Friday, September 13, 1996

Harbaugh has Cowboys scrambling
By Ed Werder
The Dallas Morning News
(Sept. 13, 1996)

DALLAS (KRT) - Cowboys' linebacker Darrin Smith has watched Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Jim Harbaugh with narrow eyes and nervous stomach.

"He is very much the same as playing Brett Favre or Steve Young," Smith said Wednesday. "They all run around a lot and make things happen."

Harbaugh is comparable to Favre and Young in terms of playing style, although seldom an artistic success in the process. The concern for the Cowboys as they prepare to play the Colts on Sunday in The Super Bowl That Could Have Been: In their last two games against Dallas, Favre and Young have combined for eight touchdown passes with only three interceptions, and compiled 131 yards and four more touchdowns running the ball.

Harbaugh is the defending league passing champion who approached Troy Aikman during the NFL Quarterback Challenge and asked him to autograph two footballs. Aikman did so without recognizing Harbaugh. That should not happen Sunday to a Cowboys defense that already has positively identified Harbaugh as a serious threat.

He did, after all, lead the Colts within one completion of the Super Bowl last season. And the Colts toppled the then-defending world champion 49ers during the regular season. While the Colts probably have more talent on their injury report than on the practice field, the Cowboys provide the chance to repeat one of last year's greatest accomplishments.

"We're going to come down there and let it rip," Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh and the Colts are trying to prove their spectacular 1995 season was not a fluke. The top-rated passer in the AFC and undisputed leader of an undefeated team, Harbaugh approaches the contest as a possible preview of this year's Super Bowl.

"We think it is realistic, very realistic," he said. "I like our chances. I wouldn't bet against us. I know that sounds bold."

But that is Harbaugh. He makes plays when they seem most improbable, responding when the noise is loudest, when chaos swirls about him in clashing colors. He describes himself as a mudder, a grinder. He is a gamer, the kind who often has wreaked havoc and made trouble for the Cowboys recently.

The Cowboys probably have made improvements in defensive personnel that could rectify the problem. They have maybe the most talented cornerback tandem in the league with Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith.

Coach Barry Switzer is confident his cornerbacks can cover Colts receivers, although not indefinitely. That is the challenge Harbaugh provides. When the passing pocket collapses, he has the mobility to move from trouble and locate a receiver downfield or keep the ball and run. He had a touchdown run last week against the New York Jets.

"We have to be disciplined to stay in our rush lanes," Smith said. "You want to play him straight up and force him to stay in the pocket and throw the ball because you have a better sense of what is happening."

Said Cowboys' strong safety Darren Woodson: "If you don't have somebody spying him when he's running around, then he can beat you."

Harbaugh is regarded as an accurate passer and opportunistic runner in the process of becoming a consistent winner. Colts' Coach Lindy Infante has been a prominent figure in the transformation of Harbaugh, a failed first-round draft choice of the Chicago Bears berated as such by tough-love Coach Mike Ditka.

Playing in the offensive system Infante installed, Harbaugh went from being Craig Erickson's backup to a Pro Bowl player. His 100.7 rating made him the second Colts player to win the league passing championship. Johnny Unitas was the other.

In fact, Harbaugh performed so well that the Colts deposed Ted Marchibroda as head coach in the off-season and promoted Infante.

"Jim was nothing until I got ahold of him," Infante said with a laugh. "Seriously, Jimmy has tremendous mobility, and he uses it many times to take a bad call I might have made and turn it into a good one."

(c) 1996, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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