Eagles Gun Down Cowboys : Philadelphia: Maybe no bounties, but there are plenty of penalties on both sides.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was there, saying there is no better way to spend a Sunday than at a game. His presence reminded everyone about charges of bounties offered on Thanksgiving day.

But, no, said Tagliabue. He wasn’t checking on the boys.

The officials did the checking. While the Eagles were beating the Cowboys, 20-10, the teams were assessed 21 penalties for 177 yards.

The only flag the officials didn’t throw was after the final whistle blew and the fans pelted departing Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson with snowballs.

The official penalty yardage didn’t include five unnecessary roughness penalties because they were offsetting.

Tagliabue and Art McNally, supervisor of officials, attended the game two weeks after the cash-bounty controversy started by Johnson following the Eagles’ 27-0 victory in Dallas.

Johnson charged Eagle Coach Buddy Ryan with placing cash bounties on Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman and kicker Luis Zendejas.

After a two-week investigation, the commissioner dismissed the charges as unfounded.

“There was no talk of bounties during the game,” Philadelphia’s Reggie White said of the roughly played game. “That’s a bunch of bull. I’m tired of talking about it.

“People started throwing snowballs and guys on both sides of the ball got frustrated.”

Aikman did not feel the Eagles delivered “any cheap shots. That (hard hitting) is football. If you can’t cope with that you shouldn’t be playing the game.”

Said Ryan: “You have to play that way. I thought Dallas played a pretty good game.”

Johnson said his team just tried to win, not concentrate on the other stuff.

On the officiating, Johnson said: “I can’t judge that, I’d be biased.”

In the fourth quarter, Dallas linebacker David Howard jolted Cunningham on a running play, and the Eagle quarterback responded by kicking and shoving Howard. Both were given roughness penalties.

Cunningham admitted he was shaken up by the death Saturday of quarterback coach Doug Scovil. Scovil died in the Eagle locker room of a heart attack.

“Doug was like a father and a brother to me,” Cunningham said of Scovil, who took the quarterback over as a raw talent in 1987 and helped develop him into one of the league’s best.

Dallas (1-13) was penalized 12 times for 107 yards, the Eagles (10-4) nine for 70. There were eight unnecessary roughness calls, four on each side. Only three were reflected in the statistics.

Zendejas, who had charged that Eagle players and an assistant coach admitted he was a bounty target, was the target of unmerciful booing by the 59,842 fans.

Maybe he expected the greeting. When he came out to kick field goals the kicker wore tape over both ears. He missed from 42 yards in the first period and made a 47 yarder in the second.

“I taped the ear holes so the wind wouldn’t get in,” Zendejas said.

Cunningham led the Eagles, completing 17 of 31 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown. He also ran six times for 47 yards.

Aikman connected on 17 of 30 passes for 152 yards and one touchdown and ran for 60 yards.

The Eagles led 17-3 at halftime and increased their lead to 20-3 on Roger Ruzek’s 46-yard field goal 3:11 into the third period.

Dallas took the ensuing kickoff to its 20 and drove 80 yards in 11 plays and two penalties to cut the deficit to 20-10. Aikman completed four passes, the last for 18 yards to Daryl Johnson for the touchdown.