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Giants feast at Cowboys' plate of predictability

By Gil LeBreton

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Basking in rare victory, the New York Giants mused on Sunday about the punchless souls they had just beaten.

The Cowboys are not a team that likes to experiment, Giants safety Tito Wooten said.

"I think they have enough confidence in their team, in their skill people and in their offensive line, that they can do whatever they want to," Wooten said. "And in years past, that's been true."

Lately, however, in case you haven't noticed, the Cowboys can't seem to get their way.

Every other snap seems like it's third-and-seven. The officials keep calling penalties on them. And their flirtation with the end zone, frankly, isn't going all that well.

"Obviously, they've got some issues that they need to deal with," Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn observed after his team's 20-17 triumph. "It's kind of odd when you see a future Hall of Famer on the other side and he's not playing."

Yes, it is. But oddities have abounded this season at El Rancho Boomer.

When last we scrutinized the Cowboys' offense on Sunday at Giants Stadium, tackle Erik Williams was hurrying to the line of scrimmage, hoping that his team could squeeze one more field goal out of the team's bag of tricks.

As it turned out, this was not unlike watching the Queen Mary drift to its moorings. Because Williams didn't get downfield and set in time, quarterback Troy Aikman's attempt to spike the football and stop the clock went for naught.

Further oddities included young Sherman Williams periodically substituting for the aforementioned "future Hall of Famer," Emmitt Smith.

The move, let's say, failed to produce the desired results.

What we were left with on Sunday was an afternoon in which the Cowboys performed more capably than a week ago but, because of scattered transgressions, had less to show for it.

"Obviously," said Coach Boomer, Barry Switzer, "we had more to do with losing the game than probably they had with winning it."

Such a gracious thing to say. Five more minutes and Switzer might have started using the Giants and Iowa State in the same sentence.

The truth is, Sunday's game proved that you don't have to blitz two, four or five defenders to keep the Cowboys' offense out of the end zone. The Giants, for the most part, played Aikman and Co. straight. Their defensive game plan, they said, was to load up against the run and give Michael Irvin double attention, forcing the Cowboys to go elsewhere to beat them.

Like to receiver Anthony Miller, signed in June but, alas, still brandishing that new-car smell. The man can't get open. Or maybe Aikman is tired of looking.

The Giants blitzed some, but not as much as the Bears and the Eagles did to the Cowboys.

"Good, solid defenses don't have to blitz that much," guard Nate Newton said.

The grand effect was that Aikman frequently had ample time to throw, yet, with the Giants dropping seven or eight defenders into pass coverage, nowhere to throw it.

Aikman launched 52 passes, a career regular-season high. His 34 completions were his most ever, including playoffs.

Aikman said he didn't want to be critical of the New York defense, but, "I thought we did a nice job of putting together some drives. We moved the football. We just didn't get it into the end zone."

To get their two touchdowns, the Giants ran or passed exactly 3 yards. Their first touchdown came on Wooten's 61-yard interception return, and the second was goosed along by 30 yards in penalties. New York only gained 166 yards in offense.

That should win football games on most NFL game days. But the Cowboys' offense continues to shackle this team.

They can spread four receivers, as they occasionally did on Sunday. They can sub Williams for the $42 million Smith. They can even throw 52 times.

But if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck - chances are that it's still the Cowboys' offense.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to the Giants.

"We wanted to stop Irvin," Wooten said. "His natural position is the X receiver. He lines up away from the tight end.

"So whenever they start moving him around, putting him in the slot or something, we knew he wasn't out there to block. They were going to try to get him the ball. By watching film, we saw that."

On the pass that Wooten turned into a 61-yard interception return, Aikman was trying to squeeze the ball in to Irvin.

But this is what the Cowboys' offense has come to this season. Aikman, vainly searching for old buddy Irvin, while the running game moves in fits and lurches, all of it dysfunctional after the offense gets near the enemy's end zone.

It says something about the Giants' defense on Sunday. It probably says more, though, about the Cowboys and the early season horse pie that their offense has backed them into.

Issues abound, as even the winning Giants noticed.

(c) 1997, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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