Wednesday, December 30, 1998

Cowboys fear a third-time charm

By David Moore

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas -- The Cowboys will be cautious over the next few days. You will hear them adopt a stance that it's difficult to beat any team three times in one season.

That's what they will say even though it isn't necessarily true.

Saturday's wild-card game at Texas Stadium will be the third time around for the Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals this season. Dallas won the first two games by a combined score of 73-38. The Cowboys have not trailed in eight quarters of football.

This is the where the players invoke the "three times is hard" theory.

"It does make it harder," Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith said. "You know each other so well. It's a short week, too."

Despite Smith's claim, it's difficult to imagine that Dallas has any doubts about its ability to beat Arizona. This is, after all, a franchise that went more than six years in the 1990s without a victory over the Cowboys. Dallas has put the Cardinals in their losing place 16 of the last 17 times they have met.

Strong safety Darren Woodson concedes the Cowboys should, "feel like we have the upper hand going into this game" before quickly retreating behind the company line.

"It's hard to beat a team three times," Woodson said. "We really know each other now. There are only so many plays you can run out of so many formations."

This isn't an uncommon phenomenon. Green Bay and New England faced teams they had beaten twice during the regular season in last year's playoffs. Not only did the Packers and Patriots win, but they each rolled up their largest margin of victory in the series.

Cowboys coach Chan Gailey has been there. He was the receivers coach on a Pittsburgh team that swept Cleveland during the regular season in '94, then blew the Browns away, 29-9, in the playoffs.

All told, a team that swept the regular-season series has gone on to face that opponent in the playoffs 11 times since the two leagues merged in 1970. The team that won the first two games picked up a third victory seven times.

"Any time you've played somebody and beaten them twice, you understood what it took to beat them," Gailey said. "I think this is a little unusual because it's so spread out....It's not like they've been close together."

The Cowboys opened the season against Arizona on Sept. 6 with a 38-10 bang. The two teams met 10 weeks later in Tempe, Ariz., where the Cowboys were forced to hang on for a 35-28 win.

"There are different dynamics with every team that you face like that," Gailey said. "One team thinks they have the answer, and the other team thinks they've finally figured it out. That's the way it goes.

"It's a different situation every time you go into it. You never know."

You never do. The second half of the game between the Cowboys and Cardinals on Nov. 15 drives home that point.

Dallas owned a 28-7 lead entering the third period, giving the Cowboys a 66-17 edge over the Cardinals in the first six quarters of the series. That's when quarterback Jake Plummer began to stir up some dust in the desert, throwing for 314 of his 465 yards in the final two quarters.

The Cowboys clung to victory only after Plummer's pass to Rob Moore in the end zone the Cardinals maintain to this day cornerback Kevin Smith should have been called for pass interference fell incomplete.

Denver's Terrell Davis (191 yards rushing, three touchdowns) and Minnesota's Randy Moss (163 yards receiving, three touchdowns) may differ, but Plummer arguably had the best individual performance against the Cowboys this season.

"He threw for, what, 314 yards in the second half," Gailey said. "I hope that is as good as somebody can ever do. I'd be disappointed if I thought there was somebody who could do better than that out there."

Containing Plummer is the defensive focal point for Dallas entering Saturday's game. If it doesn't, the third time could prove to be the charm for Arizona.

"It's going to be hard," guard Nate Newton said. "It's always hard.

"Plus, Jake is getting better."

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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