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In your face: Dallas Cowboy Jason Witten delivers a fend to Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Will Witherspoon - Source: Reuters -
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The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 20-16 in their
divisional showdown on Monday to claim the NFC East lead.
The Cowboys stopped the Eagles on downs early in the fourth quarter
and cashed in with a 49-yard touchdown connection between
quarterback Tony Romo and wide receiver Miles Austin to break a
13-13 tie.
Dallas, winners of their last four games, improved to 6-2, while
the Eagles fell to 5-3.
Earlier, NFC East contenders the New York Giants allowed a
last-minute touchdown drive by the San Diego Chargers to fall 21-20
for their fourth straight loss to drop to 5-4.
Dallas coach Wade Phillips said his team had not doubted themselves
despite a bumpy start to the season.
"The two games we lost, we barely lost," he said about defeats by
the New York Giants and Denver Broncos. "I didn't think we lost
confidence, but I think we're getting better."
With the Eagles bottling up the Cowboys running attack, Romo took
to the air, completing 21-of-34 passes for 307 yards, including a
64-yard toss to Patrick Crayton, while Jason Witten and Roy
Williams both caught eight passes.
The turning point at Lincoln Financial Field came when Philadelphia
failed on a fourth-and-one from their 44-yard-line with about 11
minutes left in the final quarter.
Donovan McNabb came up short of the first-down marker on a
quarterback sneak and Dallas took possession of the ball.
A holding penalty pushed the Cowboys back, but on a third-and-14,
Romo found Austin wide open down the left side and the receiver
raced into the end zone for a touchdown that put the Cowboys ahead
20-13 with 8:04 to play.
Philadelphia countered with a 52-yard field goal by David Akers
with 4:27 left to cut the deficit to 20-16 but Dallas held the ball
the rest of the way to clinch victory.
"I thought we could hold them with four minutes left, get the ball
back and win the game," Eagles coach Andy Reid said about his
decision to kick the late field goal rather than go for a
fourth-and-11 from the Dallas 34.
"It didn't work out that way."
Philadelphia, who trailed 10-6 at intermission, had an apparent
touchdown return by Ellis Hobbs on the opening kickoff of the
second half called back for holding.
The Eagles flew down the field anyway for a go-ahead touchdown
drive covering 77 yards in six plays, capped off when McNabb
scrambled out of trouble and floated an 11-yard TD pass to tight
end Brent Celek to put the Eagles on top 13-10.
Dallas turned a third-quarter interception by Mike Jenkins into a
game-tying 33-yard field goal by Nick Folk on the second play of
the fourth quarter that made it 13-13.
"We knew it was going to be two heavyweights swinging at each other
all game," Eagles coach Reid said. "They just got the better of us
today."
