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Get over it, Michael: As record fell, Cowboys won

By Gil LeBreton

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - After 11 seasons of close observation, a personal milestone was achieved last Sunday:

I caught the same number of passes as Michael Irvin.

Alarming, I know. But look at it this way - from where I sat in Sun Devil Stadium's vertigo-inducing press box, a mere Leonid meteor's throw from the playing field, I was probably more open than Mike was.

But Troy Aikman didn't throw to me, either. Which is exactly my point.

Aikman didn't have to. He and the Cowboys were too busy scoring 35 points.

Yet, for whatever reason, this story won't go away. Coach Chan Gailey spent a far-too-generous portion of his weekly news conference yesterday addressing the "Irvin situation."

"Do I need to go talk to him?" Chan wondered aloud. "I probably will.

"I don't know that I need to. But I probably will."

Let me suggest three words, Coach. Feel free to use them as often as you feel necessary:

Get ... over . . . it.

As in, "Get over it, Michael. We've got a season going on here."

Surely, Irvin will. Maybe. I think. Won't he?

Surely, he won't do anything drastic, like start giving people haircuts. Or start tossing trash cans. Or, just to relieve the frustration, go out and buy a new flaming-purple outfit.

It was, after all, just a number. Most consecutive Cowboys games catching a pass, 117. One teeny line in the franchise record book.

He'll get over it. I think. Won't he?

There is, indeed, a season going on here. An eye-opening season. A season rich in promise, and perhaps getting richer.

Whatever numbers the Cowboys accrue in this season of resuscitation are relatively meaningless. The more poignant algebra is that the new coach seems to know what he's doing. The quarterback is happy. The running back has a bounce in his step again. The offense has found new life.

But, again, here was Gailey yesterday, having to say, "I talked to him. It was not easy on him. It was not easy on me. It was not easy on anybody.

"Who wants to be the offensive coordinator when a 117-game streak ends? But I was, and I'm sorry it had to end. I hate to see it come to an end."

And at that dramatic interlude, let's let it end, shall we?

The streak means nothing. The abrupt ending of it says nothing about Irvin, or about Irvin's bond with Aikman, or even about Irvin's role in the Cowboys' new offense.

"We're going to have weeks, unfortunately, when someone might not catch a pass," Gailey admitted. "Might go two weeks.

"Defenses say, 'We're not going to get beat by Michael Irvin or by someone else.' Where you get into trouble is when you can't get the ball to someone else.

"I'd like to get him the ball," Gailey continued, "but I wasn't going to put in six hitches behind the line of scrimmage, just to get him a pass."

Which, again, is exactly the point. Gailey didn't have to force-feed Irvin into the offense in Arizona last Sunday. The gratuitous slant pass that Aikman aimed at him on the Cowboys' final possession was dicey enough.

The Cardinals' defense, mostly Aeneas Williams, performed a Michael-ectomy. Judging, however, from the 35 points that the same defense allowed, I'd say the patient died.

Over the last three weekends, Ernie Mills has seven receptions. Irvin, Billy Davis and David LaFleur each have six. And the Cowboys are averaging 28.3 points a game.

Find the flying trash cans in that picture. I just don't see a need for any.

"Where the passes go are dictated by the defense, not by us," Gailey said.

It wasn't always that way around here, of course. It used to be, circa 1997, that if Irvin was double-teamed, Aikman tried to missile-shoot it in there anyway.

The message of last Sunday is that Aikman doesn't need to. While the defenses are escorting Michael, Emmitt Smith has run for 100 yards for the past three weeks.

Teams are confused. They appear to be using last year's game plans.

They think Emmitt doesn't want to run hard anymore. They think Nate Newton and Erik Williams are fat and overrated. They seem more than willing to make Mills and Billy Davis have to beat them.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys have a promising 7-3 season going on.

Putting it in terms that Irvin can understand, it could mean more jewelry. It could mean a ring.

The other thing - that was just a number. And he'll get over it. I think.

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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