Friday, November 27, 1998

Vikings win over Cowboys is sweeter for all the failures

By NICK GHOLSON

Scripps Howard News Service

IRVING, Texas - For more than a quarter of a century, the Minnesota Vikings have been haunted by the Dallas Cowboys.

It started way back in 1971 when Tom Landry's grinches stole the Vikings' Christmas. Then there was Hail Mary in 1975 followed by a dominating 23-6 NFC Championship Game two years later.

Tony Dorsett's 99-yard touchdown run - the longest in NFL history - came against the Vikings in 1983. Six years later, Minnesota figured all it needed was a running back like that to win a Super Bowl. The Vikings traded the farm to Dallas for Herschel Walker.

Minnesota never made it to the Super Bowl. Thanks to that trade, the Cowboys won three.

In fact, the Vikings didn't win one playoff game for the next eight eight years after trading for Walker, one of those losses a 40-15 embarrassment to the Cowboys right here. To make matters worse, Walker played for Dallas in that game.

So on Thursday, the Vikings could glance up at those five Super Bowl championship banners hanging in Texas Stadium and know that their franchise played a big part in every one of them.

It has been a tough 28 years for those living in that deep freeze they call Minnesota. That's what makes this 46-36 Thanksgiving Day win over Dallas so sweet for the Vikings franchise.

It signaled for certain that the balance of power in the NFC has moved to Minnesota. At 11-1, a two-time winner over Green Bay and now a decisive winner here on Turkey Day, these Vikings are, without a doubt, the conference's elite.

For now, the Cowboys will just have to live with the fact that they are one of the best teams in the NFL but a notch below Denver and Minnesota. The Broncos scored 42 points on Dallas' defense 11 weeks ago. The combined score of Dallas' two games against the league's two best teams is: Them 88, Dallas 59.

It would be easy to make excuses for the Cowboys' defense in this one. Deion Sanders didn't suit up, and he is the MVP of this defense. Randy Moss and Cris Carter aren't going to make Deion look silly all day like they did to poor Kevin Smith and Charlie Williams.

But again, what would have happened if Jake Reed could have played for the Vikings? And Robert Smith - their marquee running back - was averaging 5.8 yards per carry when he left the game with a sprained knee in the second quarter. What if Smith had played four quarters?

But there is a silver lining for the Cowboys in this loss. Minnesota's defense stinks. Dallas receivers were open all afternoon, and if eight passes hadn't been dropped, Troy Aikman may have thrown for 600 yards. He threw for 455 as it is.

Can a team with a defense this bad win a Super Bowl? Ask me that question 10 years ago and I'd say "No way." But in the NFL of the '90s, maybe it can happen.

When your offense can put 21 points on the board with three long touchdown passes in its first three possessions, you may be able to survive with a shaky defense.

Some media people suggested that scoring 36 points on the Vikings might be considered a moral victory for Dallas. Maybe you can sell that in Atlanta or Arizona, but not around these parts.

"Moral victories went out the window back in 1989," Aikman said.

"We came into this game wanting to win, and we didn't get the job done. If we can leave from this thing not being satisfied, then I think we can be a good football team."

They'd be a better football team with Randy Moss on their side. But what NFL team wouldn't. Jerry Jones, Chan Gailey and Larry Lacewell aren't the only guys in this league looking foolish for passing him up in this year's draft. Twenty names were called out before the Vikings latched onto Moss.

Problem is the Cowboys went into the draft desperately needing a second receiver to play opposite Michael Irvin. Ernie Mills, Billy Davis and even now, Pat Jeffers have all shown they can do the job, but when you stand those three up against Moss, they look like Mo, Larry and Curly.

Moss caught just three passes against the Cowboys, but those three catches totaled 163 yards and all three went for touchdowns. The rookie wide-out also set up another touchdown by drawing a 55-yard interference penalty against Williams, Deion's stand-in.

"Earlier in the year we were talking about him being the rookie of the year. Right now he might just be the best receiver in the game. He's the real deal," said former Cowboys' wide receiver Drew Pearson, who himself was the real deal around here for 11 years.

If the Cowboys had Deion in the lineup Thursday, Randall Cunningham wouldn't have feasted on the Dallas secondary. But I'm not sure the final outcome wouldn't have been the same.

But if Moss had been wearing a star on his helmet in this game, the outcome would definitely have been different.

Moss wasn't even born until two years after Hail Mary, so he's too young to know the history of these two teams and have experienced the nightmares that Dallas has caused in Minnesota.

But today he is helping change all that. Thanks to him, the road to the Super Bowl will be icy as it passes right through Minnesota.

(Nick Gholson writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas.)