Sunday, September 20, 1998

Cowboys injury smitten again

By Jean-Jacques Taylor

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

DALLAS -- The Cowboys' defensive line took another hit Friday when a MRI revealed Antonio Anderson will require surgery on Saturday to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Anderson, who has been playing nose tackle and end, is expected to miss three to four weeks.

Starting defensive tackle Leon Lett (sprained knee) and nose guard Chad Hennings (sprained ankle, knee and wrist) already are hampered and could see limited playing time Monday against New York.

"Leon looked better than he did yesterday," Cowboys' Coach Chan Gailey said, "so I hope he could play more plays (about 18) than he did last week."

Anderson injured the knee during practice Thursday.

Gailey said he wasn't sure if or when the Cowboys would add another lineman. On Monday, Gailey said the Cowboys would use a seven-man rotation.

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BETTER TD SUCCESS:

The Cowboys ranked 29th in the NFL last season in touchdown percentage inside their opponents' 20.

After two games, they're doing much better.

Dallas has scored four touchdowns in eight possessions for a 50 percent success rate. Last season, Dallas converted just 19 of 54 possessions inside its opponents' 20.

Coach Chan Gailey said the ratio would be higher, but last week Dallas twice settled for field goals after Jason Garrett had led them inside the Denver 20.

"We still have not done as well as we want," Gailey said, "and I could give you some reasons and excuses for the problems. We missed a couple of things with Jason that we wouldn't miss this week because he has had practice time."

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SOFT TOUCH:

Michael Irvin said Troy Aikman throws perfect passes that have a tight spiral.

Jason Garrett, he said, also throws an easy ball to catch.

"Troy is incredible," Irvin said. "Nobody throws a ball as good as he does. It's perfect. It doesn't have that funny downward spiral some people have.

"Jason gets the ball there with the nose up, which makes it easy to catch because you don't have to guess whether it's going to take off on you or spin downward."

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GARRETT IMPROVING:

Coach Chan Gailey said quarterback Jason Garrett is getting better every day.

Gailey said Garrett has made few mental mistakes this week.

"The guy is practicing pretty well," Gailey said. "The few mental mistakes and missed reads he has are because he hasn't seen some things as much as Troy (Aikman) has.

"I guess we just have to keep him out of those types of situations as much as possible against New York."

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(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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