They do, but one costly turnover in the final quarter allowed Dallas to claim a 41-37 victory that, in the long run, proved nothing other than that these teams have a lot of talent.
With the Eagles clinging to a three-point lead and in Dallas territory midway through the fourth quarter, quarterback Donovan McNabb botched an exchange with Westbrook, and the Cowboys' Jay Ratliff came out of the pile with the football.
"I think he got the snap a little bit earlier than he expected," Westbrook said of McNabb. "He put the ball in there and I have to do a better job of handling the ball."
"That definitely was totally my fault," McNabb said. "I put the ball on his hip. That's not the way you're supposed to do it."
Tony Romo and the Cowboys didn't waste the gift.
Dallas went 67 yards in seven plays, with the biggest play coming on a 32-yard completion to tight end Jason Witten, who gave the Eagles' secondary fits all evening. Witten, who finished with seven catches for 110 yards, gave the Cowboys a first and goal at the Eagles' 5. After Asante Samuel was called for pass interference on Terrell Owens in the end zone, Marion Barber scored the game-winning touchdown from 1 yard out with 4 minutes, 37 seconds remaining.
The Eagles' offense had two more possessions after that, but their final play of the night - a couple of flips to nowhere on a fourth-and-17 play - left you wondering what that was all about. A couple of sacks earlier in their final possession had made the situation dire.
"It's tough," Westbrook said. "We had some opportunities in the two-minute drill and we didn't take advantage. We had a couple negative plays that put us in second and long and third and long, and you put yourself in a bad situation."
"It's nothing to cry about," offensive tackle Tra Thomas said. "We played hard and we battled. We just made a few too many mistakes and they capitalized. We put up a lot of points. It was a big shoot-out."
