Houston Finds a Way to Win One On the Road : Oilers Come From Behind to Hand Cowboys Their Ninth Straight Loss, 25-17

The Houston Oilers, who have had their problems winning on the road, shook off their aversion for travel on Thanksgiving just in time to inflict a ninth consecutive loss on the downtrodden Dallas Cowboys.

Houston’s hard-earned, 25-17 victory gave the Cowboys their 11th loss of the season, tying a club record.

The Oilers had four road losses this year and were on the verge of getting another one before Warren Moon hit Drew Hill with a 5-yard scoring pass in the fourth quarter.

Moon had to chew his team out to get them going.

“It’s awfully good to finally win a game on the road,” Moon said. “When you get to this time of the year, you have to count on something besides the home crowd to fire you up.”

So Moon took it upon himself to plant a spark in the team.

“I had a few players on my team mad at me for a while,” he said. “I felt we came out flat and I said so on the field. I don’t usually do things like that but I could see us flat and so I said something today.

“Maybe some of the guys thought it would be like preseason (Houston beat Dallas, 54-10) coming in here, but I knew it wouldn’t be like that. When you’re playing a team that’s down and you get off to a good start it gives them too much of a lift. That’s when I noticed I had to say something. Dallas played us tough and I knew they would.”

Houston Coach Jerry Glanville said he saw the dangers. “We ran into a trap today,” Glanville said. “Dallas was emotionally high. We were flat coming out. We should have known Dallas didn’t want to get embarrassed at home.”

Dallas Coach Tom Landry said a moral victory didn’t count much.

“My Thanksgiving was not too good,” Landry said. “It went their way in the fourth quarter. Houston has a good football team.

“One play killed us, that kickoff return we fumbled. We still had a chance until that happened. It seems like we just can’t make the big play.

“We did a good job most of the time, but they made some third-down plays that really hurt us.

“I didn’t want just a moral victory. We at least finally played a first half.”

Houston improved its record to 9-4, just a half-game behind Cincinnati in the AFC Central. Dallas tied a record set by the expansion Cowboys, who were 0-11-1 in their first season in 1960.

The Cowboys (2-11), behind Herschel Walker and Steve Pelluer, gave the heavily favored Oilers a scare before Moon provided a steadying hand.

Pelluer, making his first start in three games, fooled the Oilers in the third period by rolling around right end from 3 yards away to give Dallas a 17-10 lead.

Tony Zendejas’ 49-yard field goal cut the deficit to 17-13. Then Moon hit a third-down, 14-yard pass to Leonard Harris to keep alive the drive to what proved to be the game-winning score with 11:53 left.

Zendejas, who missed the extra point, then kicked field goals of 47 and 22 yards to widen the lead.

The first half was a marked improvement for the Cowboys, who had been outscored 67-6 in the first two quarters of the last three games.

Dallas tied the Oilers 10-10 at halftime on Roger Ruzek’s 29-yard field goal with 7 seconds left.

The Cowboys stunned the Oilers by taking the opening kickoff and driving 80 yards in 13 plays, with Walker diving over a pile of players from a yard out for the touchdown.

Zendejas’ 28-yard field goal and Mike Rozier’s 12-yard run off a deep snap in the spread formation got the Oilers on the board in the second quarter.

Rozier’s scoring run came with 1:11 left in the first half but Cornell Burbage’s 51-yard kickoff return set up Ruzek’s field goal.

Houston scored the winning touchdown after free safety Jeff Donaldson picked off a Pelluer pass which had hit Michael Irvin’s hands.

After Zendejas’ 47-yard field goal with 4:32 to go, Burbage fumbled the ensuing kickoff to Al Smith and the Oilers got another field goal from Zendejas to push the lead to eight points.

The Cowboys made a critical error that cost them a chance for a touchdown late in the first half. With second and 10 from the Oilers 11, the Cowboys had to use their last time out because tight end Thornton Chandler was missing from the huddle.

With no timeouts left, the Cowboys opted for Ruzek’s field goal to tie the game.

On Dallas’ go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, Pelluer hit three long passes--18 yards to Chandler and 16 and 30 yards to Ray Alexander.

Walker was held to 69 yards in 22 rushes by the tough Houston defense.