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Troy Aikman shows stuff of legends

By Jim Reeves

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - Move over, Staubach.

Make way, Montana.

Sit down, Elway.

Troy Aikman just bought himself a seat with the legends.

Battered and baffled by a withering Eagles blitz in the first half, Aikman led the Cowboys to an improbable 21-20 come-from-behind victory that left a national "Monday Night Football" audience stunned and emotionally drained.

Aikman did it by ushering the Cowboys 62 yards in the game's final three minutes and culminated his greatest comeback with a play he's not supposed to be able to make, rolling to his left and then throwing back across the field to Anthony Miller in the back of the end zone for a 14-yard go-ahead touchdown.

Even then, the star-kissed Cowboys stared defeat in the face when Ty Detmer, with only a minute to play, led the Eagles to the Dallas 5-yard line with four seconds to play, where former Cowboys kicker Chris Boniol lined up a 22-yard field goal that would win the game for Philadelphia.

Boniol, Dallas fans know all too well, is automatic from that distance. He had connected on 46 consecutive field goals from inside 35 yards.

What happened next will go down in the annals of Cowboys football.

For some reason - Cowboys fans will no doubt claim The Big Guy was watching through the hole in the roof and decided to intervene - Eagles field-goal holder Tom Hutton lost his grip on the football. Springing to his feet, he rolled left, lost the handle on the ball and saw it roll into Brock Marion's eager arms.

The explosive, totally unexpected turn of events ignited bedlam in Texas Stadium, sending stunned Cowboys players and coaches running onto the field in ecstasy and the Eagles shuffling to their locker room, wondering what went wrong.

The Cowboys didn't deserve to win this game, but mark it down as a "W" just the same.

Until the game's incredible finish, the game belonged almost entirely to the Eagles, who used the same aggressive blitz package to disrupt the Cowboys' offensive timing that worked so successfully last weekend against Brett Favre and the defending world champion Packers.

Unable to grasp the dazzling concept, the Cowboys exposed Aikman to a veritable broadside of speeding (take your choice) linebackers, safeties and assorted popcorn vendors in green jerseys.

"Our goal is home-field advantage in the playoffs," Switzer had vowed solemnly all week, but for 31/2 quarters, it appeared that the Cowboys would be sitting at 1-2 and with back-to-back losses to division rivals. A loss last night in what Switzer already had labeled a "must-win" game would have forced his team to seriously reassess.

And then, almost from out of nowhere, Aikman brought the Cowboys back.

Until the game-winning touchdown pass to Miller, Aikman and company hadn't scored a touchdown since the fourth quarter of the 37-7 rout in the opener at Pittsburgh.

My, how long ago and far away that seems right now.

Until the final moments, this was a team that was thoroughly beaten and outplayed in virtually every aspect of the game.

Detmer had even out-performed Aikman.

Oh, the horror of it all.

At the heart of a frustrating first half was the Cowboys' inability to deal with an Eagles blitz that appeared from all angles and at any time, despite the fact that the Cowboys knew what was coming and had all week to prepare.

The Eagles did everything but send a Candy-Gram advertising their intentions after watching films of the Cowboys' loss to the blitzing Cardinals a week ago in Arizona.

Yet, Aikman looked like a revolving duck at a shooting gallery.

Plunk, he's down.

Now, he's back up.

Bang, he's down again.

Twice in the first quarter, Aikman was whiplashed by blitzes he never saw coming and coughed up the ball. The first time, the Eagles capitalized with Boniol's first field goal of the night. On the second, after Aikman was blindsided for the second time by cornerback Bobby Taylor, linebacker William Thomas scooped up the loose ball and galloped untouched 37 yards for a touchdown and a 10-3 Philadelphia lead.

From the stunned stands came a plaintive cry.

"It's a blitz, you dummies!"

Well, somebody had to tell them.

The Eagles wanted to force Aikman to move out of the pocket, to throw off his back foot, to rush and hurry and become frustrated. They did all that and more.

And then the Eagles, for some reason, quit blitzing in the second half. Held to a pitiful 4-of-16 for 42 yards in the first two quarters, Aikman would hit 13-of-20 for 163 in the second half.

In "The Drive," as it will surely come to be known in Cowboys legend, the Cowboys caught a serious break when the Eagles' Charles Dimry was flagged for pass interference on fourth-and-five at the Cowboys' 43, even though replays showed that the ball had been tipped at the line of scrimmage.

Given a reprieve, Aikman did what the Staubachs, the Montanas, the Elways have done before him - he did what it took to win and his ungainly flight, rolling to his left and almost out of bounds before unloading the TD pass to Miller, will be remembered as a thing of beauty.

Somehow, the ball found a way through defender Tim Watson's hands and into Miller's.

It's how legends are born.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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