IRVING, Texas — Lead change after lead change, spectacular play after spectacular play, head-slapper after head-slapper, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles played a game last night that was more gripping than many movies.

A good ol' fashioned Western, Tony Romo called it.

"It's a good thing we were Clint Eastwood," he said, smiling after the 41-37 victory.

There were the highs of a long touchdown pass to Terrell Owens and a 98-yard kickoff return by Felix Jones. The lows of back-to-back flubs by Romo that gave Philadelphia touchdowns 14 seconds apart. And that was just the first 17 minutes.

Then came Eagles rookie DeSean Jackson losing a touchdown because he flicked the ball backward before crossing the goal line, Donovan McNabb showing the fancy footwork of his youth and Brian Westbrook scoring twice on runs, once on a catch, only to have the Mc-Nabb-Westbrook connection go wrong on a fourth-quarter handoff.

When it was done — after Marion Barber's second second-half touchdown and after the Dallas defense snuffed a reception followed by two laterals — the Cowboys came away with a win in their final home opener at Texas Stadium, and the highest-scoring of the 98 games between these teams.

"We know that no game is going to be perfect," Owens said. "There's going to be interceptions, fumbles, missed assignments by everyone. But as a team, we came to play tonight. Offensively, defensively, I think everyone stepped up when they needed to."

Romo was 21 of 30 for 312 yards with three touchdowns, plus an interception and a lost fumble that came on consecutive snaps in the first half.

"We kept believing in each other," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "Everyone said 'Hey, hang in there, we're going to come out on top,' and we did!"

Philadelphia went from trailing 14-6 to leading 30-21 just before halftime. The Eagles were still up 37-31 after Westbrook's third score, early in the fourth, but his fumble on the next series led to the seventh and final lead change.

"These were two great teams going at it," McNabb said. "There are a lot of positives we can take from this game. But that's not important right now."

Owens had 89 yards on three catches, including a 72-yard touchdown on Dallas' first series that he punctuated with the kind of arm-flapping celebration he used to do for Philadelphia, and a 4-yard touchdown. His first TD moved him into second place on the NFL's career receiving touchdown list; he finished at 132, well behind Jerry Rice's record of 197.

Cowboys tight end Jason Witten caught seven passes for 110 yards after separating his shoulder in the first half. Dallas also lost safety Roy Williams to a broken right arm.

McNabb was 25 of 37 for 281 yards with a touchdown. He also matched Ron Jaworski's club mark of 175 career TD passes.

Jackson caught six passes for 110 yards, becoming only the second player in NFL history to open his career with consecutive 100-yard games.

Jackson also celebrated too early after a long catch-and-run midway through the second quarter. The Cowboys challenged and officials easily found an angle that showed him letting go too soon. Using similar logic to the controversial fumble-whistled-dead play in the Broncos-Chargers game Sunday, the ball was put at the 1 and Westbrook scored on the next play.