Sunday, September 8, 1996

Cowboys accomplish mission against Giants
By LANCE FLEMING
Abilene Reporter-News
(Sept. 8, 1996)

IRVING - No NFL player will ever say that the second game of any season is the biggest on the schedule.

But make no mistake: Sunday's game against the New York Giants was a big one in a lot of ways for the Dallas Cowboys.

No. 1 they had to bounce back from last Monday's miserable offensive performance in the season-opening loss to Chicago.

No. 2 they had to prove that they could win games without Michael Irvin and Jay Novacek.
And No. 3, they had to prove to themselves that they could simply win again.

Dallas by 27-0 says mission accomplished on all three points.

"Yeah I think we all felt pressure to win this game," Dallas safety Darren Woodson said. "It would have been pretty tough around here at 0-2. But I think this was a confidence-builder more than anything. We wanted to prove that we are still one of the best teams in the league."

The Cowboys took a big step in that direction Sunday by dismantling a Giants club that, admittedly, isn't the second coming of the 1985 Chicago Bears.

But the Cowboys did what they're supposed to do against a team like the Giants: Play suffocating defense and score a lot of points.

Yes the Cowboys failed to score on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the first quarter, and yes, the Cowboys still aren't very good on short-yardage situations, but as one Cowboy player said, it's still early.

"We got on track a little bit today," Dallas guard Nate Newton said. "We've got to work on short-yardage situations, but when we start working together as a unit, we'll get it together.

"I tried to tell everybody to give us a chance to get our offensive unit together before you start getting on us," he said. "This is only the second week we've had everybody together for practice and games. And it takes two to three weeks to get an offense going."

The Cowboys had it going Sunday, much to the relief of quarterback Troy Aikman, who admitted that this was a big game for the Cowboys. But not for any other reason than they needed a win.
"Well, yeah, it was big, but it didn't have anything to do with the media or fans or anything," he said. "Two games don't determine your fate, but this was an important game for us in a lot of ways.
It's my belief that you have to play well early in the season because the more losses you pile up, the harder it becomes to overcome those."

The Cowboys not only had to overcome last Monday's loss, but also a national perception that their run at the top of the NFL was coming to a crashing halt. Sunday's performance might have quelled some of that talk, but Aikman wasn't too worried about it.

"I don't know about making any statements," he said. "I try not to get too caught up in that. We played a pretty good football game, but we also have a lot of room to improve. But as far as making statements to those people who wrote us off, I don't worry too much about that."

But Aikman did say that Sunday's game is one that could be a stepping stone for the club.

"It's something for us to build on," he said. "After last week's performance, practice was more of a struggle. When you struggle through the preseason like we did and then come out and play like we did last week, it's tough.

"But I heard people say they didn't know if this is a Super Bowl team after only one week of the season," Aikman said. "Well, who does? I still don't know what type of team it is."

On Sunday it was a team that played with a sense of urgency and a little bit of swagger that it's carried the last five seasons.

"We felt a lot of pressure going in," Dallas head coach Barry Switzer said. "But what's one game? The NFL season is a marathon and we know we're not going to win every game. But we needed this one to regain confidence in ourselves."
Mission accomplished.

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