IRVING, Texas (Ticker) -- The Dallas Cowboys' special teams are a reason they are emerging as contenders in the NFC.
Randal Williams returned an onsides kick on the game's first play and Billy Cundiff booted the winning field goal with 71 seconds left as the Cowboys won their fourth straight with a 23-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dallas improved to 4-1 for the first time since 1995, thanks to an alert play by Williams and a poor decision by Eagles coach Andy Reid. Philadelphia called for an onsides kick on the opening kickoff, but Williams stepped in front of it and ran it back 37 yards for a 7-0 lead.
"I saw it coming, I saw his approach to the ball and knew something shady was coming my way," Williams said. "They shot themselves in the foot. It was an insult, but it had a great payoff."
Philadelphia took its only lead of the game when Correll Buckhalter used some nifty moves to score on a 20-yard run with 4:14 remaining. But Cowboys rookie Zuriel Smith returned the kickoff 54 yards to the Eagles' 40-yard line, giving Dallas excellent field position.
With the Eagles blitzing, Quincy Carter found Joey Galloway for a 19-yard gain up the middle on 3rd-and-7 on the winning drive. Cundiff's 28-yarder gave Dallas the lead for good.
"It was hard-fought, we had bad field position five times, but we hung in there," Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said. "I told them it would come down to special teams play and it did."
The Eagles had one last chance when James Thrash returned Cundiff's kickoff to the Philadelphia 48-yard-line. After a pair of incompletions by Donovan McNabb, Dallas came on a blitz and forced a fumble that was recovered by defensive tackle La'Roi Glover with 48 seconds remaining.
"We saw a couple of things that we tried to take advantage of, but they didn't work," Reid said. "They did a good job of covering the ball, they had a max blitz and beat us."
Dallas improved to 2-0 against NFC East opponents and ended a six-game skid against Philadelphia. Washington trails the first-place Cowboys by 1 1/2 games and the Eagles and the New York Giants, both playoff teams a year ago, are two games behind.
McNabb continued his struggles this season by repeatedly overthrowing his receivers. He finished 11-of-26 for 126 yards, but that included a pass in the flat to running back Duce Staley, who turned it into a 52-yard touchdown.
"I don't make excuses for myself," McNabb said. "My hand, my ankle or whatever. My hand injury affects my grip, but I'll work on it. You need both hands to hold the ball and my hand injury affects the security of holding it."
The onsides kick attempt was reminiscent of what Reid did at Texas Stadium in the 2002 season opener. In that game, Philadelphia returned the kick and cruised to a 41-14 rout in Dave Campo's debut as coach. Parcells had his team prepared this time.
"We're 3-1 at it," Eagles kicker David Akers said. "It was really close. There's a fine line between a great play and a bad play. The guy made a great play. He caught it at the highest point at full stride and obviously there was no one behind him."
It was the shortest kickoff return for a touchdown since Buffalo's Henry Jones returned one 37 yards for a touchdown on December 19, 1999.
"I couldn't believe that they tried it," Dallas tailback Troy Hambrick said. "And one individual player was really on his game. It let us score early and that took some of the pressure off."
The 7-0 lead stood through the first quarter as Philadelphia was forced to punt three times on drives that started no worse than its own 46-yard-line. The Eagles finally took advantage of the favorable field position with a nine-play, 55-yard drive that was capped by Brian Westbrook's five-yard touchdown run with 10:25 left before halftime.
Cundiff's 51-yard kick with 1:17 left in the half provided Dallas with a 10-7 edge.
The Cowboys resorted to trickery to set up their next touchdown. Aveion Cason threw a 37-yard pass to Joey Galloway on a halfback option that set up Troy Hambrick's one-yard TD plunge for a 17-7 bulge.
Quincy Carter was 14-of-25 for 146 yards, but his receivers betrayed him with several dropped passes and Galloway was the main culprit.
"Our offense didn't catch the ball as well as it has been, but we did made deciding game-making catches," Parcells said. "They came through when we really needed it."
Philadelphia responded when Staley hauled in a short pass from a scrambling McNabb and ran down the right sideline for a 52-yard score to cut the deficit to 17-14 with with just over three minutes left in the third quarter. It was the longest TD reception of Staley's career.
Carter had a pair of completions along with a 16-yard run on an eight-play, 72-yard drive that set up Cundiff's 22-yard kick for a 20-14 advantage early in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles have dropped two of their last three games against division opponents after winning seven straight. Philadelphia had an average margin of victory of 29 points in its last three trips to Texas Stadium.
