Monday, September 7, 1998

Cowboys defeat Cardinals

By David Moore

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - The Cowboys' quest to prove they remain an elite team is far from over. Something as important as a quest rarely ends with a victory over a team as bad as Arizona.

But Sunday's 38-10 victory over the historically inept Cardinals at Texas Stadium was an important first step.

In a summer where Stella got her groove back, the Cowboys finally found one. The 38 points was the most Dallas has scored in nearly four years, a gap that stretches over the last 53 regular-season games. The Cowboys amassed 439 yards in total offense and blunted the Cardinals' potentially lethal attack with a strong defensive effort. This combination allowed Chan Gailey to do something Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson were unable to do in their first games as coach of the Cowboys.

Win.

"You're excited and pleased," Gailey said of a debut that prompted the players to give him the game ball. "But it's like the players. You can't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back. It's just one game.

"A lot of things came together for us. We have not arrived. But this should help us gain some confidence."

This is a team in desperate need of confidence. Sunday marked the first time Dallas has beaten any team since slipping by Washington, 17-14, on Nov. 16 of last year.

"It feels good to have a result like this," Cowboys nose tackle Chad Hennings said. "This is how it used to feel when this team was going to the Super Bowls."

It's premature to again mention the Cowboys in the same breath as the Super Bowl unless the topic turns to next week's game against the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. But after an 0-5 pre-season and a controversy over whether it was scissors or shears that left a gash in Everett McIver's neck in training camp, this was a welcome change.

Gailey estimates the Cowboys showed only 50 to 60 percent of their offense during the pre-season. He didn't unveil all of it Sunday. But what he showed was more creative that what was showcased in Ernie Zampese's dying days as the team's offensive coordinator.

Mammoth rookie offensive tackle Flozell Adams at tight end. Screen passes. A reverse. The shotgun. Quarterback Troy Aikman scrambling up the middle for 23 yards his longest run in nearly nine years and rushing for two touchdowns.

Aikman's 40 yards rushing isn't an option Gailey wants to see or Aikman intends to do week in and week out. But it's an indication this offense puts Aikman in different positions to make plays than he's had in the past.

Another indication: Aikman's 30-yard scoring pass to Ernie Mills late in the first half. The Cowboys had only three scoring plays that traveled farther all last season.

"All in all, I thought it was a pretty good game," said Aikman, who produced four touchdowns and threw for 256 yards in addition to his rushing exploits. "It gives us something we can build on."

That's not to say there weren't problems. Aikman forced a pass into triple coverage for one of his two interceptions. His pitch to Emmitt Smith bounced off Daryl Johnston's hip for a fumble, extinguishing a Dallas drive on the Cardinals' 20-yard line in the first half. Aikman dumped a pass underneath to Smith with less than nine seconds left in the first half, but time expired before Richie Cunningham could take the field to kick a short field goal.

But the positives outweighed the negatives. One year after being tormented by Aeneas Williams, Michael Irvin got the best of the Cardinals' All-Pro defender with nine catches for 119 yards. Smith numbed the Cardinals with 122 yards on 28 carries. Mills had four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown.

"I thought we were persistent," Gailey said. "That's what we talked about going into this game. You have to keep at it because you never know when it will start to click.

"Things didn't go as well as we wanted early, but we were persistent and our defense kept us in it."

The Dallas defense allowed a running game supposedly revamped with the addition of Adrian Murrell to average just 2.6 yards a carry. Quarterback Jake Plummer was limited to 14-of-33 passing for 166 yards. The Cardinals were a deadening 0-of-10 on third-down conversions.

Arizona picked up two first downs on its first possession both by the grace of Dallas penalties then didn't generate another first down under its own power until Plummer hit Frank Sanders for 7 yards on a crossing pattern at the two-minute warning.

"Dallas is that old bull out in the field," Williams said. "That old bull is not going to give up its territory. They executed and made the plays."

A word of caution: The old bull gored Pittsburgh, 37-7, to open last season before watching the season unravel at the end with five consecutive losses.

"You can't get too excited," Aikman said. "We won the first game last year, too."

True. But Sunday was a start.

A good one.

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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