ARLINGTON, Texas — Last summer during training camp, Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy proclaimed, “I own Dallas.”

On Thursday, he went to work ruining Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Thanksgiving.

McCoy rushed for 159 yards and scored the clinching touchdown midway through the third quarter as Philadelphia seized first place in the NFC East with a 33-10 victory over Dallas at AT&T Stadium.

McCoy stopped short of reiterating his ownership of the Cowboys and deferred to the next matchup.

“Dallas gets a lot of hype,” McCoy said. “I’m sure everybody took them to win. They’ve got good players. We’ve got good players too. We’ve got to see them again soon so I don’t want to say too much about them.”

The Cowboys were trying to stay in the game when Philadelphia faced a second-and-5 from the Dallas 38 with 7:29 left in the third quarter. McCoy found running room through the right side, shook off Cowboys cornerback Orlando Scandrick in the secondary and dashed the rest of the way for a 38-yard touchdown that put the Eagles ahead 30-10.

The Philadelphia defense took over there, sacking Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo twice on the ensuing drive. Eagles cornerback Cary Williams intercepted a Romo pass to end the drive and keep momentum with Philadelphia (9-3).

Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez improved to 4-1 since replacing injured Nick Foles as the starter. Foles was hurt in the first quarter at Houston on Nov. 2, and Sanchez since led Philadelphia to wins over the Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans and now Dallas.

Sanchez completed 20 of 29 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions against the Cowboys (8-4).

“I think he’s just getting more comfortable,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. “He missed an entire year of football. There’s no substitution for playing. He played well in the preseason and then sat until the Houston game. So I think he’s starting to recognize the looks he’s getting.”

Romo and the Cowboys couldn’t keep up. Romo finished 18-for-29 for 199 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns. Dallas couldn’t get DeMarco Murray loose either, as the star running back finished with 73 yards on 20 carries.

“When they got ahead and we had to get into more of a passing mode to score two or three times in a hurry, that gets us out of the rhythm that we want to play with,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. “One of the best things we’ve done all year long is have that balance.”

McCoy and Sanchez powered the Eagles to a 14-0 lead before the Cowboys could answer.

McCoy ignited Philadelphia’s game-opening scoring drive with a 36-yard run to the Dallas 22. Sanchez then completed three passes to move the Eagles inside the Cowboys 10-yard line and took it himself for a 2-yard touchdown run.

Sanchez hit wide receiver Jordan Matthews for a 27-yard touchdown for the second score, capping an 88-yard march.

“They got them into space with McCoy and when they do that so much of the rest of what they do seems to follow really easily for them,” Garrett said.

Dallas finally answered with Murray’s 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter, finishing a 67-yard drive. Romo hit wide receiver Dez Bryant for the key play of the drive, a 38-yard gain to the Philadelphia 4.

What the Eagles said:

“It sucked. I ran into some guys butt and dropped the ball on the turf and they scored. This is like my favorite holiday so that’s not cool. It’s a bummer. The game plan was try not to do that and we accomplished it. So 27 yards rushing is just icing on the cake.” — Eagles QB Mark Sanchez on erasing the memory of the infamous butt fumble on Thanksgiving 2012 when he was with the Jets.

What the Cowboys said:

“It was definitely short just from the Sunday night game. I don’t think that that really had much to do with the outcome of the game. I think they just played better than us and took it to us.” — Cowboys QB Tony Romo on the short week from a Sunday night game at New York to the Thanksgiving Day game.

What we learned about the Eagles:

1. Philadelphia can dictate the pace of the game with its running game. Against Dallas, the Eagles gave the ball to LeSean McCoy and made room for him to run. McCoy, who proclaimed during the preseason “I own Dallas,” backed it up by rushing for 159 yards and a touchdown. His 36-yard run in the first quarter ignited the offense and his 38-yard touchdown run in the third served as a TKO.

2. Mark Sanchez has earned redemption from the butt fumble. Sanchez achieved blooper-reel fame when, while playing for the Jets on Thanksgiving Day, he fumbled after running into the backside of Brandon Moore and the Patriots’ Steve Gregory returned it for a touchdown. Sanchez led the Eagles to a win over Dallas on Thursday, passing for 217 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. He also rushed for 28 yards and a touchdown.

–QB Mark Sanchez played a clean, efficient game in leading Philadelphia to a victory. He passed for 217 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. He ran two yards for the Eagles’ first score and finished with 28 rushing yards. “I think he’s just getting more comfortable,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. “He missed an entire year of football. There’s no substitution for playing. He played well in the preseason and then sat until the Houston game. So I think he’s starting to recognize the looks he’s getting.”

–RB LaSean McCoy backed up his summer claim “I own Dallas,” by rushing for 159 yards and a touchdown. He said Dallas “gets a lot of hype,” but stopped short of offering the Cowboys much more fuel than that. “I’m sure everybody took them to win,” he said. “They’ve got good players. We’ve got good players too. We’ve got to see them again soon so I don’t want to say too much about them.” McCoy eclipsed 1,000 rushing for the season on the same day that teammate Jeremy Maclin went past 1,000 receiving yards for the season.

–S Nate Allen did an effective job of tracking Dez Bryant and making Dallas pay for mistakes. Allen intercepted a pass intended for Bryant and recovered a Cole Beasley fumble near the end of the second quarter. The fumble set up a field goal that boosted Philadelphia’s lead to 23-7 at halftime.

–TE Trey Burton left the game with a hamstring injury and didn’t return. He didn’t catch a pass and Eagles coach Chip Kelly didn’t have an injury update.

What we learned about the Cowboys:

1. Tony Romo’s lower-back injury became a problem on a short week. Both Garrett and Romo said there were no excuses due to playing on Sunday night and then again Thursday afternoon. But Romo conceded it wasn’t quite enough time for the back to feel right and he went a step further to assure Cowboys fans that he wouldn’t be as far off target again this season. Romo completed 18 of 29 passes for 199 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

2. The Eagles could be a matchup problem for Dallas. Philadelphia owned the first meeting of the season between the two teams and in doing so took sole possession of first place in the NFC East. What’s worse for the Cowboys is that the Eagles did it by controlling the tempo with the run, the same thing in a different style that the Cowboys would like to accomplish.

–RB DeMarco Murray had his moments, but couldn’t put Dallas on his back. Murray finished with 73 rushing yards on 20 carries and scored on a 1-yard run. He also led Dallas with 6 receptions for 40 yards, possibly an indication of how often Romo looked for his safety option.

–QB Tony Romo completed 18 of 29 passes with two interceptions and no touchdowns. He appeared uncomfortable and tentative, taking a sack by basically sitting down when Dallas had the ball inside the Eagles’ 10. Romo came into the game having completed 38 of 53 passes for 767 yards, seven touchdowns and no interceptions in the two games leading up to the Thanksgiving Day contest. But he was nowhere near that effective against Philadelphia.

–DT Tyrone Crawford had an active day with three solo tackles, a sack and a forced fumble which DE Jeremy Mincey recovered. Crawford tweaked an MCL against Arizona on Nov. 2, but returned against the Giants earlier this week.