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Saturday, November 16, 1996

Win or lose in Dallas, things still look good for post-holiday Packer schedule

By Don Pierson / Chicago Tribune (Nov. 16, 1996)

CHICAGO (KRT) - The question is whether the Packers need to beat the Cowboys on Monday night in Dallas. Psychologically, it would be a good idea. Realistically, it doesn't look like it will happen. Practically, it doesn't look like it will make any difference.

As tough as the Packers' schedule is this year - the toughest in the league - playoff games in friendly Lambeau Field already appear likely. Playing the postseason at home would fulfill everything the Packers planned. They just thought they would have to beat the Cowboys to accomplish it. Now they probably don't.

That doesn't mean it wouldn't provide a huge boost to the Packers' egos to beat the Cowboys in Dallas for the first time in seven tries. It's a definite monkey on the Pack that is growing into a gorilla. What doesn't help the Packers at all is the hoopla surrounding their so-far successful season. The Cowboys feel cheated because they haven't been allowed to bask in the aftermath of another world championship. When Michael Irvin got into trouble, any remaining Cowboys sentiment shifted north.

"There's a saying that everybody loves a champion. No. Everybody loves a different champion," Emmitt Smith said. "People are tired of looking at the Dallas Cowboys. ... Everybody is rooting for Green Bay."

There was a glint in the eye of Dallas guard Nate Newton when he said last week: "They're the Green Bay Packers. We're just the Dallas Cowboys."

Packers coach Mike Holmgren is well aware of this premature perception of his team. As soon as he lost last Sunday in Kansas City, he tried to paint it as a learning experience and a steppingstone rather than an upset.

"(The Chiefs have) gone to the playoffs, what, six, seven years in a row? They're not the new kids on the block. We're kind of the new kids. We're trying to get in the deal," Holmgren said.

Holmgren said it was "good to play in this type of environment. We're still young. We're new. Maybe sometimes it's difficult to handle the position we're in."

It should make the Packers feel better that at least they are not favored to go into Texas Stadium and beat the Cowboys, as they were last Sunday in Arrowhead. Though the Packers are 8-2 and the Cowboys 6-4, the Packers are four-point underdogs. This is quite realistic for more reasons than the six losses in 37 months.

The Packers never have been able to shut down the Cowboys' running game. After spending much of their off-season fortifying the middle of a defense that gave up a 99-yard touchdown drive to the Cowboys in the championship game, the Packers boast the seventh-ranked defense against the run versus the Cowboys' 22nd-ranked run offense. Yet the Packers have been gouged the last two weeks by Detroit's Barry Sanders and Kansas City's Greg Hill.

On the other side, Packers quarterback Brett Favre's greatest games don't include many Dallas highlights. With receivers Robert Brooks, Antonio Freeman and now Mark Chmura out, Cowboys cornerbacks Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith will be able to clamp down on Don Beebe and whoever is left while the rest of the defense goes after Favre.

But even if the Cowboys win, the Packers retain a one-game lead for home-field advantage. Down the stretch, it is not the Packers with the most difficult schedule. That belongs to the Cowboys, whose remaining opponents have won 62 percent of their games. The Redskins, next at 53 percent, play at Philadelphia, the 49ers at home and at Dallas in an 11-day stretch.

The Packers (52 percent) play a tougher stretch than the 49ers (47) or Eagles (42), but the Packers have the tiebreaker edge on both.

The Packers go to St. Louis Nov. 24 and to Detroit Dec. 15. Their last three games are in Lambeau against the Broncos, Bears and Vikings.

Win or lose in Dallas, things still are looking good for a post-Christmas schedule in Lambeau.

(Don Pierson is a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Write to him at: Chicago Tribune, 435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60611.)

(c) 1996, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.