Monday, November 23, 1998

Cowboys need Jimmy Johnson's penchant for the dramatic

By Jim Reeves

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas - Jimmy would have slapped them naked.

And it would have been the absolute right thing to do.

No breathing a sigh of relief and counting our blessings. No bottom-line rhetoric about a win, is a win, is a win.

This was one of those games when old friend Jimmy Johnson would have used the media as if we were his personal e-mail service, carrying The Word directly to his players.

The Word would have come complete with fire and brimstone and maybe an asthma field reference or two.

That's how Jimmy would have celebrated Sunday's slap-happy 30-22 Dallas Cowboys' victory against the Seattle Seahawks.

He'd have had somebody's head on a platter.

That is not how Chan Gailey, who now resides in the office that Johnson once called his own, does things, you understand.

The Cowboys' first-year head coach sees a team that is 8-3 and smiles, yes, with a sigh of relief.

"The bottom line is to win the game," Gailey said after the Cowboys survived a rash of key injuries, a fourth-quarter comeback attempt by the Seahawks and 15 penalties for 129 yards.

That's right, "15 penalties for 129 yards!"

Never mind that Emmitt Smith and Chris Warren combined for 145 yards rushing, or that quarterback Troy Aikman completed 28 passes for almost 300 yards. Forget that Michael Irvin caught eight passes for 98 yards or that 10 different players caught passes.

You think Jimmy would have found any solace in that?

Oh no, Jimmy would have met the media after the game with his lips pursed tightly, an eyelid twitching, his cheeks flushed. Some poor fool, probably a radio guy, would have ventured a general opening question and gotten his head bitten off.

Someone else, probably a TV guy, would have eventually pressed a little too hard and Jimmy would have snapped, "That's it," and bolted.

This, of course, would have been Jimmy's second performance, his first having come a few minutes earlier when he lit into the players in a brief and fiery postgame tirade. He loved that ploy, catching them with a profanity-laced harangue just as they were congratulating themselves on a hard-fought victory.

But this is Gailey's team now.

"Are we perfect?" Gailey asked. "No, we're not perfect but we're winning, and if we ever put all our phases together, we've got a chance to be a pretty good football team."

I may gag the next time I hear somebody say that.

We're 12 weeks into the season and the 10-1 Minnesota Vikings will be ringing the doorbell at Texas Stadium in three days.

Knock, knock. Anybody home?

Guess who's here for Thanksgiving dinner?

Twelve weeks into the season and the Cowboys are showing all the concentration of a 3-year-old fresh off a cotton candy binge.

"I'll probably get 400 questions about penalties again this week," Gailey said, which is only slightly more than the number of flags that were flying at the Cowboys on Sunday.

There were the usual litany of false starts, defensive holding, personal fouls, etc., but the Cowboys mixed in some rare ones, like Warren, who wasn't even on the field, bumping the side judge "in the white area" (15 yards, unsportsmanlike conduct).

"They're dumb penalties," Gailey said, "And that's what you can't do. You've got to avoid the dumb ones.

"I'm not going to institute penalty laps and those kinds of things at this time of year. We've got to handle this and be mature about it."

The Cowboys are "thisclose" to being a very, very good football team; the kind of team that could even surprise the Vikings on Thanksgiving Day.

Only, however, if they can get some people healthy and eliminate the mistakes that keep dragging them back toward mediocrity.

"If I could put my finger on it, I'd solve it," Gailey said, "but it's a few different things here and there all the time and that's what we have to stop.

"But these guys are smart. When I talk to them about it -1/4RMonday-1/4S, they'll know."

Ah, I get it. Give them 12 hours and, after they come in Monday feeling pretty good about themselves, "then" slap 'em silly.

There might be a little J.J. in our boy Chan, after all.

I think he's about to get their attention.

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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