Wednesday, September 11, 1996

Cowboys May Get Sneaky
By MIKE BALDWIN
The Daily Oklahoman
(Sept. 11, 1996)

IRVING, Texas - It's one of the oldest plays in football, yet it's been missing from the Dallas Cowboys playbook in recent years.

After failing to convert on third-and-short and goal-line situations in a 27-0 win over the Giants, Dallas coach Barry Switzer said he's talked to offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese about asking Troy Aikman to occasionally run a quarterback sneak.

"That will be our new big play, I guess. It's a percentage play. When you've got that far to go," Switzer said holding his hands a foot apart, "let's not hand it off seven yards deep. But you just can't call it. It's something you've got to work on. You have to practice it like any other play."

It's just another option. It's not as if the Cowboys will abandon the legendary "Load Left," the play that was stopped twice last December in frigid Philadelphia, the play where Switzer made his infamous fourth-and-inches decision.

Load Left is simple, smash-mouth football. Aikman hands off to Emmitt Smith who has made it a habit of scoring behind tackle Mark Tuinei and guard Nate Newton. But has Load Left run its course?

"Everyone in the world knows Load Left. They know it before we do. They know where we're going," Smith said. "That's just inviting somebody to come tear your head off, but we're supposed to block it anyway."

Ask any of the offensive players about Load Left and you get an immediate response.

"Even my wife puts her hands (over her face) when they call it," Newton joked. "It's a good play, but I guess everybody in the country knows we're going to run it. Before we even called the play, I heard (TV commentator) John Madden drawing up the play on the board. We made it into a helluva play, but we've got to do some other things."

It proved to be meaningless when the Dallas defense dominated to produce a methodical victory over the Giants, but the Cowboys realize their punch-it-in-for-a-TD philosophy isn't foolproof. Not after they failed to score on four consecutive running plays after having a first-and-goal from the New York 1.

"We've looked at this before. It isn't really like it just came to us. It's been a problem since that infamous fourth-and-one in Philadelphia," Aikman said. "We really need to look at this and why we're not able to convert. I don't know. Maybe we need to throw the ball more in those situations."

Switzer believes passing near the goal line and in short-yardage should be the last option.

"When you've got the ball where we had it, I'm from the old philosophy, let's run the football; four downs to get it in the end zone, I like our chances," Switzer said. "It's so hard to pass down there because there's no separation, it's so compact ... (On short yardage) maybe we should pass if we can't make (a yard)."

Even though Aikman may be asked to occasionally run a quarterback sneak, and the Cowboys may occasionally pass, the first option will be to do what they've always done - run it right at people.

"That's just what people do, what they've always done. You've got to hammer it in there," Switzer said. "It's just getting man on man and blocking. It's as simple as that."

The bottom line is the offensive line is still a little rusty. Center Ray Donaldson underwent off-season surgery to repair a broken ankle; tackle Erik Williams was limited in training camp following toe surgery, and Tuinei still isn't 100 percent after suffering a sprained knee in the preseason.

"We should start coming together," Newton said. "Everybody is starting to get into some type of football shape. We all did good off-season work but now everybody is getting into pounding shape."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

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