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Wednesday, November 19, 1997

Switzer downplays significance of Dallas win at Lambeau

By TOM SILVERSTEIN

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

IRVING, Texas - As far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, a victory over the Green Bay Packers Sunday would be about as special as seeing another fur-wrapped, champagne-drinking high-roller on their sideline.

At least that's the idea you get from coach Barry Switzer, who balked at the notion Tuesday that his club would receive any kind of extra lift from beating the defending Super Bowl champions.

"I guess our guys think of themselves as Super Bowl champions; they won three times," Switzer said at his daily news conference. "They don't look at anybody else as better than them."

Asked what beating the Packers would mean to the Cowboys, Switzer put it in simple terms.

"We'd be 7-5 and we'd have to win the rest of them here at home," Switzer said. "Ten and six got us in last year, 11-5 would definitely give us home field (in the playoffs) for maybe a game."

Clearly, it is the Packers' revenge-minded fans who have put a premium on this game, even though for Green Bay it is not nearly as important as road games the following two weeks against NFC Central rivals Minnesota and Tampa Bay.

Whether the Packers are putting the same kind of emphasis on a chance to end a seven-game losing streak to the Cowboys under coach Mike Holmgren remains to be seen. But there's no question the Packers are single-minded in their desire to get the Dallas monkey off their back.

The Cowboys didn't exactly react to being eliminated from the playoffs last year by making wholesale changes. They obviously felt they were good enough to challenge for the title with their current core of players. And while they are hanging by a thread to their playoff hopes 11 weeks into the season, they see no reason to put any more emphasis on this game than any other.

Switzer refuses to buy into the notion that the Cowboys could derive a boost from going to Lambeau Field for the first time this decade and beating the Packers. He is counting on the fact that the Cowboys play three of their final four games at home to be the difference-maker down the stretch.

He said the significance of this game changed dramatically when the Cowboys struggled earlier this season and the Packers lost to Indianapolis on Sunday. If both teams had the luxury of focusing all their attention on this one game, the approach might be different.

"It's two teams that need wins," Switzer said. "One that got beat last week and one that came off a fourth-quarter, last-few-seconds win that extended itself. It has a different flavor than probably what everybody predicted."

Switzer admitted that the Packers weren't the team they were a year ago, arguing that personnel losses and injuries had affected their play. He would find few objective observers who would disagree with him.

Where the Cowboys have had the biggest advantage over the Packers is in the number of impact players. Dallas' big three - quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and receiver Michael Irvin - have dominated the Packers in the past seven meetings. Aikman has thrown for 300 or more yards in four of the six games he's played in, Irvin has caught passes for 100 or more yards in five of the seven and Smith has topped the 100-yard mark rushing three times. They simultaneously topped their respective milestones in one of the seven games.

"Those three guys have always played well against Green Bay," Switzer said. "That's the guys we count on all the time, but they've always been able to play well against this team since I've been here."

Asked how he would assess the talent difference between the two teams, Switzer called it a toss-up. He said his biggest concern was not allowing quarterback Brett Favre to dominate the game.

As for the controversial decision to kick a field goal as time was winding down in the Cowboys' 21-6 victory over the Packers last year, Switzer said he expected it to be a non-issue. He reiterated his stance that he was only allowing then-Cowboy Chris Boniol to tie the National Football League mark for most field goals (seven) in a game.

"I don't think anything that has happened in the past has one thing to do with what will happen Sunday," Switzer said.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)