Friday, November 27, 1998

Campo's plan left painfully defenseless

By Jean-Jacques Taylor

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

DALLAS - Give Cowboys' defensive coordinator Dave Campo credit. He tried everything he knew to stop the Minnesota Vikings' passing attack.

Nothing worked.

How could it?

With Deion Sanders deactivated because of a sprained left big toe and Kevin Smith out with a back contusion for the last quarter and a half, Campo pitted an inexperienced and injury-depleted secondary against Cris Carter and Randy Moss.

The result was predictable.

They combined for 10 catches, 298 yards and four touchdowns in the Vikings' 46-36 win over Dallas at Texas Stadium.

"I clearly don't want to make excuses," Campo said. "They just lined up and kicked our butt. They out-executed us and we didn't make any plays."

Campo tried to play it safe early by playing the corners soft - eight to 10 yards off the scrimmage line - and using both safeties to provide deep help. Pro Bowl safety Darren Woodson provided the deep help on Moss.

That scheme, however, forces safeties to play about 15 yards off the line, making it easy to run. Robert Smith had four carries for 48 yards in the first quarter.

The idea was to allow short completions and protect against the deep ball.

But offensive coordinator Brian Billick fooled Smith and Woodson with a trick on Minnesota's fourth play. Smith took a handoff, then tossed the ball back to quarterback Randall Cunningham, who threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Moss.

On the Vikings' next series, Cunningham threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Carter, who beat double-coverage from Woodson and Kenny Wheaton. On his final touchdown catch of the quarter, Moss ran straight down the field and beat Smith.

"We tried to double (cover) both wideouts, we tried some zone, we tried rushing three and dropping eight," Campo said. "We tried to give them a lot of different looks."

When Smith left early in the third quarter with back tightness, Campo's cornerbacks were Terry Billups and Charlie Williams. Billups was activated from the practice squad this week, while Williams is primarily a special-teams performer.

"We just tried to line up and play," secondary coach Mike Zimmer said. "You can't invent someone."