[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Eagles defeat Cowboys

By Phil Sheridan

Knight-Ridder Newspaper

(KRT)

PHILADELPHIA - Their season was tied to the tracks again, another runaway train steaming toward it. The Last Gasp Desperadoes were riding to their own rescue, as usual.

This time, the Eagles won by a nose. The nose of one rain-soaked football, to be exact.

On fourth and 11, with the game and maybe much more on the line, Rodney Peete hit Irving Fryar for 11 yards, 1/2 inch. The play kept alive a drive that ended with rookie tight end Chad Lewis' throwing the ball high into the stands to celebrate another last-ditch retreat from the abyss.

Eagles 13, Cowboys 12. The Eagles won another game they had to win on Sunday. Fryar's catch was the turning point on the field. The pivotal moment might have come earlier, at halftime, when emotions boiled over in the Eagles' locker room.

When the yelling stopped, the Eagles knew what they had to do.

"We didn't know how we were going to get it done," said coach Ray Rhodes, his head freshly shaved for the occasion, "but we talked about finding a way, and we did. I don't think this game is a beauty pageant. When it turns into a beauty pageant, I've got to get out of it."

Now the Eagles are 4-4 and tied with Dallas and Washington for second place in the NFC East. Including last week's overtime victory over Arizona, the Eagles have a two-cardiac winning streak.

The offense took the final bow, but it was the Eagles' defense that starred in this show. The Eagles knocked Troy Aikman out of the game late in the first quarter. Rhett Hall recorded a career-high 3-1/2 sacks. William Thomas had two sacks. Most important, the Eagles kept the Cowboys out of the end zone.

There's a pattern emerging here, and it's not "Y Stick Nod," the route Lewis ran for the winner with 45 seconds left. All four of the Eagles' wins have come at Veterans Stadium. In three of them, they scored the winning points on their final possession. They didn't score more than 13 points in any of those wins. Twice, on Sunday and Sept. 7 against Green Bay, their defense didn't allow a touchdown.

"That's the kind of effort it's going to take," safety Mike Zordich said. "We just held an explosive offense to 12 points."

It wasn't easy, not the way the Eagles' special teams played. The Cowboys got the ball in excellent field position three times because of special-teams blunders - two long kickoff returns and one botched punt. All three times, the Eagles' defense held firm, forcing the Cowboys to settle for field goals.

"As a defense, we're getting pretty callous about being put into bad situations," Zordich said.

"We just try to limit points," Hall said. "If there's a turnover or situation where they're already in position for a field goal, our thing is to give them the three and that's it."

Hall played a brilliant game, with a little help from the Cowboys' game plan. On passing downs, Dallas moved right guard Larry Allen to left tackle, where he was supposed to neutralize Mike Mamula.

"That showed a lot of respect for Mamula," defensive tackle Jimmie Jones said. "It also left a lot of room for the inside guys."

As the quickest of those inside guys, Hall took advantage of the extra room. He was in on 11 tackles, including three on Emmitt Smith at or behind the line of scrimmage. Hall shared a sack of Aikman with Greg Jefferson, then battered 38-year-old backup Wade Wilson for three more.

But Hall, along with the rest of the defense, stood tallest when it mattered most. After a Chris Boniol field goal cut Dallas' lead to 9-6 in the fourth quarter, Herschel Walker returned a kickoff 49 yards to the Eagles' 34. It took the Cowboys two plays to get a first down at the Philadelphia 8-yard line.

"Things looked a little bleak for us right there," Hall said. "We just kept talking to each other, saying we had to hold them."

There followed a strange, penalty-filled sequence. A pass interference call on Brian Dawkins gave Dallas a first and goal at the 4. A hold call on center Clay Shiver moved the Cowboys back to the 14. After Smith ran down to the 6, an interference call on Michael Irvin pushed the Cowboys back to the 16.

Hall sacked Wilson on second down, then tackled Smith for a 2-yard loss on third down. After having a first down at the 4, the Cowboys had to kick a 43-yard field goal.

"That was good defense," Hall said.

The teams exchanged punts, and the Eagles started their final drive at their own 26 with 4 minutes, 20 seconds left. Until then, they had just 200 yards of total offense. The Eagles seemed to be hydroplaning on the slick turf, spinning their wheels but going nowhere.

And this drive looked like more of the same. After Kevin Turner took a short pass 27 yards to the Dallas 42, Ricky Watters lost a yard. Peete then threw two straight passes to Fryar, who dropped them both.

"I tried to run with the ball before I caught it," Fryar said. "On the slant, in particular, I knew I had room to go a long way. You can't do that."

Fryar hurt an ankle on the second drop. He stayed in the game, which now consisted of exactly one play. Fourth and 11 from the 43. Peete, who had been booed and taunted and almost yanked, threw. Fryar, with cornerback Kevin Smith right on him, went back for it.

One official marked the ball at the 32. Another stood closer to the 33. They conferred. The ball was placed. The measuring sticks were brought out. The chain was stretched to its full length.

"He made it by half an inch, if that," said Peete, who stood over the ball. "I knew it was close. I was trying to get (the official) to move it up a little, but he wouldn't do it."

The Eagles saw another big play by Fryar. The Cowboys were just seeing spots.

"They gave him an 11-yard spot on a 9-yard route," Kevin Smith said. "That's pretty good. He was short of the first down by a yard. If it's a close call, we're not going to get it."

Eagles fans will shed no tears. They remember the Cowboys' winning drive in Dallas. On a fourth-down pass, Charles Dimry was called for pass interference even though Mamula had tipped the ball.

After the first-down call, another pass to Turner and a couple of runs by Watters got the Eagles to the Dallas 8-yard line. Lewis, who caught his only other touchdown pass in Dallas, faked a cut to the right, zipped across the middle all alone, and caught Peete's perfect pass for the touchdown. He winged the ball into the stands.

"It'd be sweet to get it back someday," Lewis said ruefully after the game.

Boniol, who missed two first-half field goals, hit the extra-point for the lead. The Eagles' kickoff team made its first big stop of the game. And that was it. The Eagles had avenged their one-point loss in Dallas, which ended on that unforgettable botched field-goal attempt.

"That was haunting us," Zordich said. "That one's going to be with me personally for a long time. It hurt a lot. This helps, though."

At halftime, they were losing, 9-0. The way the offense was playing, it might as well have been 90-0. In the locker room, a handful of veterans took turns addressing the team. It was a harsh, loud and completely necessary tongue-lashing.

"It was a player thing," Zordich said. "Some things were said that I think were good for this football team."

When they returned to the locker room, they were a .500 team. Their season was saved. The Last Gasp Desperadoes had ridden again.

(c) 1997, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.phillynews.com/

Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.