Wednesday, September 17, 1997

Cowboy offense still not working well

By Lance Fleming / Abilene Reporter-News

Lost in the euphoria and disbelief of not only the Cowboys' win over Philadelphia but how they won Monday night was this fact:

The Cowboys' offense still isn't clicking.

For whatever reason the Cowboys still not only have trouble scoring in the red zone, they're also having some trouble picking up the blitz and running the football.

Which makes you wonder. Was the 37-7 rout of Pittsburgh an aberration, or were the Cowboys' last two games -- a 25-22 loss to Arizona and the 21-20 win over Philadelphia -- the kind of offensive games this team will play all season?

"Well, the name of the game is to win," Troy Aikman said. "But I think we all realize that if we're going to achieve what we want to achieve, we're going to have to get much better offensively."

First-year kicker Richie Cunningham kicked five field goals Monday night, giving him 13 on the season, including five in each of the last two games. He leads the NFL in scoring (44 points), but that only means that the Cowboys can't punch the ball into the end zone for points.

An interesting side note is that before the Cowboys scored the go-ahead touchdown with 47 seconds left, they hadn't scored a touchdown on Monday Night Football since Emmitt Smith scored on a 5-yard run in the second quarter against Philadelphia last Sept. 30. Since then the Cowboys had kicked 15 straight field goals.

Blame for the Cowboys' failure to score touchdowns instead of field goals can be spread around to the entire offense. But the belief in this corner is two-fold:

First, the Cowboys' offensive linemen are growing older and slower and don't fire off the line like they have in the past. In fact, most of them show more enthusiasm running through the pre-game introduction line than they do in the actual game.

Add to that the fact that Emmitt Smith still doesn't look himself following off-season ankle surgery and you have a running game on the decline.

And second, offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese seems to be in a two-year rut calling plays, and it seemed to reach a zenith against the Eagles. Now, I know Zampese is one of the great offensive minds in the long history of this league, and I know that he directed the Cowboys' offense when it hummed like an engine in 1995. But I also know that a little more imagination is needed right now.

A few incidences from Monday's game stand out.

To wit:

Late first half. Dallas with the ball at the Philly 31-yard line. Two straight passes from Aikman to Anthony Miller down the left sideline, neither of which falls into Miller's hands. Yes I know that there are different reads and options on every pass play, but Aikman never even looked in any other direction than Miller. When it fails the first time, why not try something over the middle of the field, making sure they get the ball into the end zone or thrown away?

On their first drive of the second half, the Cowboys moved crisply to a first-and-10 from the Eagle 11-yard line before the drive stalled. On first down, Smith ran for one yard and Daryl Johnston caught a pass for three yards. Then on third-and-6 Aikman had to throw the ball away, setting up Cunningham's third field goal.

Early in the fourth quarter the Cowboys moved to first-and-10 from the Eagle 14 before running Smith two times and picking up eight yards. Then on third-and-2 from the 6, Zampese calls a pass that Aikman again ends up throwing away. The Eagles were coming on the play, so why not see if Smith can't break something up the middle on a draw play? Remember that play, Cowboy fans? It used to work with some regularity.

On their next-to-last drive, the Cowboys moved down the field via the pass, eventually reaching first-and-goal from the Eagle 10-yard line. On first down Aikman hit Johnston for seven yards, moving the ball to the 3-yard line.

But Smith lost 1 yard on a second down run, and was stopped for no gain on third down. With the Eagles obviously ganged up at the line of scrimmage to stop the run -- they even brought in their goal-line package -- where was the play fake and throw to the tight end? Or why not roll Aikman out left off a fake right?

And on the final drive, the Cowboys' first two plays were incomplete passes, so on third-and-10 Smith gets the handoff and sweeps left for five yards to set up fourth-and-5. Boos ensued.

The Cowboys eventually got the first down, thanks to a pass interference call on Charles Dimry, and even that shouldn't have happened because Eagle defensive end tipped the ball before it got to Stepfret Williams, which means Dimry's play was a legal one.

Dallas went on to win the game from there, but not too many of their offensive players were proud of it.

"I don't know what our problem is," said an obviously frustrated Smith. "As players we have to execute the plays that are called, and we haven't done a good job of executing.

"But it really was ugly offensively," he said. "We don't have a lot to be proud of. You can say we won, but that's about it. We'll take this week off and go out and get a lot of work where we need it."

Maybe the first order of business should be to roust Zampese from the rut he's in.