No One Looks Better Than Irvin, Cowboys : Pro football: He makes the big receptions as Super Bowl champions defeat 49ers again, 26-17.

Dallas receiver Michael Irvin ran into one corner of Texas Stadium late Sunday afternoon, laughing, shouting, happily carrying his gloves before throwing them into the stands.

That was Jerry Rice once.

But into a different tunnel at the same time ran Rice of the San Francisco 49ers, head down, mouth closed, hands empty.

The Cowboys, keeping their composure when their more established opponents did not, defeated the 49ers, 26-17, before 65,099.

Irvin, three years younger than Rice and miles behind in career statistics, made spectacular plays that Rice did not.

Irvin had a career-high 12 catches for 168 yards and one touchdown. Except on the meaningless final drive of the game, Rice was nowhere to be found.

As the Cowboys established themselves as the NFL’s best, Irvin might have done the same.

“The Dallas Cowboys are like the young guys on the block, and the old vets tried to come into your stadium and try to take it all away from you,” said Russell Maryland, a Cowboy defensive lineman.

Irvin, who made leaping catches and underhanded catches and even simple catches of Troy Aikman passes, could not stop smiling.

“I love big games like this today, it’s what you live for,” he said. “It’s easy. Just pitch and catch.”

It used to be that easy for Rice and the 49ers, who fell to 3-3 while the Cowboys improved to 4-2 with their fourth consecutive victory.

In fact, it looked like it would be that easy again late in the third quarter. After struggling all afternoon against the aggressive Cowboy defense, the 49ers stunned them with a five-play, 80-yard drive that ended in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Steve Young to Brent Jones.

That gave the 49ers the lead for the first time since the first half, 17-16. Then their defense held and gave the ball back to Young with 52 seconds left in the quarter.

Then, on the first play of what could have been a game-clinching drive, carelessness struck. Suddenly, it was as if the 49ers had been transported to the second half of their loss to the Cowboys in the NFC championship game last year.

Marc Logan, the fullback whose running surprised the Cowboys earlier, dropped a handoff after being hit hard by Maryland.

The Cowboys recovered on the 49ers’ 39-yard line, and two plays later Irvin pushed off cornerback Michael McGruder and made a 36-yard juggling catch for a touchdown to give the Cowboys the lead again.

“Michael thought he could get open . . . but he always thinks he can get open,” Aikman said. “Even with four guys covering him, Michael tells me he can get open. The thing is, to him, it’s the truth.

“But for the good of the team, I sometimes have to decipher what play is best.”

There was no question on this play, which looked even better five minutes later after the 49ers drove to the Cowboy six.

But on third and six, the left-handed Young inexplicably rolled right and threw a bad pass to Rice near the goal line that went incomplete.

“I haven’t run right in about six years,” Young said. “I got my foot caught.”

On the fourth-down field goal attempt, holder Klaus Wilmsmeyer missed the snap from Ralph Tamm. The ball went through Wilmsmeyer’s hands and rolled nearly 30 yards before the Cowboys recovered.

On the Cowboys’ first play after the recovery, an incomplete pass to Alvin Harper down the sideline in front of the San Francisco bench, things became even stranger.

A 49er coach became tangled with side judge Mike Carey. The official fell and called the 49ers for a personal foul because the coach was standing too far on the field.

“I couldn’t believe the ref made that call,” safety Tim McDonald said of the penalty, which cost them 15 yards and a first down. “He trips, he gets upset that he falls, and he throws a flag.”

Eight plays later, Eddie Murray kicked a game-clinching, 18-yard field goal to leave the 49ers shaking their heads even more.

Last year’s 30-20 loss for the championship, and now this?

“I can’t remember, in the last five or six years, when we’ve done something like this twice,” Young said. “We can’t get down and not come away with some points. We just can’t keep doing that.”

They also can’t get away with Rice making only two catches before the game was decided. He caught seven passes for 82 yards, but nothing longer than 16 yards.

Rice wasn’t talking, but Irvin, as usual, was.

“I feel for the guy, to prepare all week and then have this,” Irvin said of Rice. “I’m glad I’m not going through what he is going through right now.”

While almost everyone was afraid to compare Rice with Irvin, who leads the league in catches and yardage, Cowboy owner Jerry Jones was not.

“Not to take anything away from Jerry Rice, but it’s how Michael does it that is so impressive,” Jones said. “There aren’t many of these slants over the middle where nobody is guarding you. These are tough catches with guys all over you.

“I just hope the rest of the league saw what we saw today.”