Cowboys Clinch Division

Chan Gailey had to dig deep into his bag of tricks to beat lowly Philadelphia and clinch the NFC East in his first year as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Holder Eric Bjornson scored a touchdown on a fake field goal, and safety George Teague made a saving fourth-down tackle late in the game Sunday as the Cowboys outlasted the Eagles, 13-9, ending a three-game losing streak.

Gailey flipped Dallas around from a 6-10 record under Barry Switzer to a 9-6 mark that enabled the Cowboys to win their seventh division title in eight years. The Cowboys play host to Washington in a meaningless game next Sunday and will open the playoffs at home.

“This team has hearts as big as Texas Stadium,” said an emotional Gailey, who was Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator last year. “It was not easy. It was tough. It was ugly. But nobody is going to ruin it for me. I appreciate this team.”

“We’ve got a lot to work on. But we’re in the playoffs, and not a lot of people can say that.”

Dallas had to resort to trickery to gain a 7-3 lead over Philadelphia (3-12) at halftime.

Bjornson took the snap on an apparent 25-yard field goal. Instead, he jumped to his feet and followed a block by left tackle Larry Allen to score the touchdown untouched. Bjornson was credited with a seven-yard touchdown run.

Dallas got field goals of 42 and 41 yards from Richie Cunningham in the second half, and the punchless Eagles got three field goals from former Cowboy Chris Boniol.

Philadelphia’s best opportunity to score a touchdown came late. On fourth and two from the Dallas 12, Koy Detmer passed to tight end Andrew Jordan, but Teague came up quickly to make the tackle a yard short of the first down.