Cowboys shoot down the Eagles to grab NFC East lead

By Larry Fine

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 20-16 in their divisional showdown on Sunday 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.