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Monday, August 18, 1997

Questions are numerous as Cowboys' season nears

By Gil LeBreton

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

Training camp is supposed to be a time for answering questions, but the Cowboys seem intent on remaining masters of suspense.

What should have been an impressive Friday night shakedown against one of the NFC's weaker sisters, the St. Louis Rams, instead turned into another three-hour squirmfest. The absence of a dependable running game, the lapses of inconsistency along the offensive line, the not-ready-for-prime-time punting game - these problems linger over the team like an undelivered summons.

Against the Rams, quarterback Troy Aikman voiced his displeasure verbally, as he walked toward - and then seethed along - the Cowboys' sideline. He was a lot more diplomatic when he stood in front of the cameras and notepads later, but Aikman's message was clear.

"It was our mental mistakes that killed us," he said. "I'll take our running back against anybody in football, and I'll take our receiver No. 88 against anybody in football.

"When you look at it that way, it's very frustrating."

Aikman's words didn't seem to be as much of a pointed criticism as a challenge to the team's supporting cast. A unit with Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin should not be bogged down in second-and-10s and go 28-1/2 minutes before scoring a touchdown.

But it did. And Aikman and Cowboys fans might have to learn to deal with it.

Even with their star-studded nucleus mostly intact, the Cowboys are in a transition. They are getting older. Their best seasons are behind many of them.

In days of old, the Tom Landry regime was often criticized for dealing with just this. An aging veteran was nudged along toward what appeared to be an early retirement.

Billy Joe DuPree had to surrender playing time for the next tight end, Doug Cosbie. Middle linebacker Bob Breunig might have/could have lasted another season, but the club was enraptured with rookies Eugene Lockhart, Steve DeOssie and Billy Cannon Jr. Dozens of others received the dreaded Landry pink slip.

Change was always in the wind for the Cowboys of the 1970s and early '80s. With no salary cap and with 12 rounds of draft choices to fill the training-camp depth charts each year, the hoped-for order of succession was usually on the premises and in full display.

You can't do that anymore. Long-term contracts come with salary-cap shackles attached. Veterans aren't hustled out the door anymore. But rather, encouraged to renegotiate and stick around.

Take the Nate Newton mess.

You won't get the morality lecture here. Recent Cowboys experience reminds us that headlines - and TV exclusives - aren't always what they appear. Thus, Newton deserves his right to the legal process.

But Owner Jones is caught in a deep and sour pickle. By the standards he has set and the $75,000 fine he has already assessed his coach, he has set a tenor that dictates that Newton should be immediately given a paid vacation - suspended - until his embarrassing legal matter gets settled.

If, say, a sports columnist is suddenly accused of doing something that publicly embarrasses the newspaper, I doubt seriously that his smiling mug shot would be allowed in the newspaper until he got the mess settled. Come to think of it, anybody seen KXAS's Marty Griffin lately?

Yet, Newton will likely line up on opening day in Pittsburgh. The Cowboys need him. Owner Jones can't afford to find a replacement.

It's a depth thing, Mr. Aikman. The Cowboys are trying to patch holes with a cast of minimum-wage drop-ins and unproven rookies. Nights like last Friday are certain to occur.

"We're not the team we were two years ago," Aikman said Friday. "We can't keep trying to overcome second-and-15."

In place of Newton against the Rams, the Cowboys opened with oft-injured veteran John Flannery. The experiment of trying to make Clay Shiver the starting center also continued. Newton is 36 and tackle Mark Tuinei is 37, and the Cowboys need both to start this season.

Aikman said Friday that he thinks the team needs to come back and work harder in practice. That simple, eh?

The Dexter Coakley and Billy Davis discoveries have been the bright spots of this Cowboys summer. But there are a dozen questions still begging to be answered.

By the way, they've got two weeks.

(Gil LeBreton is a sports columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Write to him at: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, Texas, 76101.)

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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