot of people's craws for a long time. At least so few printable explanations.

If you think there was some serious cussin' in the HBO series Hard Knocks that chronicled the Dallas training camp, well, that language was tame compared to the verbiage of Sunday night. Owner Jerry Jones, who paced the sideline most of the game -- and even nodded assent when coach Dave Campo challenged a fumble call -- was gracious in defeat. His players tried to be, but this was a tough pill to swallow, that's for sure.

	"	Too many mistakes. I don't care who you're playing, you can't do the things we did and win, not even against an expansion team. I mean, they're an NFL team, too, you know? "
		— Quincy Carter, Cowboys quarterback

Defensive tackle La'Roi Glover, who had 1 ½ of the Cowboys' six sacks on the evening, didn't have much printable to say afterward. "I mean, it's not the end of the world, really. It's a long season."

The Cowboys didn't expect, however, that it would get so long so fast. America's Team isn't even Texas' Team after Sunday night. And a club that was a chic playoff pick by many pundits will have to reconnoiter quickly and find a way to purge from its memory banks the opening game carnage.

Dallas will also have to find a way to surgically re-attach the feet it kept shooting at for most of the opener. Unfortunately, the Cowboys were far better marksmen in that regard than they were in throwing the football. While the defense played well in stretches, but allowed two touchdown passes, the offense was rarely in sync and quarterback Quincy Carter displayed none of the poise he demonstrated in training camp.

"Too many mistakes," Carter said. "I don't care who you're playing, you can't do the things we did and win, not even against an expansion team. I mean, they're an NFL team, too, you know?"

The Dallas defense limited Houston to just 13 first downs, 201 yards, 3.2 yards a snap and 78 rushing yards. The pressure on Texans quarterback David Carr was unrelenting.

But the Cowboys offense eked out just 267 yards and 11 first downs of its own, and Dallas committed nine penalties for 117 yards, many of them very costly. None was more expensive than an illegal contact flag against corner Bryant Westbrook in the fourth quarter. The infraction bailed out Houston, which would have faced a third-and-9 at its own 27-yard line. Instead, the play gave the Texans a first down. And to cool Westbrook down, the Cowboys coaching staff removed him from the game, just for a few plays.

The sequence of events proved critical. Two plays after the penalty, young cornerback Duane Hawthorne, replacing Westbrook, took a too-shallow break and Texans wide receiver Corey Bradford beat him for a 65-yard touchdown pass that snapped a 10-10 tie.

It was a physical error but one that will have mental repercussions if Dallas can't pull out of the funk in which it exited Reliant Stadium. The team plays host to resurgent Tennessee next Sunday, then goes on the road for contests at Philadelphia (Sept. 22) and St. Louis (Sept. 29).

"Look, whatever has happened, it's happened, and we can't change it," said weakside linebacker Kevin Hardy. "We can't feel sorry for ourselves. No one else is going to feel sorry for us."

Least of all the Texans veterans, who took great glee in defeating Dallas, a team Houston players felt did not grant the expansion club any respect.

"They can go back to Dallas and have a hard-knock life, because we ruined their season," said Houston defensive tackle Gary Walker. "I mean, they ain't nothing. It should have been a blowout."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.