IRVING, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys are coming off the biggest comeback victory in team history, rallying from 21 points down to beat the St. Louis Rams 34-31.

At 2-1, they have chance for a three-game win streak when they play the New Orleans Saints (1-2) on Sunday, a pivotal opportunity to get away from their 8-8 past and make a statement that this year will be different.

Unfortunately, the team has spent the last couple of days dealing with a disgruntled player in cornerback Morris Claiborne, who went AWOL on Tuesday after learning he would be benched in favor of Orlando Scandrick.

Claiborne missed a practice and a couple of team meetings. He returned Wednesday morning and will be fined.

However, the Cowboys will allow him to play against the Saints as they need all hands on deck to deal with Drew Brees and the New Orleans pass offense.

The question is, how much help will Claiborne be as a nickel cornerback behind Scandrick and Brandon Carr, given his poor play and questionable mental toughness?

According to Claiborne, he wasn’t upset because he was benched. He was upset in how the news was delivered and had to remove himself before things escalated.

“I didn’t leave from them telling me that Orlando was back,” Claiborne claimed. “That wasn’t the reason why I left. The reason why I left was how something was brought to me and how it was presented to me. I felt myself at a place where I had to just leave the facility at that moment. I’m pretty sure everybody has been in that, got in that where they had to just leave. They had to remove themselves from what was going on at that time.

“I was ready for whatever fines or anything that came with that. I felt like if I stayed, who knows what would happen? I felt like the best thing for me was to leave.”

The Cowboys say the situation was has been resolved and they ready to focus on the Saints.

Claiborne apologized to his teammates and took part in practice Wednesday.

“I think he understood that he made a mistake,” Garrett said. “Guys are competitors. When they hear news that doesn’t go their way, different guys react different ways. He obviously knew he didn’t react the right way. He had a chance to collect himself and when he came by last night we addressed it. We addressed it head on. He’s back in here this morning ready to go back to work.”

Claiborne said, “I’m going to play a hell of a lot of plays for this team. I’m going to play a big role on this team in this game and games to come down the road. I’m a grown man. I’m here to stand up and fill the shoes that I need to fill and do whatever I need to do for this team. When my number’s called, I’m going to be there and I’m going to be there to give 100 percent, no matter what the situation is.”

Still, it is hard for the Cowboys and Claiborne to move forward when he remains in denial about the circumstances.

He has been a disappointment since being taking sixth overall in the 2012 draft.

Scandrick actually replaced him in the starting lineup last year, keeping the job throughout the offseason and training camp where he was easily the team’s best defender while Claiborne missed the entire preseason with injuries.

Claiborne started in the regular defense in the first three games because Scandrick missed the first two games serving an NFL suspension and the team wanted to gauge his conditioning in last Sunday’s 34-31 victory against the St. Louis Rams before returning him to the lineup full time.

If Scandrick’s return to the starting role wasn’t a foregone conclusion before, then it became so after last Sunday’s game against the Rams when Claiborne was burned for two touchdowns before making a game-sealing interception.

“It’s our job to try to play the best players and we’ll do that at every position,” Garrett said. “Orlando Scandrick came back last week and after three days of practice played 51 snaps in the game. We just felt like when we evaluated that, his performance relative to Mo’s, we felt like he deserved the opportunity to start at that cornerback position.”

Yet Claiborne believes he should still be starting.

“Everybody feels like they deserve to start. I’m not going to sit here and say, no, I don’t deserve to start because I know I deserve to start,” Claiborne said. “That’s not what the coaches said. At the end of the day, those guys have the last decision on what’s going to be done and it is what it is.”

Why should you be starting?

“Because I’ve worked, I’ve worked for it. Every day I’ve worked,” Claiborne said.

They may give high draft picks based on potential. But they don’t give starting jobs for hard work and effort in the NFL.