PHILADELPHIA --- They have played each other with both a Super Bowl and a playoff spot at stake.

There was the "Bounty Bowl," Emmitt Smith getting stuffed, Eagles fans cheering for a motionless Michael Irvin, and Terrell Owens stoking controversy for each side.

Dallas and Philadelphia have lined up against each other 99 times in games that have forged one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL. Somehow it seems fitting the 100th meeting would have something significant on the line.

With the Phillies' run in the World Series over, all eyes among the city's sports fans are on one game -- one sport, really -- this weekend.

Win tonight in Philadelphia, and the Cowboys (5-2) are alone atop the NFC East. Knock off the Cowboys, and the Eagles (5-2) move into first as the only NFC East team unbeaten in the division.

"I know the crowd is going to be out of their minds," Eagles coach Andy Reid said.

The fans are always hostile when the Eagles and the Cowboys play, especially when more than just bragging rights go to the winner.

Last season was no exception. The finale turned into a do-or-die game for the final NFC wild card and the Eagles thumped the Cowboys 44-6 to earn the right to play in the postseason. They eventually reached the NFC title game.

The Cowboys left Lincoln Financial Field in shambles.

They return on a three-game winning streak and playing their best football of the season. The Cowboys haven't forgotten how they were thoroughly dominated in the second series game last year, and at the halfway point of the season -- wresting the division lead away from the Eagles would help put that unpleasant memory behind them.

"We're going to watch it on tape, we're going to correct the things we didn't do well and come up with a way to attack these guys," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said. "We're going to go out there and be a better football team than we were that played that day. I don't know about the rest of the stuff that people use as motivation. There's motivation in the sense that is an important game."

The Eagles want to end that hot streak -- and keep theirs going.

They have rolled to victories the past two weeks over division rivals Washington and New York. Philadelphia will have running back Brian Westbrook in the lineup after he sat out last week because of the lingering effects from a concussion.

"I am excited to get to play again. It really doesn't matter at this point who we are playing against for me," Westbrook said.