IRVING, Texas — In her 37th and final year, Texas Stadium can only handle so much. Her bones, weary from hundreds of games, concerts and tractor pulls, shook for more than three hours Monday.

In the end, she withstood a game that will not soon be forgotten even as the Cowboys move into their new digs in Arlington next year.

The Cowboys somehow, some way kicked off the stadium's final season with a 41-37 regular-season win against Philadelphia.

Marion Barber's 1-yard muscle run into the end zone with 4:35 to play was the difference on a night in which a fan, clad in a silver Cowboys jersey, went almost unnoticed after jogging to the midfield star in the fourth quarter to copy the Terrell Owens pose. And that display was not even among the strangest things that happened.

Not when the Eagles scored two touchdowns in 14 seconds in the second quarter thanks to a Tony Romo interception and fumble in the end zone.

Not when Romo threw three touchdown passes and topped 300 yards for the 12th time.

Not when Jason Witten had 110 yards receiving, most of them coming after he had X-rays on his right shoulder.

Not when Felix Jones returned a kickoff 98 yards for a Cowboys touchdown.

Not when Barber, playing with bruised ribs, gutted his way to yards on the ground and through the air.

Not when Philadelphia receiver DeSean Jackson flipped the ball away before crossing the goal line in the second quarter, briefly delaying an Eagles touchdown.

Not when Donovan McNabb looked like the McNabb that flummoxed the Cowboys in Philadelphia's last Monday Night Football visit in 2004.

And not when a defense that struggled most of the night came up with two sacks (Greg Ellis, DeMarcus Ware) and a fourth-down stop to end a potential winning drive.

Somehow the game ended with Romo twice taking a knee for a victory that gave the Cowboys back-to-back 2-0 starts for the first time since 1998-99.

Somehow.

"Well, it's one in the bank," coach Wade Phillips said. "You never know which one is going to come back and mean a lot for you, so it's a good win at home, a big win in the last Monday night game at Texas Stadium."

In 2004, when McNabb and Owens lit up the Cowboys after a towel-less Nicollete Sheridan introduction caused a stir, the Cowboys simply did not have enough to either mount a comeback or stop the Eagles' momentum.

This Monday was different.

A defense that allowed more than 30 points in a game just twice last season gave up 30 in the first half Monday. But just seven came in the final two quarters.

The offense only stopped itself, really. Owens' 72-yard touchdown catch that opened the Cowboys' scoring was his longest since a 91-yarder at Denver in his last game as an Eagle, on Oct. 30, 2005, and the 131st of his career, moving him into second place in NFL history.

And the special teams came through as well. Jones' kickoff return for a score was the first by a Cowboy since Randal Williams' 37-yard return on Oct. 12, 2003, against the Eagles.

The Cowboys needed it all, too. Even if the second half hardly resembled the up-and-down action of the first half, it was heart-stopping just the same.

Not only did the defense give up just the one score, it also came up with the game-changing turnover when Jay Ratliff fell on a Brian Westbrook fumble.

Romo and Witten combined for a 32-yard gain to the Philadelphia 5 after completions to Patrick Crayton and Miles Austin to the Eagles' 37. Two plays later, Barber had his touchdown and the Cowboys had a lead they would not give up.

Somehow.

"This shows a lot about the composure of our team," Witten said. "You never really know about your team unless you get in these moments."