Dallas: Hey, Buddy, Take That : NFC: Cowboys hand Ryan his worst loss as an NFL head coach, routing Cardinals, 38-3.

Buddy Ryan’s seven-game hex on the Dallas Cowboys ended Sunday with his worst loss as an NFL head coach. The humiliating rout had the fans sarcastically chanting “Buddy, Buddy, Buddy” even before the first quarter was over.

At the game’s merciful end, they pelted him with popcorn.

Emmitt Smith, playing despite a sore right hamstring, scored twice and Troy Aikman threw two touchdown passes as the Cowboys (4-1) ended a seven-game losing streak to Ryan with a 38-3 victory over his Arizona Cardinals.

The 35-point loss was Ryan’s worst, eclipsing 32-point decisions to Chicago and the New York Giants in 1987 when he was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I can say this was a great lesson in humility,” he said. “We were run over by an 18-wheeler.”

Fans, who had tossed pork chops and water balloons at Ryan in previous visits to Texas Stadium, gave him a popcorn shower as he exited.

“I thought our defensive game plan stunk and that’s my fault,” Ryan said. “We played terrible. Dallas made a lot of big plays, and I made a lot of bad calls.”

It was the Cowboys’ eighth consecutive victory over the Cardinals (1-4), and the 35-point differential tied a 45-10 defeat of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973 as the largest inflicted on the franchise by Dallas.

“Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you,” said Dallas Coach Barry Switzer. “Today we ate the bear. We proved we have the No. 1 defense in the NFL.”

Ryan dominated Dallas when he was at Philadelphia and went into the game with an 8-2 record against the Cowboys. But his pregame boast that the Cardinals would handle the defending world champions quickly looked silly.

He gave the booing crowd a big thumbs up before the game started, but his head was hanging by halftime. His offense produced only two first downs, and his second-ranked NFL defense looked bad.

The Cowboys rocked the Cardinals with four touchdowns in the first half, three of them following interceptions of Jay Schroeder, who hurt his shoulder on his third interception and was replaced by former Cowboy Steve Beuerlein.

Beuerlein was intercepted twice.

Safety Darren Woodson, a rookie from Arizona State, and four-year veteran cornerback Larry Brown, from Los Angeles High and Texas Christian, had two interceptions, one off Schroeder and one off Beuerlein.

James Washington, from Los Angeles’ Jordan High and UCLA, had the Cowboys’ fifth interception.

“Beuerlein will start next week,” Ryan said.

Aikman said it was the Cowboys’ best game since the Super Bowl. “We played as good today as we’ve played in a long time,” Aikman said. “Our receivers did a great job against Buddy’s defense.

“I got hit a lot because I had to stay in there against the blitz, but it was worth it. I haven’t played a Ryan team yet when I didn’t get hit a lot.”

Aikman completed 16 of 22 passes for 231 yards before Rodney Peete came on in the fourth quarter.

Smith ran only nine times for 22 yards before retiring at halftime, turning duties over to Lincoln Coleman.

Smith has started 73 consecutive games for Dallas. It was his decision to sit out the second half.

“With the lead that we had, there really wasn’t any need for me to play,” Smith said. “It was nice not to have to play so much so I could rest my hamstring.”