Sunday, January 12, 1997

The season's highs and lows

By the Associated Press (Jan. 11, 1997)

The highs and lows of the Dallas Cowboys 1996 season in which they fell three wins short of earning their fourth Super Bowl in five years.

THE LOWS:

-A miserable training camp in which the Cowboys played in two countries and scrimmaged in five different cities. Quarterback Troy Aikman said not having the training camp regime hurt during the regular season.

-Michael Irvin missing the first five games of the season on NFL suspension after receiving a four-year probated sentence for a no contest plea of drug possession.

-Running back Emmitt Smith falling on his head in the first game of the season against Chicago. Smith quit trying to dive for touchdowns after that and never had the monster season expected of one of the NFL's all-time top runners.

-Dallas losing 10-7 to Buffalo to fall to a 1-3 record. No team has ever started 1-3 and won a Super bowl.

-The realization that, because of back problems, tight end Jay Novacek wasn't going to play this year and defensive end Charles Haley needed an operation on his back.

-Leon Lett running afoul of the NFL substance abuse program. The Cowboys were able to get into the playoffs without the league's top run stopper but the Carolina Panthers ran at will against the defensive line in the divisional playoff game.

--Irvin and Erik Williams accused of rape by a 23-year-old woman who claimed Irvin held a gun to her head while Williams attacked her. The pair denied the allegations but it was the big story, not football, the week before the Carolina game.

-Irvin and Sanders both getting injured against the Panthers, Panthers, who won 26-17 and applied what many deemed a mercy killing for a distracted, beatup football team that probably would have been doomed on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

-Sanders as a receiver bust. He caught only 36 passes for 475 and just one touchdown.

THE HIGHS:

-Despite every piece of bad luck one could imagine, the Cowboys still won their fifth consecutive NFC east title with a 10-6 record.

-They flashed their old Super Bowl form, both defensively and offensively, in running over Minnesota 40-15 in the NFC wild-card game.

-Beating Green Bay, San Francisco, New England and Miami and former coach Jimmy Johnson.

-Chris Boniol tying an NFL record with seven field goals in the Cowboys seventh consecutive defeat of Green Bay in Texas Stadium.

-Boniol's field goal in overtime to beat the 49ers.

-Beating Washington on Thanksgiving Day to get into a tie for the NFC East lead.

-Beating Bill Parcells and the Patriots in the 15th game of the season to clinch the division title on four field goals by Boniol.

-Having Troy Aikman say he'll likely play again next year.