Cowboys Keep Redskins Short of Perfection, 24-21

The Washington Redskins had talked about playing teams that would gamble, about onside kicks and Hail Marys and game plans that were both aggressive and freewheeling. The Dallas Cowboys were all of those things Sunday, and while the Redskins may have known what was coming, they were still knocked off balance and handed their first loss of the season, 24-21, before 55,561 at RFK Stadium.

After a furious fourth-quarter rally fell short, the previously unbeaten Redskins said they had never expected to go 16-0, and that their larger goals--winning the NFC East title and getting home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs--were still attainable.

“We had a great start,” middle linebacker Matt Millen said, “but it’s not how you start that people remember. It’s how you finish.”

At 11-1, the Redskins lead the NFC East by four games over three 7-5 teams--Dallas, Philadelphia, and the New York Giants. And with three of their final four games on the road, they still lead the Bears and Saints in the race for home-field advantage.

“I said from the beginning that a perfect season was a dream, but just a dream,” Coach Joe Gibbs said. “No matter what your profession is, you dream of the biggest reward. Reality says it can’t be done. What you really want is over a 16-game schedule to be the team that wins your division and plays two playoff games at home. That’s still out there for us.”

Still, this one stung. Winning at RFK for the third time in four years, bedeviling the Redskins yet again, the Cowboys played like a team that had nothing to lose. The triumph may be the biggest accomplishment of Jimmy Johnson’s three-year pro coaching career because it kept his team in the thick of a fight for a wild-card playoff spot.

The Cowboys did it with a game plan of both style and substance, with an offense that lost quarterback Troy Aikman to a sprained knee in the third quarter and still controlled the ball for almost 39 minutes. They also did it with a defense that held the Redskins to 50 rushing yards and two offensive touchdowns, both in the fourth quarter.

But it was more than that. The Cowboys converted two improbable fourth downs. They tried, and recovered, an onside kick. They completed a 34-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass at the end of the first half. They ran the ball successfully and they took advantage of the Redskin cornerbacks, especially Darrell Green, who may have had one of the worst days of his career, chasing wide receiver Michael Irvin all over the field.

When the Redskins rallied to within 21-14 with 8:21 left in the game and seemed on the verge of becoming the fourth 12-0 team in history, the Cowboys took the ball and stuffed it down their throats. Backup quarterback Steve Beuerlein and running back Emmitt Smith led a seven-minute drive that ended with a 42-yard field goal by Ken Willis with 1:14 remaining.

“If you have a big gorilla, you don’t hit him lightly,” Johnson said. “We felt to have any chance, we’d have to play aggressive. We’d have to onside kick, go for it on fourth down, the whole thing. We knew we weren’t going to beat ‘em unless we played that way.”

Aikman and Beuerlein passed for 313 yards, the high against the Redskins this season. Smith rushed for 132 on 34 carries, also a season-high against the Redskins. Irvin caught nine passes for 130 yards as offensive coordinator Norv Turner did what every other opponent had been afraid to do--throw at Green.

“If you throw away from Green, you throw into double coverage,” Johnson said. “Sometimes, you have to attack the strength.”