Cunningham, Eagles Feeling Better After Rally Beats Cowboys : NFC: Despite pain, quarterback drives Philadelphia to last-minute touchdown and 21-20 victory.

Randall Cunningham was battered and bruised, but not beaten.

Cunningham, working against the clock with a bruised hand and knee, drove the Philadelphia Eagles 85 yards in 13 plays for the go-ahead touchdown that gave the Eagles a 21-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys Sunday.

The winning score came on Cunningham’s 10-yard pass to Calvin Williams with 44 seconds left.

“This ranks right up there with the best of our comeback wins,” said Cunningham, who passed for 66 yards and ran for 10 on the drive. “This was a major gut check and we pulled it off.

“Our two-minute drill worked great and our feeling in the huddle was we weren’t concerned. We knew we could do it.”

The Eagles (3-4) got their first victory over an NFC Eastern Division foe in four tries in beating the Cowboys (3-5) for the sixth consecutive time.

Cunningham, who also suffered a blow to the head during the game, said, “I was close to coming out of the game because my knee hurt so bad. But I stuck it out.”

Cornerback Issiac Holt blocked a punt to set up Emmitt Smith’s three-yard touchdown run with 4:02 left to give Dallas a 20-14 lead.

“It looked like the blocked punt was going to kill us but Randall put together one heck of a drive,” Philadelphia Coach Buddy Ryan said. “Dallas played a great game. We were very fortunate to pull it out at the end.”

“That’s the way we seem to do things. It was a big game for us and our season.”

Ryan said last week there was no way Philadelphia was going to lose to Dallas and although he was right, he refused to rub it in.

“I love the way that Troy Aikman plays,” Ryan said. “Dallas gave us a good game. Cunningham told me he wanted to win it and he did.”

Dallas charged back after Cunningham’s last-minute scoring pass, but Ben Smith broke up a fourth-down pass at the Philadelphia 35 as the final gun sounded.

“You have to give Philadelphia credit,” Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “They made the plays when it counted.

“This was a tough, tough loss. I just wish there was something I could say to the team to make them feel better.”

Reserve fullback Heath Sherman broke four tackles on a 19-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run to give the Eagles a 14-6 lead with 10:30 remaining.

But Dallas went 64 yards in four plays, with Aikman connecting with Jay Novacek on a 19-yard touchdown pass play to narrow the Eagles’ lead to 14-13 with 7:53 left.

The blocked punt gave the Cowboys their first lead of the game.

Philadelphia tight end Keith Jackson said the sellout crowd of 63,599 at Texas Stadium was guilty of celebrating prematurely.

“With four minutes left the people were celebrating like the game was over or something,” Jackson said. “When you have a quarterback like Cunningham anything is possible.”