Tuesday, November 17, 1998

Erratic turn doesn't mean Cowboys are any worse

By Frank Luksa

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - Defining this Dallas Cowboys team is like fishing for the big one that gets away. Just when you think something special is hooked, the line goes limp. You are left to tell the story of a once-perfect moment spoiled by unaccountable failure.

The Cowboys cannot be accused of letting the big one get away Sunday against Arizona. They reeled in a 35-28 victory. So they didn't fail. What they did was lure even the casual eye into believing the team had reached a desirable juncture in its development.

The tease lay in thinking the Cowboys had reached coach Chan Gailey's cherished goal of consistent performance. Well, it hasn't. This was where the whopper threw the hook, and the team wound up indicted on a charge of relative failure.

For the first 30 minutes, the Cowboys were all-dominate and all-powerful in racing to a 28-0 lead. Everything worked to perfection. Offense flowed like a mighty river. Defense covered a fumble, stole a Jake Plummer pass and set up two touchdowns. It couldn't get better.

This had the look of long-sought mesh. A team peaking. A game from which the Cowboys sprung higher and delivered a threat that they are capable of exciting achievement. One of those watershed events that upon future review would leap to memory as a season-turning outcome.

But it wasn't. The season apparently will continue on its erratic course. Defense beats the New York Giants one week, 16-6. Offense wins the next start with 35 points. Sunday against Seattle is anyone's guess, including Gailey.

The usual sweet smell of victory bore a disturbing scent of spoilage. No one threw roses at the feet of the winners. They had to dodge stinkweed after Plummer passed them silly for 465 yards one yard short of the single-game opponent's record set by Billy Wade of Chicago in 1962.

Yet pause to consider what the Cowboys have done in the face of anticipation. They're 7-3, lead the NFC East by two games and hold every tie-breaker advantage, which calculates to an actual three-game bulge. Nor does it matter a pfennig if 7-3 occurred through mirrors, magic or default.

A team under new coaching management, already one game up on its 6-10 finish a year ago and destined by majority forecast to be no better than 9-7 this season is doing nicely. It's likely doing the best it can.

"You don't go from 8-8 or 9-7 to 13-3 and win every game, 56-0. It doesn't happen that way," Gailey said Monday. "You have to win tough games when your offense struggles or your defense struggles. You have to find different ways to win. That's part of the growth process of a team."

The Cowboys mostly win the hard way but sometimes offer a 34-0 blowout of Philadelphia for variety. Whereupon flash opinion is again distorted by expectation they will play at that lofty level. Such blind faith requires an inflated view of their actual strength.

Few if any rival will beat the Cowboys running. They own too much defensive speed for that to happen. But a passer like Plummer, arm-accurate on his best day and youth-nimble afoot, means trouble.

Unease lingers over how the Cowboys defensed Plummer when they knew his only option was to pass after falling behind, 28-0. They did a rum job of it even with the further advantage of working against Arizona's weakest link its offensive line. The combination should have resulted in a sack-fest.

Plummer tossed 56 passes. Add three scrambles and that made 59 times he faded to throw. The Cowboys' rush made only three take-downs, a feeble percentage that drew hostile fire from critics as unacceptable.

Gailey didn't see it that way, and he's an honest sort not prone to cover up. He did ponder how a lousy Arizona line could pass-block 59 times and never rate a holding flag. Gailey meantime saw an adequate rush defeated by Plummer's agility.

"I don't know how many quarterbacks we'll play who can move like he did," Gailey said. "The guy just scrambled and slipped out of the pocket. Did we have enough sacks? No.

"But that guy is in the tub today. He took some hard, tough blows."

Nor was Gailey alarmed over his defense beyond thinning of its ranks through injuries and inability to create a turnover when Deion Sanders wasn't on the field. A unit that has flopped only twice in 10 games Denver and Arizona has earned his overall confidence.

Gailey is a big picture type. Winning without being admired for crisp victory doesn't bother the coach.

"Learn and go on," he shrugged. "I like that better than learning from a loss."

(Frank Luksa is a sports columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Write to him at: Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265.)

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.