Tuesday, August 18, 1998

Cowboys a cut below against Patriots in Mexico City

By Michael Katz

New York Daily News

(KRT)

MEXICO CITY - The Dallas Cowboys won't be shifting their franchise to Cut 'n' Shoot, Texas, after all.

The way they played Monday night, before the second-largest crowd in NFL history, they might be heading for Timbuktu.

If the Cowboys don masks, it won't be because they have a higher crime rate than the world's most populous city, although they certainly weren't recognizable as an NFC East power, getting thoroughly trounced by the Patriots, 21-3.

All the scoring was done in the first half, leaving 106,424 fans marveling at the largest 20th-century structure without an elevator, Azteca Stadium, which set the NFL record of 112,376 when the Oilers beat the Cowboys in the 1994 preseason.

The Cowboys, and especially Michael Irvin, the wide receiver who has given new meaning to the word "cut," were wildly cheered when they ran onto the field. But the locals were booing "Los Vaqueros" by the end of the first half.

By the fourth quarter, the Cowboys were no longer Mexico's team. The crowd was cheering New England.

It could have been a lot worse. Two other long TDs in the second quarter by the Pats were nullified by penalties. In the game's first seven minutes, Drew Bledsoe missed two wide-open receivers for what probably were touchdowns, and a 37-yard field-goal attempt was missed in the fourth.

Three of the Cowboys' five first-half "primo y 10's" were made in the final minute, long after Troy Aikman was removed by Chan Gailey, the first-year head coach who has more to worry about than the July 29 "horseplay" in which Irvin allegedly stabbed lineman Everett McIver with a scissors during an argument about a haircut.

After a brief investigation, the NFL announced last night that McIver's two-inch cut did not violate the league's "anti-violence" policy.

On the flip side, coach Pete Carroll of New England found it "encouraging that we got down the field and into the end zone a few times."

The AFC East favorites have been in search of a running back to replace Curtis Martin, who ran off to rejoin Bill Parcells with the Jets. With the No. 1 draft choice, Robert Edwards, sidelined by a groin injury, Sedrick Shaw scored twice, from nine yards and one yard out.

But the Pats rushed for only 101 yards, and it looks like Bledsoe will be the New England offense. The Pats showed their solid defense against a Cowboy team resting Emmitt Smith and Chris Warren.

Marco Martos, the first Mexican to play in the NFL's European league, entered the game as a Cowboy receiver with only 1:04 left in the scoreless second half. He

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