Down to the Wire One More Time : Sheppard’s Tactics Land Cowboy Receiver on Irvin’s Most-Wanted List

The Rams weren’t offering any bounties Sunday, but it didn’t take Dallas wide receiver Derrick Sheppard long to make their most-wanted list.

Sheppard was taking the legs out from under cornerback LeRoy Irvin, and the Ram veteran took exception, drawing a personal-foul penalty for retaliating on the third play from scrimmage. Sheppard continued the tactic on almost every running play.

“Sheppard’s a cheap-shot artist,” Irvin said. “He was cutting me under, taking my legs out. He wasn’t man enough to hit me in the chest. And what do we need that fighting for if the play’s not even going on?

“The guys on the sideline saw what he was doing to me and they were gunning for him. They weren’t gonna cheap-shot him, but they were gunning for him.”

Midway through the second quarter, Sheppard went down with a strained knee after returning a punt and didn’t return.

“(The injury) was pay back,” Irvin said. “If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman, who had thrown only four touchdown passes all season, doubled that number with four more Sunday. He completed 19 of 34 passes for 179 yards. He was intercepted once.

“I think he showed today that he will be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL one day,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “He’s a fine football player on his way to becoming a great football player.”

Aikman, however, was more concerned with the Cowboys’ offensive mistakes than the success of the passing game.

“I thought we were able to throw the ball fairly well,” he said. “They dropped off deep and we settled for a lot of underneath stuff.

“But we were in a position to win the game and let it get away. I’m really upset about that. It was all our own offensive mistakes.”

Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson, when asked Wednesday what it would take for the Cowboys to beat the Rams:

“We’d have to play error-free football and the Rams would have to help us.”

The Rams certainly held up their end of the bargain, but miscues did in Dallas Sunday.

The Rams made the most of the Cowboys’ four turnovers--three fumbles and an interception--scoring a touchdown after each miscue.

“The turnovers killed us,” Johnson said. “That’s the one thing we couldn’t afford to do against a team like the Rams.

“We spotted them 14 points and then outscored them, 31-7, for almost three full quarters. But you can’t turn the ball over three times on your side of the 50 and expect to win.”

Linebacker Eugene Lockhart, who had nine tackles Sunday, has set a Cowboy record for tackles in a season with 176. Bob Breunig had 167 in 1979.

“It was a special day for me, but it would have been that much better if we had won the game,” Lockhart said. “Still, this shows that we can play with anybody in the NFL, when we do the things we have to do.

“I’ve got to give the defensive line a lot of credit. All year long, they’ve kept guys off me and I’ve just been able to do what I do best, and that’s run and hit.”

The Cowboys are 1-12, but they haven’t gotten used to losing. Safety Bill Bates’ postgame soliloquy is proof:

“We kicked their butts up and down that field until the last couple of minutes, and then we come in here and we’re looking at each other, asking, ‘What the heck happened?’

“Nobody believes we got beat. We lost the game. I don’t care if you’re Eric Dickerson or just a nobody, you’ve got to realize when it’s your time to win the game, win the game, don’t let the other team win the game. We let the other team win. We did not lose. We let them win.”

Whatever you say, Bill.

There is patience in waiting. Ask Ron Brown, whose only catch of the game was a 39-scoring pass on a route where he was not the primary receiver.

Quarterback Jim Everett explained:

“That’s what Ernie (Zampese) wants to do every time you run a route. Anticipate the ball coming to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re not primary and you haven’t got it the last 20 times on that route. It might be the 21st time we need it.”

Could the Rams have possibly taken the Cowboys lightly?

“You try to work hard and not think about their record,” tackle Irv Pankey said. “But I’ve been around long enough where I’ve seen it happen to us many times.”

Times staff writer Chris Dufresne contributed to this story.