In a game of big plays, Cowboys made just enough to prevail

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.