Wednesday, December 30, 1998

History, experience favor Cowboys against Cardinals

By Kevin Lyons

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas -- Six weeks after the flag that didn't fall against Kevin Smith in the end zone, the Arizona Cardinals finally get overtime with the Cowboys.

Cardiac quarterback Jake Plummer, with seven fourth-quarter comebacks this season, will attempt to upset the favored Cowboys, who have enough history on their side to suggest that Saturday's wild-card game probably won't be their last of the season.

The Cowboys have not lost a home playoff game since 1983. They have won 16 of the past 17 against the Cardinals, including the past three. They defeated Arizona, 38-6, in the Sept. 6 season opener. They hung on for a 35-28 victory in Arizona when Smith appeared to be hanging onto Rob Moore as he reached for Plummer's pass in the end zone Nov. 15.

With a victory this weekend, the Cowboys would become the eighth NFL team in the Super Bowl era to defeat a division opponent three times in a season. Five other teams who swept the season series in the division lost to the same opponent in the playoffs.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, have not won in Dallas since 1989. They were the "St. Louis Cardinals" when they last appeared in the playoffs, in 1982. They were the "Chicago Cardinals" when they last won a playoff game, 51 years ago on Monday.

Third-year Cardinals coach Vince Tobin is playoff tested, having been a defensive coordinator for four division champions. But he certainly can't say the same for his team. He'll bring a youth-laden club to Texas Stadium on Saturday that features only 10 players with playoff experience -- 39 games, all for other teams. That is five less than the Cowboys' trio of Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith, who have combined to play in 44 postseason games.

"That probably matters quite a bit from Monday through Friday," Cowboys coach Chan Gailey said on Monday. "Then, after the kickoff, I don't know. Dallas was not in the playoffs at one point, then they got in their first playoff game and beat somebody they were not supposed to beat and went on from there."

Gailey, who has been an offensive assistant on four AFC champions, says history should not matter much Saturday.

"New playoff teams and perennial playoff teams start somewhere every year," he said. "Normally, the team that goes out and plays the best and executes is the team that wins. It helps to have experience. But I don't think that is the winning edge. The winning edge is execution."

The Cowboys failed to execute on defense in the second half of their previous game against the Cardinals. With Deion Sanders sidelined after suffering a first-half toe injury, the Cowboys' secondary allowed Plummer to complete 18 of 33 passes for 314 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. The Cardinals, who were down 28-0, came within 5 yards and a controversial no-call on Smith of mounting the biggest regular-season comeback in NFL history.

Sanders is listed as out for the game Saturday. But Gailey considers his secondary much-improved from that meltdown in the desert.

"I feel better about our secondary now than I did then," Gailey said.

He said his team will not do anything remarkably different in preparation for the Cardinals this week.

"We'll go about it with the same attention to detail, the same tempo in practice," Gailey said. "There have been a lot of must-win games. We've finally reached one. This is a must-win game. We've got to win this to keep going."

If the Cowboys keep going, the road to their record ninth Super Bowl becomes considerably more difficult. They'd have to go through Atlanta and perhaps Minnesota to get to Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami on Jan. 31.

No NFC team has made it to a Super Bowl by winning two road playoff games since the 1975 Cowboys, who won in Minnesota and in Los Angeles to make it to Super Bowl X.

"All you are doing in the regular season is putting yourself in position to go play in the postseason," Gailey said. "The postseason is what this league is all about."

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.