Cowboys Lett It Slip Away on One Play : Pro football: Stoyanovich’s 41-yard field goal kick blocked, but Dallas defender’s gaffe allows Dolphins to regain possession on the one, and win, 16-14.

Don Shula has been walking the NFL sidelines for 31 years now, and has seen his share of bizarre endings. But not until Thursday, in the final 15 seconds of his 327th victory, had he seen anything quite like this.

As Shula peered from the sidelines--his eyes focusing on kicker Pete Stoyanovich, his face half-frozen from the bitter cold and his feet encased in an inch of sleet and freezing rain--he watched in horror as Cowboys defensive tackle Jimmie Jones stuck a hand in the air and blocked Stoyanovich’s 41-yard field-goal attempt.

“I thought that everything was over,” Shula said after the Dolphins’ remarkable 16-14 victory.

But then Shula looked over and watched one of the most amazing--if not one of the downright dumbest--events unfold in front of him.

As the ball bounced inside the Cowboys’ 10, Dallas defender Leon Lett came running over and tried to pick up the ball. He tried to pick up the ball!

All Lett had to do was let the ball roll dead, and the Cowboys would have won. If a field goal is blocked and the ball goes past the line of scrimmage, the play is over when the ball stops moving or the kicking team touches it--as on a punt.

“That’s the first thing you learn in training camp,” said Mike Golic, Dolphins defensive lineman. “You leave the ball alone.”

Inexplicably, Lett attempted to grab it. Instead, the ball caromed off his foot, rolled to the Cowboys’ one and was recovered by Dolphins center Jeff Dellenbach with three seconds left.

A few seconds later, Stoyanovich calmly kicked a 19-yard field goal with no time remaining on the clock.

Now it was over.

“I can’t remember anything like that,” Shula said. “It was pretty amazing.”

Almost as amazing as Lett’s goof in last January’s Super Bowl, when he ran back a fumble 64 yards and was ready to run in for a touchdown. But while Lett held the ball in one hand a few yards before reaching the end zone, Bills receiver Don Beebe ran back and swatted the ball out of his hand and out of the end zone for a touchback.

Lett managed to laugh that one off because the Cowboys rolled to a 52-17 victory. But Thursday, Lett walked off the field knowing he had cost his team a victory, and perhaps the chance to win a second consecutive NFC East title.

“This was Thanksgiving Day, and I want to give thanks,” Stoyanovich said. “I was just thankful I got another chance.”

So was Shula. So was 39-yard-old quarterback Steve DeBerg, who won his second game in five days for a team he joined only two weeks ago after being released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And so was an entire Dolphins team that had fought through the elements to beat the defending Super Bowl champions on the road in one of the most delightfully unpredictable games of the season.

The Cowboys (7-4) fell one-half game behind the 7-3 Giants, who play host to the Phoenix Cardinals on Sunday. Miami (9-2) moved ahead of the 8-2 Bills in the AFC East.

“As soon as I get back to Miami, I’m going to take my kids to see Santa Claus and thank him,” Golic said.

Give credit to a wicked Canadian cold front--replete with sleet, freezing rain, and a little snow mixed in--for setting the stage and coating the field.

“The snow, the ice, the sleet. You see that, and you say, ‘Now, this is football weather,’ ” Dolphins running back Keith Byars said. “Sunshine is nice, but when the elements come into play, that’s when you find out which players can really step up and play.”

Lett, who left the stadium without commenting on his gaffe, might agree.

* SANDERS INJURED

Detroit running back Barry Sanders will be sidelined three to five weeks after spraining his left knee in the Lions’ 10-6 loss to the Chicago Bears. C2