By Michael Wilbon
Tuesday, September 16, 2008

IRVING, Tex. There used to be rules against this kind of scoring in the NFC East. This up-and-down, back-and-forth, bombs-away football is stuff that Tom Landry and Bill Parcells would associate with the old AFL, with Oakland and Denver instead of Dallas and Philly. This isn't what we've come to expect from the division of Chuck Bednarik, Lawrence Taylor and Doomsday. Must be that nobody here at Texas Stadium received the body bags for this game, or the memo that headhunting, not pretty rainbow passes, is traditionally the signature of Cowboys- Eagles.

The final "Monday Night Football" game to be played in the once futuristic stadium with the hole in the roof -- "So that God could look down on the Cowboys," Texans used to tell us -- wasn't vintage, but it was wildly entertaining. The Cowboys' 41-37 victory over the Eagles was the highest-scoring game between these two teams in the 48 years of their rivalry, and very possibly was an early peek at the two best teams in the NFC, if not the entire NFL.

"In the NFC East, very seldom do we have a shootout like that," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said of a game that featured seven lead changes. "Mostly, we're grinding it out the whole game, trying to be up seven going into the fourth quarter."

Characterizing the game, Romo called it "straight Western. It's a good thing we were Clint Eastwood."

Romo threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns. Philly's Donovan McNabb threw for 281 yards. "There was a lot of talent out there making extraordinary plays," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said afterward. "We were able to work our stuff against [Eagles Coach] Andy Reid. We don't beat Andy Reid that much at all. We came in thinking we could run the ball. But we couldn't. We had to get into a shootout to win it."

The Cowboys can't do anything until January about their 11-year playoff drought, but they looked plenty regular season potent, especially throwing the ball. McNabb's botched handoff to Brian Westbrook midway through the fourth quarter, with the Eagles driving toward perhaps a clinching score, gave Dallas a chance to win and the Cowboys didn't waste it, driving down for the winning score.

Whatever Dallas has failed to do in the playoffs, it is certainly money in September, and not unaware it has been a postseason chump since Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin & Co. hung it up. But the way the Cowboys played Monday night, especially on offense, served as notice that the road to the Super Bowl, at least in the NFC, might very well run through Dallas, not Giants Stadium.

Jones acknowledged the recent hard knocks immediately after the game, suggesting the tough experiences in recent playoffs have helped prepare his team for a better run this year. "It's a team that's not looking through rose-colored glasses," he said. "It's a bunch of guys who've had a marriage gone bad, who couldn't pay their bills. It's not like this group hasn't had some sad times."

Confronting the playoff failure might even be liberating. They certainly performed freely in a spectacular explosion of offense that leaves anybody who watched hoping for something equally contentious and creative when the two meet in Philly for the rematch Dec. 28, the final Sunday of the regular season.

Unlike the Washington Redskins, who can barely get their high draft picks on the field, the Cowboys are very quickly getting prime-time production from theirs. Felix Jones, the hybrid player from Arkansas who was obscured in college by teammate Darren McFadden, took a kickoff return 98 yards for the touchdown that gave the Cowboys a 14-6 lead. And Mike Jenkins, the Cowboys' second first-round pick from South Florida, made a diving deflection on a McNabb pass to Greg Lewis that prevented a catch-and-run score for the Eagles.

There's no way to assess the Eagles, Cowboys and defending champion Giants and not see three teams that are more talented and better established than the Redskins in the NFC East. Simply staying out of the basement in the division would be quite the accomplishment, should the Redskins pull it off. With the Vikings and Seahawks off to 0-2 starts and the Saints looking feeble on defense, the Giants, Cowboys and Eagles really do look like the class of the NFC.

Romo said the division battles will make all four teams "prepared for championship play. You have to hope you don't get beat up too badly during the season and have everybody around."

The Cowboys and Eagles each have at least a half-dozen weapons to utilize on offense, big-time triggermen at quarterback, headhunting linebackers and safeties on defense. Each appears, at this point, to be a complete team. The Eagles put up 30 points in the first half without having starting wide receivers Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown, which isn't the most encouraging note for upcoming opponents.

McNabb, who played essentially a perfect game in destroying the pathetic St. Louis Rams in the opener, seems more confident than ever that he can stand in the pocket and find a game-breaking receiver. And that now includes rookie DeSean Jackson, a 175-pound blur who had better find a big dose of self-control before he gets himself booed out of Philly.

Jackson became the first receiver since 1940 and only the second one in league history to begin his career with back-to-back 100-yard receiving games. But he turned what appeared to be a 61-yard touchdown into a 60-yard gain to the 1-yard line when he stupidly threw the ball down before crossing the goal line with a gorgeous pass from McNabb.

Keeping Jackson from looking like a total fool in his first national television appearance, the always dependable Westbrook somersaulted in from the one for the touchdown that put the Eagles back on top in the fourth lead change of the first half.

The Cowboys, with Terrell Owens, manic runner Marion Barber, tight end Jason Witten and now lightning Jones, are even more loaded than Philly. Owens averaged nearly 30 yards per reception on three catches the first half, two of them resulting in touchdowns. And when the Eagles' defense decided to tilt the field to shut down Owens, Witten ran free down the middle and caught seven passes for 110 yards. Owens, at 34 years old and in his 13th season, looks as good if not better than ever. The question, then, is whether the Cowboys, specifically Romo, can stop goofing up before the playoffs really get going.

Romo had one of his typical games on Monday night against Philly: stretches of brilliance punctuated by moments of self-destruction. Philly's second touchdown was scored when Romo simply coughed up the ball in his own end zone, which the Eagles recovered.

Romo showed after the game why he has endeared himself to his teammates when he said: "Once we got that big play [the kickoff return from Jones] there was no turning back. Until I fumbled in the end zone."

If McNabb, meantime, isn't what he was at 26, he looks pretty darned good again, at 31. While he can no longer run away from the fastest linebackers and defensive ends, as was plain to see when the Cowboys ran him down on the final series, he is strong enough now to pull away from the biggest mashers across the line. Less than a year ago, it seemed quite possible, if not probable, that McNabb would leave the Eagles, perhaps going to Chicago, maybe to Minnesota. In fact, the Eagles of Andy Reid/McNabb seemed on the brink of extinction. But quickly, with a smart draft and offseason acquisitions such as former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel), the Eagles have come back looking fresh.

But they bobbled enough snaps and receptions and made enough mistakes in the final 10 minutes to blow a chance at beating the Cowboys for the third straight time here in Dallas. And it sets up quite the intramural story line that might also set the season agenda for the entire NFC.