He was cordial, but this loss hurt. Costa, the starting center, clearly felt the pain.
"We went here to win," he said softly. "We battled hard."
Battling hard is a constant theme for the 6-foot-3, 314-pound Costa. After high school, nothing has come easy in football.
He wanted to play Division I college football, and according to his high school coach, Jerry McConnell, only after a player had de-committed from the University of Maryland did the school offer him a late scholarship.
After redshirting his first year, 2005, Costa wound up starting 30 games for Maryland over four seasons, first at guard before moving to center in his senior year.
"He willed himself to be a great player," McConnell said. "Nobody was going to outwork him."
Costa earned a degree in criminology and criminal justice from Maryland and began working toward a graduate certificate in real estate development in the fall of 2009.
Yet Costa wanted first and foremost to continue his football career. He signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent and appeared in four games last season, making one start at guard.
Few could have forecast that Costa would earn a single paycheck from the NFL, let alone start.
In the quiet Cowboys locker room, Costa forced a smile when it was suggested that if he were given a dollar for everybody who said he wouldn't make it, he would have accumulated a nice sum.
"I would have a little money in my pocket," he said.
This preseason, Dallas cut five-time Pro Bowl center Andre Gurode and awarded Costa the starting job.
In high school, Costa and teammate Dennis Landolt formed one of the more devastating offensive-line combinations in recent area history. Landolt went on to star at Penn State and now is with the New Orleans Saints practice squad. Costa remains tight with his former linemate.
"Dennis and I played next to each other, and he is in New Orleans and it's pretty cool that two guys playing together are in the league right now," he said.
