Monday, September 30, 1996

Cowboys just not clicking
By Ron Reid
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
(Sept. 30, 1996)

PHILADELPHIA (KRT) - They have been the scourge of the NFL, winning the Super Bowl three times in four seasons with a flash-and-dazzle offense that averaged 33.5 points a game - in playoff competition.

But the Dallas Cowboys who face the Eagles tonight at Veterans Stadium are hardly so potent these days. Injuries, drug suspensions, age and free agency have turned the quick-strike, big-play offense into 11 guys in search of a first down.

The Cowboys are averaging only 16 points a game. They have scored the anemic total of 19 points in the second half, including just one field goal in four third quarters. They neither run the ball nor throw it with great efficiency, so their 1-3 record is hardly surprising.

But neither coach Barry Switzer nor quarterback Troy Aikman is convinced the season is beyond recovery. Given time, healing and better execution, they contend, the Cowboys also will contend.
Maybe so, but there is reason to believe that age is the Cowboys' biggest problem and that it will plague the team all season.

"It's strictly health reasons," Switzer said of the team's struggling start. "I don't have a starting receiver who played last season in the Super Bowl - tight ends, flankers, split ends. You can't play with guys who've never played together before, and that's what we're faced with right now. Offensively, that's what our problems are."

The Cowboys' passing game suffered a staggering blow when all-pro wide receiver Michael Irvin was lost to a five-game drug suspension. Then tight end Jay Novacek, Aikman's go-to guy whenever the 'Boys needed a first down, suffered a back injury that may end his career.
Kevin Williams has also been lost for six to eight weeks with a foot fracture, leaving Aikman with no sure hands to throw to, and that includes Deion "Full Time" Sanders, the cornerback/wide receiver who has been on the field for 370 of 476 plays (78 percent).

"You cannot lose the talents of a Michael Irvin and a Jay Novacek and say that's not going to affect your team," Aikman said. "It has affected us, but I still feel we can execute better than we have.

"If we had performed better, we wouldn't be too far off from 3-1 right now. It's just a few plays, even after we played as poorly as we've played. So we've just got to do a better job. Now we're going to have to rely on Kelvin Martin quite heavily, and on Deion, who is basically a young, inexperienced wide receiver, even though he's one of the best defensive backs."

The Cowboys' lack of a consistent passing game has given defenses a chance to gang up on Emmitt Smith, the four-time NFL rushing champion. Smith is banged up and hardly 100 percent, but he suffers more from an offensive line that is old, overweight and hardly as capable as it once was.
And no amount of healing is going to make the group younger.

"I think it's kind of like the season we had two years ago, when Emmitt had the hamstring problem," Switzer said. "Emmitt wasn't Emmitt Smith. He sprained knee ligaments going into the first game this year, and he's had a bad ankle since. I just don't think he's hitting on all eight yet. And we had the offensive line nicked up a little at both tackles.

"It's not the way we played last year, knocking people out of there, running north and south, ricocheting up through there. I think in time we'll get that, but they'll all have to be healthy, working together, with consistency."

Switzer calls Irvin the spark plug of the team and says practice will be a lot more lively when he returns from his suspension. But it's not as if Irvin is the sole answer.

"It doesn't work that way, one guy coming back and the rest of us sitting back and saying, 'Michael's going to take care of it.' No, that's not it," Switzer said. "It's all of us doing our jobs, improving in practice, getting better and focusing on the right things. Then we add some talent to it, a guy we believe can help us, can make plays, and Troy will get the football to him. They know that will happen for us. These guys are not in any panic mode.

"The thing about it is you can give it a good run, be at .500 in November and then it's how you play from them on," Switzer said. "If you stay healthy, you're in the thing."

Aikman was the rookie quarterback on the Cowboys' 1-15 team in 1989. That experience steeled him for anything.

"When this team is not winning, Dallas is a pretty tough place to play," he said. "We realize that. This team, through good times and bad times, has always hung together, and that's one of the main reasons we've been able to overcome some things, and that's why there's the belief we'll overcome this. We have never had guys pointing fingers and trying to place blame on others. We're all accountable for the way we've played."

(c) 1996, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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