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Everybody was watching as the Cowboys crumble

By Jim Reeves

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

LANDOVER, Md. - If Cowboys owner Jerry Jones isn't blushing when he steps into the NFL owners' meetings that convene today in the nation's capital, then he doesn't have a shred of pride left.

With his fellow owners in town and attending Monday night's Cowboys-Redskins confrontation at sparkling new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Jones was keeping his fingers crossed for a Cadillac ride that would once again assert Dallas' dominance in the NFC East.

What he got was an embarrassing performance by a surprisingly gutless football team.

The Redskins, despite losing premier running back Terry Allen and top receiver Michael Westbrook to first-quarter injuries, rammed the ball down the Cowboys' throats and took command of the division with a 21-16 victory in front of a national "Monday Night Football" audience.

"Embarrassing is not the word," Jones said in the gloom of a solemn Cowboys' locker room. "It's frustrating. disappointing. But this thing is far from over. We've lost three before and won Super Bowls. The answers are in this locker room. We've just got to play better."

Jones is kidding himself, and the Cowboys' fans. What folks saw, from sea to shining sea, was the continued crumbling of the once-proud Dallas dynasty.

Let me tell you a story.

One upon a time the Cowboys were a team that specialized in making the crucial plays when they had to be made. Now, at the first sign of adversity, they disappear faster than warm chocolate chip cookies.

The Redskins, faced with the loss of two prime-time offensive stars, gutted it up and found another way to prevail.

At the core of the Cowboys' troubles is a festering offense that lacks heart and the gumption to make a play when it has to be made.

But give the Dallas defense at least an assist in Monday night's sickening loss.

The Cowboys managed to make a star out of rookie running back Stephen Davis, whose previous claim to fame was having the stuffing beaten out of him by Westbrook during stretching exercises at training camp.

In a game in which both teams talked about how important it was to establish the run, backup tailback Davis and the Redskins pounded at the soft underbelly of the Cowboys' defensive line and chewed up huge chunks of real estate, especially in the second and third quarters, when the 'Skins were building a 21-3 lead.

Davis finished with a where-did-he-come-from 94 yards on 22 carries and scored two touchdowns. Washington quarterback Gus Frerotte was a modest 12-for-23 for 155 yards, but he did what coach Norv Turner asked him to do - he didn't beat himself.

Trailing 21-9 after linebacker Dexter Coakley scooped up a fumble and ran 16 yards for a touchdown, the Cowboys closed it to 21-16 on quarterback Troy Aikman's 14-yard TD pass to Michael Irvin.

The Cowboys had two excellent opportunities to score again after that as the Redskins' offense ran out of gas. They failed miserably.

With a first down at the Washington 38, a deflected pass, a 1-yard loss by Emmitt Smith and a botched screen play left Aikman with a fourth-and-11 play with 2:38 to play. His "Hail Mary" heave for Anthony Miller in the end zone had no hail, no Mary and no chance.

Jones has no one to blame but himself for Monday night's debacle and for the fix in which his 3-3 Cowboys are mired. He has decided to live or die with a head coach who makes little or no game contributions and is clearly failing miserably in his one clear area of responsibility: motivating this football team.

Attention Mr. Jones: On that final, must-have-it fourth-and-11 play at the Washington 39, a disgusted Aikman called a timeout and trotted to the sideline to confer with the Dallas brain trust.

Clearly that left Coach Gump out of the picture.

Barry Switzer wandered to the fringes of the little circle around Aikman, reached in and took a cup of water from one of the trainers. Then sipping slowly, he meandered away.

Jones has remained noncommittal about Switzer's status beyond this season but he has said time and again that he can envision no scenario in which he will make a change this year.

That's too bad, because a major shake-up, if it happened soon enough, might be the only thing that stands a chance of salvaging this season and this team.

This team lacks hands-on, on-the-field vision and leadership. Jones can't do it, despite all his best efforts, because he's not wearing the right hat, and he knows it.

It's not all Switzer's fault, by any means. His offensive line has turned schizophrenic, Smith can't maintain a consistent level of play and Aikman has grown increasingly distant and frustrated. He is part of the problem, too.

The problem now is that the only coaching change that Jones could be expected to make would be to boot Switzer and elevate one of his assistants. Whether that would be change enough, at this point, is anybody's guess.

The sad fact is, there may be nothing that can save this team from drowning itself in mediocrity.

A Cadillac ride?

Looks more like a broken-down Edsel to me.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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