Romo leads the Cowboys

IRVING, Texas -- Wade Phillips threw a soft uppercut and smiled widely. He did it early, when his first gamble as coach of the Dallas Cowboys worked out -- then again in the closing minutes, after a touchdown that also made him let out a sigh of relief.

Marion Barber got things rolling with an 18-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-one, Terrell Owens added two highlight-reel touchdown catches and Tony Romo made up for an interception with a 51-yard touchdown pass to Sam Hurd for a 45-35 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night.

Romo threw for a career-high 345 yards and four touchdowns, plus ran for another, helping the Cowboys match the most points they ever scored in four years under Bill Parcells.

Eli Manning was 28 of 41 for 312 yards, with four touchdowns and an interception.

Michael Strahan did not start but played plenty for the Giants only a few days after ending his long holdout. He had five tackles and no sacks.

Quoteworthy: “This is going to be the nature of our team. It’s a good starting point to where we need to go.” -- Terrell Owens, Dallas receiver