Cowboys Go From Bad to Worst : Giants’ 30-13 Victory Gives Dallas First 0-4 Mark Since 1963

With the Dallas Cowboys at their worst, the last thing they needed was to see the New York Giants at their best.

Phil Simms threw two touchdown passes Sunday and the Giants trounced the Cowboys, 30-13, for their best start since 1968.

The Cowboys (0-4), in their first season under Coach Jimmy Johnson, who replaced Tom Landry--the only coach Dallas had in its first 29 seasons--are off to their worst start since 1963.

Dallas also lost rookie quarterback Troy Aikman for four to six weeks with a broken index finger on his left hand that he suffered during a first-quarter scramble. Aikman will undergo surgery today.

The Giants (4-0) never had it so easy in Texas Stadium, where they are only 5-12.

“That was our second division win on the road, and, fellas, you know how hard those are to come by,” Parcells said. “We’ve had a nice first quarter of the season. But this is a marathon, this isn’t a sprint. My team has improved over the first month.

“We’ve had enough adversity here that we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew it would be a struggle. We were less than perfect, but we’re happy we got out of here with a win. We had to take them seriously.”

Simms, who completed 14 of 19 passes for 211 yards, passed for 42 yards on a 65-yard drive that Ottis Anderson capped with a one-yard scoring run that gave the Giants a 10-3 lead in the second quarter.

Then Simms hit Dave Meggett on a 33-yard scoring pass with 1:12 left in the half. After the Cowboys ran three plays and punted, Simms’ 21-yard pass to Mark Bavaro positioned New York for Raul Allegre’s 32-yard field goal with three seconds left in the half to make it 20-6.

Dallas’ points came on two field goals by Roger Ruzek.

Simms scrambled for 15 yards to set up a 13-yard scoring pass to Bavaro in the third quarter.

“It seemed like a really close game, then all of a sudden I looked up and it was 30-6,” Simms said.

Steve Walsh, who replaced Aikman, threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Herschel Walker with 2:03 left. It was the first touchdown scored by the Cowboys’ offense since the second quarter against Atlanta two weeks ago.

Johnson branded his players as “awful” after last week’s 30-6 loss to Washington and said he hoped they remembered the whipping the rest of their playing days.

This time, he wasn’t so harsh.

“I told the players I really feel like they showed they have something inside them,” Johnson said. “They hung in there. We’ll lose some more games but we’re making progress. At times, we had eight rookies in the game.”

Walsh saw Aikman’s injury as an opportunity to show he can play.

“That’s life in the NFL,” he said. “Fortunately for Troy, it was on his left hand so he’ll be back in a month.”