Monday, September 16, 1996

Cowboys had their chances to put Colts away
By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer
(Sept. 16, 1996)

IRVING - Maybe the Dallas Cowboys' four-year dynasty is over.

It certainly looked that way Sunday when a less-talented Indianapolis team walked out of Texas Stadium a 25-24 upset winner over the defending world champions.

After demolishing the pitiful New York Giants last week, the Cowboys might have gotten a better look at what their season will really be like with their back-and-forth game against the Colts.

Dallas was uncharacteristically conservative on offense and missed a ton of tackles on the defensive side.

And when the Cowboys had their chances in the first half, they didn't drill the Colts into the ground and put an early end to this game. Dallas led 21-3 midway through the second quarter, but never put the Colts away. Instead the Cowboys gave up two late field goals and didn't go into their two-minute offense late in the first half when they had the ball and two timeouts to play with.

"We don't have that nasty, kill people attitude right now," Dallas cornerback/wide receiver Deion Sanders said. "We don't have the attitude we need to put people away. And we should have put the Colts away early."

The Cowboys had every chance to do just that, and in the past they would have. Even last year's club would have made this a runaway of 35-10 or 41-17 proportions.

But not Sunday, and now it just gets tougher.

Conventional thinking was that if the Cowboys could make it to 3-2 or even 2-3 before Michael Irvin came back from his five-game suspension, they would be OK.

But right now, the Cowboys are staring at 1-4 before Irvin returns to presumably walk on water, make mountains out of molehills and cure all the team's ills.

"We can talk about Michael's suspension all we want, but that is not a factor right now," Bill Bates said. "We still have to make plays and still have to win. We're expected to win whether Michael's playing or not."

But now the Cowboys face two crucial road games without Irvin in Buffalo next Sunday and at Philadelphia on Monday night, Sept. 30.

And if you don't think those two teams won't have payback in mind, think again.

The Bills probably can't wait to get the Cowboys in Rich Stadium and do some damage for back-to-back Super Bowl whippings the Cowboys inflicted upon them.

And the Eagles, always hacked off at the Cowboys about something, will be ticked after head coach Ray Rhodes reminds them that Dallas coach Barry Switzer said his team "whipped their (Eagles) butts" in last year's playoff game at Texas Stadium. Rhodes vowed revenge after that quote hit print, and he and his team will have their shot on "Monday Night Football.' "

"I knew coming in that this was going to be a tough year for us," Troy Aikman said of the 1-2 start. "We're going to be in a lot of close games. We're going to Buffalo at 1-2 knowing that it is going to be tough. But we have to win a few of the close ones to succeed this year."

The Cowboys absolutely have to win one of those two games or else they fall way behind Green Bay in the chase for home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. The Packers, in case anyone's been in a cave for the last three weeks, are playing the best football of any team in the NFL and have to be licking their chops at the prospect of perhaps finally getting the Cowboys in a playoff game in their stadium.

"We have high expectations for this team," Darren Woodson said. "We don't expect to lose any games, let alone two of the first three."

The Cowboys can only hope it doesn't go to four of the first five.

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