Cowboys’ Chief Fear Smith’s Knee Injury : Pro football: Running back hurt in third quarter, taking all the gloss off 24-12 victory over Kansas City.

Like others forced to work on Thanksgiving, the Dallas Cowboys will wait until this afternoon to grab a bone and make a wish.

The bone is in Emmitt Smith’s left leg.

The wish is that when he emerges from a doctor’s office, they will still have a chance to win a Super Bowl.

Smith plunged the mighty Cowboys, and the NFL postseason picture, into disarray Thursday when he crumpled in the backfield late in the third quarter during a 24-12 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

The injury was diagnosed as a sprained knee, but only because the Cowboys will not know its exact nature until Smith undergoes an MRI exam today.

On a day when the Cowboys had scored 14 points and gained 149 yards before the Chiefs had even run their fifth play--another typical showdown between the NFC and AFC’s best--the only number anybody wanted to discuss was “22.”

The Cowboys are 1-6 in games that Smith, the league’s leading rusher and scorer, has carried the ball six times or less in his six-year career.

“We have a lot to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving . . . but now we need to ask for one more favor,” said Cowboy owner Jerry Jones. “We need to ask for a good MRI for Emmitt.”

Derrick Thomas, Chief linebacker, spoke as if he already knew the results after watching Smith’s planted leg absorb a hit from Chief tackle Keith Traylor.

“I think he’s going to be down for a while,” Thomas said.

It certainly appeared that way. Smith, who has missed only one start in his career because of injury, was carried from the field, then carted to the locker room. He maneuvered to his car with a splint-cast on his leg and crutches under his arms.

Immediately after the injury, Jones rushed to the field from the owner’s box not to coach, but to console. Smith was waiting for him on the bench, weeping.

Longtime observers will note that Smith has been carried off the field before, and wept before, and then returned the next week to play even better than ever. The Cowboys are famous for suffering apparently serious injuries that heal within seven days, and this could certainly be one of them.

Smith told Coach Barry Switzer that he thought the knee was only sprained. But he seemed to be the only one.

“If ‘22’ is not out there, we certainly have taken a step in the wrong direction,” Jones said.

That step was hardly compensated by the running of tentative rookie Sherman Williams, despite gaining 44 yards in 10 carries after replacing Smith.

Twice the Cowboys advanced inside the Chief 10-yard line in the fourth quarter. The Emmitt Zone.

But on the first series, Williams was held to no gain on his only carry. With the Chief defense knowing the Cowboys wouldn’t run, Aikman then threw three incomplete passes--including one on a play that was repeated because of a Chief penalty.

Anybody remember the last time the league’s top-ranked offense had four shots from inside the four and couldn’t score a touchdown?

“In the back of his mind, [Williams] was saying he can’t make the move he needs to make because he’s worried about too many other things,” said Joe Brodsky, running backs coach. “We have to work on that.”

Then at the end of the game, Williams was handed the ball three consecutive times from the nine-yard line. He gained all of three yards.

Williams, a second-round pick from University of Alabama, has gained 206 yards on 43 carries (a fine 4.8 yards per carry) with one touchdown and two troublesome fumbles.

With no room under the salary cap to sign a free-agent running back like Barry Foster or Johnny Johnson, the Cowboys have little choice but to make Williams their starter if Smith is hurt.

Not that this stopped Switzer from referring to Williams as “That other guy.”

Despite having the league’s best record before the game at 10-1, the Chiefs were certainly cast as the other guys on Thursday, and played like it.

They were stunned early, watching the Cowboys record 10 first downs before their initial first down, watching in shock while Smith scored on a 15-yard run and Irvin made a one-handed 33-yard touchdown catch.

But their fifth-ranked defense toughened, quarterback Steve Bono settled after completing only five of his first 13 passes, and they actually pulled to within 21-12 with Smith out early in the fourth quarter.

But a team that has lived by the turnover, died by it when Bono fumbled on the Cowboy 15 after a hard sack by Tony Tolbert. Darrin Smith picked up the ball, ran 63 yards, and set up a field goal by Chris Boniol that ended all suspense.

Even with the loss of Smith and center Ray Donaldson, who will be out for the season because of a broken leg, the Cowboys were better than the AFC’s best. Again.

“They’re a good team,” Switzer said. “But we’re a better team.”

Although nobody knows whether they have lost their chance to prove it again in January.