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Tuesday, August 26, 1997

Shiver takes center stage for Cowboys

By Josie Karp

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - Clay Shiver is still waiting for a coach - any coach - to confirm that, yes, he is the Cowboys' starting center. So he gets his confirmation in other ways.

Shiver knows head coach Barry Switzer declared after the Cowboys' preseason finale against the Tennessee Oilers on Friday night that the second-year player will make his first NFL start Sunday at Pittsburgh. That is one way.

Another comes from quarterback Troy Aikman. It is not what Aikman said yesterday afternoon, although the quarterback's statement that he "feels comfortable" playing with Shiver had to be encouraging.

The confirmation comes from another, more one-sided conversation Aikman conducted on the sidelines during the Oilers game. For the second consecutive week Shiver forgot the snap count and Aikman let Shiver know he was not pleased.

"He's gotten in my face a couple of times, especially for stupid mental mistakes," Shiver said. "But you can't have a thin skin. When we're on the field there's a certain level of play that's expected from me and when he doesn't get that, he comes looking for answers, as well he should. He said to me, we've got to get that corrected."

Or something like that.

Shiver, who played at Florida State, will have more to worry about than just the snap count in the season opener against the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers, like the last team the Cowboys faced in a meaningful game, the Carolina Panthers, use a variety of blitz packages to try to disrupt an offense. Pittsburgh's 3-4 defensive front will provide a variety of alignments for Shiver to decipher.

But Shiver is not the only one who will have a test early. Consequently, several Cowboys offensive players say they are grateful for the extra preparation time they are getting from playing Friday instead of Sunday.

"A team like this, it probably helps out to have a couple extra days because of the different things that they're doing up front," fullback Daryl Johnston said. "It gives us time to work on some things that we're not really accustomed to seeing throughout the course of the season. There's not a lot of carryover from other things that we've done when you try to prepare for a team like Pittsburgh."

The added pressure from a team like the Steelers is more mental than physical. The offense has to react quickly to the different defensive formations and changes Pittsburgh uses; they also have to be ready to protect the quarterback in the event of a blitz.

It is something that concerns even wide receiver Michael Irvin.

"We've all got to stay focused and pick up the blitz," Irvin said. "We all have to make sure we spend a little extra time in the meeting room going into this game."

The blitz-happy Panthers ended the Cowboys' 1996 season in the divisional playoffs. Against the Steelers, though, the Cowboys have had success. They beat Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX and won in Pittsburgh to open the 1994 season, Switzer's coaching debut with the Cowboys.

"They bring heat every week," running back Emmitt Smith said. "It's nothing new to me, and it's nothing new to our staff. We know what's going to happen. ... We've got to be sharp right off the bat."

That is something Shiver is getting used to hearing as the starting center, even if he is not used to hearing that he is the starting center.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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