Commotion by the Ocean a Stroll Along the Shore

Billed as the “Commotion by the Ocean,” it became humiliation for the old coach, with Barry Switzer’s Cowboys outsmarting and outplaying Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Dolphins on their home turf before the largest crowd to ever watch a football game in Pro Player Stadium.

“I’m just so scared for the guys over there in Miami,” said Cowboy cornerback Deion Sanders after Dallas defeated the Dolphins, 29-10, before 75,283 Sunday. “I don’t know who is going to get cut or fired over there tomorrow.”

Johnson, who brought in 26 new players and started six rookies after replacing Don Shula, released defensive back Gene Atkins a few weeks ago after blaming him for a defeat.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep over there if I was a player or coach,” Sanders said.

Dallas owner Jerry Jones, who had fired Johnson after a second-consecutive Super Bowl victory, was back-slapping his players with more than three minutes to go, and Switzer was posing with pals along the sideline for the benefit of photographers while the game continued on the field. It was just like a Super Bowl, with the NFC-powerhouse Cowboys manhandling the AFC Dolphins, and those last moments on the field had to be agonizing for Johnson.

In position to score again at the Miami seven-yard line, Jones and Sanders yelled for the Cowboys to push it in.

“I wanted to score because they would have done it to us,” Sanders said.

But Switzer, 6-3 in head-to-head matches with Johnson, responded with an order for mercy, and had his offense fall on the ball.

“Barry and I don’t have the same background with Jimmy,” explained Jones, who wanted to pile on the points. “You know, I wasn’t thinking this week how I would feel if we won, I was thinking how I was going to live with it if we lost. No way do we get the same credit for winning as Jimmy would have gotten if he had won.

“But I’m proud of Barry, and he’s a lot more productive and effective than everybody gives him credit for--and that’s because he’s always measured by Jimmy’s style. But Barry won a Super Bowl championship and Barry played Jimmy heads-up and won. That says something to me.”

How embarrassing was this? At halftime, Switzer became smart. He ordered Sanders to remain on the field at all times on defense, and play offense only when needed.

“We got burned on two post patterns in the first half because Deion wasn’t in there,” said Switzer, who downplayed the significance of the matchup.

“It just happened we played the Dolphins,” he said. “The personalities of this game were not important. We just needed the win as a football team.”

Johnson, meanwhile, at a loss on how to stop the Cowboys in the second half, offered few enlightening remarks after the game. The very best: “We just got beat by a better team.”

With a horde of cameramen following their every move, Johnson shook hands with Jones before the game, made a mad dash at game’s end to grab Switzer’s hand, but then ran off the field before an irritated Charles Haley could get to him.

The Cowboy defensive end unleashed a blistering attack on Johnson in the Dallas locker room following the game after several teammates successfully steered him from confronting Johnson on the field.

“He’s going to flop here [in Miami] because those guys aren’t going to listen to his bull,” Haley said. “To me, he’s a coward; it’s personal between him and me.”

While Haley was motivated by Johnson apparently taking some verbal shots at some of his teammates, many of the Cowboys were driven to play well before their home-state friends and relatives. Wide receiver Michael Irvin, who played for Johnson at the University of Miami, tied a personal career high with a dozen catches for 186 yards, including a two-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

“It was an emotional game for me, but it was an emotional game for a lot of guys on this team,” Irvin said. Since his return from a drug suspension, the Cowboys have gone 3-0. “To perform well in front of my family was nice, and in front of Jimmy, that was nice too.

“I was not trying to make any statement. People amaze me, truly amaze me. We’re the defending world champions and we don’t have to make any statements.”

Running back Emmitt Smith, who played at the University of Florida, ran 22 times for 74 yards, caught seven passes for 44 yards, and came back from what looked like a serious leg injury to catch a 10-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

“That was the best Troy Aikman has ever looked since I’ve been with the Cowboys,” Smith said.

Aikman, a big booster of Johnson’s who has yet to fully embrace Switzer’s style of coaching, moved the Cowboys inside the Miami 10-yard line three times, settling for field goals on each occasion before producing three unanswered touchdowns in the second half.

“It was fun to throw the ball that much,” said Aikman, who completed 33 of 41 passes for 363 yards. “As a quarterback, you get paid to throw the ball, and if we’re not running the ball as well as we’re accustomed to running it, I think we’ve shown now we can throw it to win.”

The Cowboys did as they pleased against the Dolphins, and had it not been for a shaky official’s call that led to a Miami field goal, wiping out a Dallas fumble recovery for a touchdown, the embarrassment would have been even worse.

“We showed the country the Dallas Cowboys are a team to be reckoned with,” Switzer said. “I really don’t think it was a close ballgame.

“Sure, I wanted to win the ballgame for all the reasons you know, but if we had lost this game it would have been because we had to help them. We just had the better team.”