In First Start, Blake Scares Cowboys : Interconference: Bengals’ No. 3 quarterback strikes for two quick touchdowns, but Dallas rallies to win, 23-20.

Jeff Blake didn’t get the upset that would have made him part of NFL lore. He did get the thing he wanted most Sunday: respect.

Blake turned his first NFL start into a first-rate scare for the Dallas Cowboys, stunning them with a pair of long touchdown passes. But the Cowboys showed why they’re two-time defending Super Bowl champions, regrouping from the two-touchdown deficit for a 23-20 victory over the winless Cincinnati Bengals.

Troy Aikman shook off another blow to the head only one week after sustaining a concussion and threw a pair of first-half touchdown passes. Chris Boniol kicked three second-half field goals to give Dallas (7-1) its seventh consecutive road victory, matching the club record.

More important, it avoided a major embarrassment for the defending champions.

“I hope there won’t be any partying tonight,” Coach Barry Switzer said. “There shouldn’t be. There’s not much to be damn happy about.”

Switzer warned the Cowboys all week about taking the Bengals (0-8) too lightly in this matchup between the NFL’s best and worst. Evidently, they didn’t listen.

“I told them this week . . . that we don’t want to live a nightmare that becomes reality--that a team like this can win,” he said.

Blake nearly turned it into a nightmare at Riverfront Stadium.

The third-string quarterback was forced to start because of injuries to David Klingler and Don Hollas. No one expected much from the third-year pro, who had virtually no NFL game experience.

Blake, however, threw for 247 yards and caught the NFL’s best defense flat-footed twice. He threw touchdown passes of 67 and 55 yards to Darnay Scott--the longest passes allowed this season by the league’s best pass defense--for a 14-0 lead one play into the second quarter.

Blake completed 14 of 32 passes without an interception. Klingler, out with a sprained knee, has thrown for 247 yards only once in his career.

Even though he didn’t pull a Gus Frerotte--Washington’s rookie quarterback who won his first start last week--Blake was impressive enough to make the Bengals think of him as a solid backup when Klingler is healthy.

“That’s all I really wanted, some respect,” Blake said. “I think I got that today.”

Aikman started the Cowboys’ turnaround by connecting with Alvin Harper in double coverage for a 27-yard touchdown pass to culminate a four-play, 65-yard drive in the second quarter.

The Bengals then reverted to bumbling late in the first half, helping the Cowboys put together a 13-play drive that ended with Aikman’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Michael Irvin. Linebacker James Francis hit Aikman on the chin with a forearm after he threw a fourth-down incompletion, giving the Cowboys a reprieve with the roughing-the-passer penalty. The Bengals also had 12 men on the field during the drive.

The hit by Francis came one week after Arizona’s Wilber Marshall knocked Aikman out with a hard hit to the chin.

Francis said he was pushed into Aikman; the quarterback said the hit didn’t affect him.

“He got a good lick on me, but I came out OK,” Aikman said. “I feel it was a call that was warranted.”