RAM NOTES : When Smith Comes Up Shy, Cowboys Can’t Get Carried Away

Dallas had won 22 games in a row when Emmitt Smith had 20 or more carries, so maybe the Cowboys should have handed him the ball once during their desperation drive to pull out Sunday’s 27-23 loss to the Rams.

The record remains intact. The Rams, who came into the game ranked last in the league in rushing defense, held Smith to 80 yards and one touchdown in 19 attempts.

“This is not a give-it-to-Emmitt thing,” Smith said. “The game plan changes as the game goes on. When you fall behind, you do what you have to do to get back in front.”

With a 29-yard run early in the second quarter, Smith became the second Cowboy in history to gain 1,000 or more yards in back-to-back seasons. Tony Dorsett accomplished the feat in 1984 and ’85.

On the next play, Smith scored from three yards out, giving him 13 touchdowns on the season, breaking the Dallas record for rushing touchdowns in a season. Dorsett, Herschel Walker, and Smith (last year) had 12.

But after the Rams took a 21-13 lead at halftime, Dallas was forced to throw more and Smith was not the dynamic force Cowboy fans have come to love.

“We played pretty well, but the intensity wasn’t there,” Smith said. “We have to go out there and put points on the board. We can’t just expect it to happen. We had our chances to put them away and we didn’t.”

Someone asked Smith if the Cowboys were out of sync.

“We won eight in a row and then we lose one game and we’re out of sync?” he said. “No, it’s not like that. We just didn’t make the plays.”

Sometimes, when you’re on a roll, it’s hard to remember just how well you are playing. Actually, Dallas had only won five consecutive games before running into the Rams Sunday.

No excuses: Already guessing what the explanation from the Cowboy locker room might be for losing to a two-touchdown underdog, Ram cornerback Darryl Henley snapped off his own retort.

“I don’t want to hear any of that bull that Dallas was flat or anything,” Henley said. “I just won’t listen to it.

“All we heard on the TV was that maybe this was the week they’d play their second-string tailback, all of that stuff. Stuff you don’t expect to hear at this level.

“Don’t tell me they didn’t come to play.”

Flipped out: Until Sunday, Slater had been taking a lot of good-natured heat this year because he hadn’t called the game-opening coin-toss correctly in seven tries, calling “heads” each time and seeing the coin end up “tails.”

Though the Rams won the coin-toss for the first time last week, Phoenix, the road team, called it.

But Sunday, as the visiting captain, Slater called “heads” again, and this time, it actually came up “heads.”

The Rams got the opening kickoff and proceeding to march down the field for a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead after a season of horrendous first-quarter deficits.

“It feels great to win the coin toss,” Slater said. “And then on top of that to take it right on down and put points on the board. It feels good.

“I called ‘heads’ as I always do, and I always will, and it fell our way.”

Hindered: Cowboy defensive end Charles Haley, probably the team’s most important defender, was severely limited Sunday with a pulled groin. He didn’t start and played on only about half of his team’s defensive plays.

Haley, who keys the Cowboys’ pass rush because he constantly draws double-teams, finally pulled himself out of the game in the fourth quarter because he said he was hurting the team when he was on the field.

“It’s tough because I do a lot of quick moves, and I couldn’t do it every time I tried to,” Haley said. “Playing with pain is something you have to learn as a pro player.”

Haley never came close to Ram quarterback Jim Everett and was not involved in a single tackle all afternoon.

Signs o’ the times: Super Bowl fever is rampant in Dallas these days. A sample of the hand-painted sheets hanging over the railings in Texas Stadium: “Cowboys--The NFL’s Dream Team,” “Jerry Jones for President in ‘96,” “Book Me a Room in Pasadena,” and “Cowboys Return to Glory.”

They stumbled on this afternoon, but the Cowboys may yet swagger into Pasadena this January.

That winning feeling: Cleveland Gary predicted the Rams would win Sunday. He also says the Rams wouldn’t be surprised if they won every game the rest of the year.

“You may call us crazy, but we said we’d like to win the rest of the games,” Gary said. “We have confidence in ourselves and confidence in each other, and that’s a good sign. We feel we can beat anybody. We work hard and we prepare and we’re a good football team.

“We’re not cocky or arrogant, but I guess we feel different from everybody else. We’re a very explosive offense. Just keep watching.”

He’s getting warmer: Dallas free safety James Washington on Everett, who completed 22 of 37 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns: “Everett is a streak quarterback, and when he gets hot, he’s hot and when he’s not, he’s not. Unfortunately, tonight he got hot and it’s hard to cool him off.”

Times staff writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this story.