Thursday, August 27, 1998

Cowboys storybook endings: Take your choice

By Jim Reeves

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

FORT WORTH, Texas - The upcoming Cowboys season is beginning to look a lot like one of those children's books in which the reader gets to pick from a couple of different endings.

There's the good ending, in which the hero prevails against evil and rides off into the sunset with the Lombardi Trophy snuggled close by his side.

And there's the bad ending, in which everybody has to line up and let Michael Irvin give them a haircut.

Just a little off the sides, Mike, and be careful of the ol' Adam's apple there, OK? Had that baby a long time now and would just as soon keep it a while longer, if you don't mind.

This is how iffy this season looks. It could go either way, and it could get there as fast as a pair of scissors can turn a harmless wrestling match into a national incident.

So you pick first.

Ending No. 1? Or ending No. 2?

Here's how it could play out:

Storyline No. 1

Coach Chan Gailey's offense slowly but surely gathers momentum as the season gets underway and, after a stuttering start that includes losses to Arizona and Denver in the first two games, the Cowboys catch fire.

First, they stun the Giants at the Meadowlands in the third week of the season, kicking off a stretch in which they win eight of nine games. A loss at Philadelphia on Nov. 2 is the only black mark in that run.

Quarterback Troy Aikman settles comfortably into Gailey's offense and runs it to perfection. The offensive line, particularly the left side where Larry Allen and a slimmed-down Nate Newton hold court, once again becomes one of the best units in the NFL. Young Flozell "The Hotel" Adams quickly emerges as one of the league's rising young players, pushing Everett McIver for playing time.

Michael Irvin flourishes in the multiple-set offense. Confused defenses can't seem to figure out where he's coming from, and veteran Ernie Mills heads a committee of wideouts, including Billy Davis and Jimmy Oliver, who give Aikman a variety of targets.

The team's two-headed tight end setup of David LaFleur and Eric Bjornson is equally effective, and LaFleur develops into one of the league's best run blockers at his position.

And run the football is what the Cowboys do, with relish and abandon. Spelled by Chris Warren, Emmitt Smith displays fresh legs and a rededication to his craft that vault him back among the league's elite runners.

Leon Lett and Chad Hennings anchor a defensive line that grows better each week. Rookie defensive end Greg Ellis gets his first sack in New York and takes off from there. The Cowboys' speedy linebacking corps covers the field from sideline to sideline and the secondary, led by Deion Sanders and Darren Woodson, sustains its reputation as one of the best in the league.

By Thanksgiving Day, with Minnesota coming to town, the Cowboys are 8-3 and have re-established themselves as Super Bowl contenders.

The Vikings bring them back to earth with a Turkey Day upset at Texas Stadium, but the Cowboys bounce back to win at New Orleans and Kansas City, beat Philadelphia at home and square off against the hated Redskins at Texas Stadium two nights after Christmas.

With the NFC East championship and the home-field advantage on the line, Aikman leads the Cowboys down the field late in the fourth quarter and hits Smith coming out of the backfield for the game-winning touchdown.

The playoffs and the Super Bowl beckon.

Storyline No. 2

On the second Sunday of the season, after the Cowboys' crushing, 38-3 loss at the hands of the Broncos in Denver, a grim-faced Gailey emerges from the locker room to announce that Aikman, who had been carried from the field on a stretcher after being sacked for the eighth time in the third quarter, will be lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

He also announces that Jason Garrett, mauled by Broncos' defenders in the fourth quarter, will be out indefinitely with a broken jaw.

The Cowboys' season rests in the hands of third-string quarterback Danny Gonzalez.

Shall we go on?

Hounded by double and triple coverage because none of the Cowboys' No. 2 receivers can get free, a frustrated Irvin gets into repeated fistfights with opposing players and is suspended by the league.

Smith fights a multitude of nagging injuries and rarely plays. Warren can't find running room behind an offensive line that has grown too old and too soft.

LaFleur loses his starting position because he can't hang onto the football, then regains it when Bjornson is lost with a succession of leg and ankle injuries.

The Cowboys' defense is repeatedly burned by deep passes because it is forced to adopt a gambling, blitzing style to get pressure on the quarterback.

The closest Ellis gets to an opposing quarterback is when he gathers autographs during pregame warmups.

Sanders abruptly leaves the team because he is "called" to the ministry.

Ten games into the season, with his team the laughingstock of the league at 1-9, Jerry Jones fires Gailey and makes himself coach. The Cowboys fail to win another game.

It's 1989 all over again.

Take your choice. Ending No. 1 or ending No. 2?

Me? I'm opting for something in between, but I'll let the Cowboys write the script for that one.

(Jim Reeves is a sports columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Write to him at: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, Texas, 76101.)

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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