Friday, August 30, 1996

This season, Cowboys will meet their makers - Johnson, Wannstedt and Turner

(KRT) -- Jimmy Johnson is responsible for making the Cowboys a Super Bowl dynasty. Norv Turner is credited for making Troy Aikman the league's premier championship quarterback. Dave Wannstedt is renowned for making the Cowboys one of the top defensive teams in football.

This is the season the Cowboys meet their makers.

Johnson is the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Turner the head coach of the Washington Redskins and Wannstedt the head coach of the Chicago Bears.

Cowboys coach Barry Switzer and the defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys play their first regular-season game against Wannstedt and the Bears, contend with Johnson and the Dolphins in the middle of the schedule and conclude the season against Turner and his Redskins.

"They know the strengths of our football team and the things that might give us some problems," Aikman said. "That counts for something."

While Switzer insists players decide the outcome of games at the professional level, Jerry Jones and other team owners hire coaches and pay their salaries to do more than speak at post-game news conferences. The most successful coaches stamp their personality on their teams and manage the games, deciphering the tendencies of opponents, making personnel substitutions, calling plays and making certain their players are mentally and physically ready to play.

The closer the talent level of the competing teams, the more important the role of the head coach and his staff. Still, Switzer prefers not to consider Cowboys games against the Bears, Dolphins and Redskins a chance to measure himself against the former Dallas braintrust.

"I don't think that has an affect," he said. "The other teams in this league know us as well as they know us. I don't buy into that. It's how you play during that game. The Redskins ran the same damn draw play and slant play last year that we run with Emmitt Smith."

Switzer has consistently downplayed his own importance to the success of the team. If not, one might conclude he clings to his position merely because Turner twice last season coached the overmatched Redskins to upsets of more talented Cowboys teams.

Dallas offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese concurs with Switzer. "I think that is overrated," he said. "Norv certainly understood our defensive schemes and knew our personnel better than other coaches because he had been around here for so long. But the thing that happened is their players outplayed ours on both sides of the football."

Tom Landry, another former Cowboys coach, used to tell his players to divide the long season into quarters to measure their success. Using that approach, here is how the Cowboys' schedule breaks down:

THE LINEUP: At Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, at Buffalo Bills.
CUMULATIVE 1995 RECORD: 33-31.
DIVISION WINNERS: Buffalo.
PLAYOFF TEAMS: Buffalo, Indianapolis.

KEY STAT: The Cowboys have compiled a 27-8-1 record the first week of the regular season, making Dallas the NFL's toughest team in season openers.

ANALYSIS: Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin are powerful components in a balanced Cowboys offense that forces opponents to defend the whole field. Those dynamics change as Dallas must play the first five games without the suspended Irvin, the one player whose presence most affects Aikman and Smith.

Since they began winning Super Bowls in 1992, the Cowboys are 46-11 (.807) with Aikman, Smith and Irvin in the starting lineup. In contrast, they are 3-4 (.428) when one of them is missing.

However, Cowboys players and coaches make no concessions. Aikman and safety Darren Woodson said their intent is to be undefeated when Irvin returns. But the difficulty of winning without him is such that the Cowboys have focused their undivided attention on the first five weeks.
"I think everybody's mentality, including my own, has been we just have to find some way to get through the first five games," Aikman said. "But it's not just the first five games. If training camp is any indication, we're going to have problems staying healthy. I think the approach for the team has to be just finding some way to win - even if it might not be pretty. I think we'll find a way to get it done."

The Cowboys have played their two most impressive games under Switzer in blowout season openers against Pittsburgh in 1994 and the New York Giants last year. This year could be different because Dallas starters simply have not played together much.

The fact they might also be without Jay Novacek complicates things further. And will Charles Haley, Tony Tolbert and Kevin Smith be in condition to play four quarters after missing so much camp?

The Cowboys' pass rush and secondary will be challenged the first month. Chicago's Erik Kramer had a 29-to-10 ratio of touchdown passes to interceptions. NFL passing champion Jim Harbaugh of Indianapolis had a 17-to-5 ratio and Buffalo's Jim Kelly a 22-to-13 ratio.

THE LINEUP: at Philadelphia Eagles, bye week, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, at Miami Dolphins.
CUMULATIVE 1995 RECORD: 32-32.
DIVISION WINNERS: None.
PLAYOFF TEAMS: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami.

KEY STAT: The Cowboys have won 19 of their last 20 games against the Eagles and Cardinals.

ANALYSIS: Team owner Jerry Jones, who has hired or fired every coach the Cowboys have ever had, could appoint himself the fourth head coach in team history before the showdown with the Miami Dolphins.

That is how desperately he wants to defeat Jimmy Johnson.

But that is not the only time during the second four weeks of the NFL season the Cowboys meet a contentious opposing coach. Barry Switzer still must deal with Philadelphia's Ray Rhodes, who took exception to Switzer's characterization of last year's playoff rout and vowed revenge.

Rhodes said he plans to splice Switzer's rhetoric about the butt-whipping the Cowboys administered to Philadelphia into the game tapes his players study.

"When we show up to play them again, our guys will be aware of what was said," Rhodes promised. "I'm not into all that payback stuff but, when we next line up, our fists will be balled, to the man, to the coach. Everyone on the sideline will have fists balled."

The Cowboys will not return the brash Irvin until the week after playing Philadelphia.

While Rhodes has the emotional advantage, Switzer has Emmitt Smith, who has averaged 121.1 yards rushing per game against the Eagles since 1992. He has 10 of the top 15 rushing performances in Cowboys history, three of which were recorded against Philadelphia.

THE LINEUP: Philadelphia Eagles, at San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, at New York Giants.
CUMULATIVE 1995 RECORD: 36-28.
DIVISION WINNERS: San Francisco, Green Bay.
PLAYOFF TEAMS: San Francisco, Green Bay, Philadelphia.

KEY STAT: The Packers and Cowboys both have lost six games at Texas Stadium the past three seasons.

ANALYSIS: Coach Barry Switzer must reverse a disturbing trend to discontinue his most frustrating losing streak.

For eight consecutive years, the Cowboys have lost the 10th regular-season game they have played. The 10th opponent last year was the San Francisco 49ers. The 10th opponent this season is, of course, the 49ers.

And the 11th opponent is the team that wants to beat the Cowboys as desperately as the Cowboys want to defeat the 49ers. In consecutive weeks, Dallas competes against the teams most likely to challenge its dominance: San Francisco and Green Bay.

The Packers shocked the 49ers in the playoffs last year, then had the Cowboys end their season at Texas Stadium for the third consecutive year. In the off-season, Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren ordered his coaches to devote several weeks developing methods to topple the Cowboys.

"We can't take the next step until we beat Dallas," he said.

The Cowboys' defense has to play Atlanta's Jeff George and Miami's Dan Marino back to back. They also have to meet San Francisco's Steve Young and Green Bay's Brett Favre in consecutive games. Deion Sanders is certain to be playing a lot of cornerback with Kevin Smith in those games.

"You know the challenge Brett Favre brings; he can hurt you any time," Cowboys safety Darren Woodson said. "We just have to be sound. If we bust coverages, they'll hurt us. I'm looking forward to the challenge because last year we never saw Steve Young. Games like those will make us a better team and a better defense."

THE LINEUP: Washington Redskins, at Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots, at Washington Redskins.
CUMULATIVE 1995 RECORD: 22-42.
DIVISION WINNERS: None.
PLAYOFF TEAMS: None.

KEY STAT: Redskins coach Norv Turner's two-year record with the Redskins is 9-23. His record against the Cowboys is 2-2.

ANALYSIS: The Cowboys can become the first team to win five consecutive NFC East championships. That kind of dominance indicates the team has a soft closing schedule.

But the tenacious stranglehold the Cowboys once maintained has begun to appear more tenuous. In 1992, the Cowboys went 6-2 in the division. In 1993 and '94, they were 7-1. Last year, they were 5-3 and came within Kevin Williams' fingertip catch of losing to the Giants.

A Cowboys team that had compiled a 27-6 record against the division leading up to the first Washington game last season is 3-3 against the NFC East since the Redskins upset them.

"There's a lot of question marks for this football team," Aikman said? "You wouldn't necessarily think that with this team coming off a Super Bowl."

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

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