Tuesday, August 13, 1996
Cowboys look bad in losing another preseason
game
By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer
(August 13, 1996)
IRVING - The best thing that can be said about the Dallas
Cowboys' preseason is that it's almost over.
The Cowboys bumbled and stumbled through their second straight
exhibition loss Monday night, falling to New England, 31-7, in
front of 57,874 fans at Texas Stadium.
Dallas, now 1-2 in the preseason, has two more games to play,
one Saturday at home against Denver and Aug. 24 against Houston
in Orlando, Fla.
The Cowboys, who lost to Kansas City 32-6 last week, have now
surrendered 97 points in three preseason games, and played the
worst of the three Monday night.
"I don't care if it's preseason or not, anybody who was
a part of that game, whether it was coaches or players on the
field, should be embarrassed at the way we performed," Dallas
head coach Barry Switzer said. "We had no offense, no defense
and no kicking game. We had penalties and stupid mistakes at
crucial times.
"I know we held out a lot of key guys," he said, "but
we're going to have to use a lot of the guys who were out on
that field in crucial backup roles."
Neither those players, nor many of the Cowboys' key players who
participated, performed very well Monday night.
Troy Aikman completed just 3 of 9 passes for 24 yards while Kevin
Williams caught just one pass for 13 yards. Deion Sanders didn't
have a catch. Sherman Williams rushed for 35 yards on seven carries.
The Dallas first-team defense, which saw Charles Haley and Kevin
Smith play for the first time this preseason, surrendered 154
total yards in the first half to the Patriots.
New England killed the Cowboys on third downs, converting 8 of
15 opportunities. Dallas, meanwhile, converted just 4 of 14 opportunities
and never could sustain any type of drive.
"That's the poorest exhibition game we've played since I've
been here," Switzer said. "If you don't make first
downs on offense and can't win third downs on defense, you won't
win the game."
New England led 10-0 at the half and wasted no time pushing the
led to 17-0 when Hason Graham returned the opening kickoff 96
yards. He shook two defenders at midfield and then raced to the
end zone.
The lead became 24-0 a few minutes later when the Patriots turned
a Wade Wilson interception into a Dave Meggett 2-yard touchdown
run. The Patriots made it 31-0 at the end of three quarters when
Corey Croom scored from 1 yard out.
The kickoff return underscored another area of concern for Dallas
coaches - the play of the special teams. The Cowboys had seven
crucial mistakes in that phase of the game Monday, including
two missed field goals by the usually reliable Chris Boniol.
"I'm very concerned about our special teams," Switzer
said. "I told (special teams coach) Joe Avezzano that he's
got major problems there. But when you don't have depth in your
defensive backs and don't have special teams role players playing
at $200,000, it makes it awfully hard on your football team."
The Cowboys' only score came when third-string quarterback Jason
Garrett threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Stepfret Williams
with 8:21 left in the game. Dallas threatened to score again,
but Garrett was picked off in the end zone on the last play of
the game.
"Tonight's performance wasn't very indicative of a Super
Bowl champion," Switzer said. "We certainly didn't
strike fear into the hearts of the other 29 teams in the league."
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