Tuesday, September 22, 1998

Cowboys defeat Giants

By John Harper

New York Daily News

(KRT)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Jim Fassel got mad as hell and threatened jobs last week in an effort to shake up his lethargic team. So what's he do now?

Turns out Fassel hadn't seen anything yet. And he may well have more problems than any amount of anger can correct, after the Giants were embarrassed on Monday night in a 31-7 loss to the Cowboys at Giants Stadium.

Indeed, Fassel was more dumbfounded than anything when this one was over.

"I'm confused with where this team is mentally," he said. "We were totally out of sync and we continually made mistake after mistake after mistake. I'm mystified. I'm numb to it right now."

This time the anger was found in the locker room, where at least a few players questioned the effort and attitude of teammates.

"We need an attitude adjustment," said Michael Strahan. "We're not playing like we're hungry and we've got to address it as players. Coaches can only say so much. I know I'm going to say something about it this week."

Yes, emotions ran high among several players who were sickened by the Giants' performance on Monday night. This was far more humiliating than the 35-0 beating the Giants took from the Cowboys three years ago, the last time they had appeared on Monday Night Football.

The Cowboys, after all, aren't Super Bowl contenders any longer, and on Monday night they were missing quarterback Troy Aikman.

Yet they dominated the Giants, who were helpless on offense for most of the night as their record slipped to 1-2, while the Cowboys improved to 2-1.

Jason Garrett, the career backup from Princeton who replaced the injured Aikman, was far from dominant himself, but he hit a couple of big pass plays and got a lot of help from Deion Sanders.

Deion returned a punt 59 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, caught a 55-yard pass from Garrett to set up a third-quarter touchdown, and punctuated the rout with a 71-yard interception return for a touchdown with just over two minutes left in the game.

But as spectacular as Sanders' night was, the Giants were hurt far more by their own ineptness, both offensively and defensively. After all of Fassel's tough talk regarding his offensive line last week, it only seemed to get worse last night.

The Giants ran for only 56 yards, and were so ineffective that Fassel abandoned the ground game early.

At one point, the Giants had two straight illegal procedure calls against them and had five overall, three by left tackle Roman Oben.

And on this night the line couldn't protect Danny Kanell either, as he was sacked four times and knocked down on most every throw.

"That's the most I've ever been hit," Kanell said.

But perhaps worst of all, suddenly the Giants can't count on their vaunted defense this season. For the third straight game the secondary was burned by big plays, and Monday night they proved critical.

The turning point came with the score 7-7 late in the first half after Kanell had hooked up with Amani Toomer on a 36-yard touchdown pass to tie the game.

The crowd was roaring and the Cowboys, with the ball back, were faced with a third-and-10 from their 20-yard line.

But then Jason Garrett threw a deep slant to Billy Davis that turned into a stunning 80-yard touchdown, as safety Tito Wooten overran the play, missed Davis and knocked teammate Percy Ellsworth out of the way, giving Davis nothing but open field to the end zone.

That put the Cowboys ahead 14-7, and it was Wooten again who allowed Sanders to get behind him for the 55-yard gain in the third quarter on third-and-8 that set up the touchdown that put the game out of reach at 24-7.

Afterward, Wooten didn't make himself available in the locker room, but the big plays obviously touched a nerve with teammates.

"They couldn't run the ball if they wanted to," said a disgusted Strahan of the Cowboys. "But they threw it up there and somehow they made big plays. Maybe this game was too big for some people."

Suddenly, at 1-2, the good vibes from '97 are nowhere to be found. The coach is stunned and there are hints of friction in the locker room. It was that kind of night, as the Giants' return to Monday Night Football turned into disaster.

(c) 1998, New York Daily News.

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