Cardinal Defense a Handful Late

A broken hand couldn’t stop Emmitt Smith, but in the end, the Arizona Cardinals did.

Smith, playing with his right hand in a soft cast, gained 127 yards in 29 carries. But he couldn’t get more than a yard when the Dallas Cowboys needed more from him in a 13-9 loss to Arizona Sunday.

Late in the game, with Dallas trailing 13-7 with second and two on the Arizona 10, Smith got the ball three consecutive times, and the NFL’s No. 3 all-time rusher gained one yard.

On fourth and one, Kwamie Lassiter and Ronald McKinnon stopped Smith for no gain with 3:22 left, and the Cardinals (4-6) held on to beat the Cowboys (5-5) for only the third time in their last 19 regular-season games.

The yard he couldn’t get, Smith said, “seemed like a mile.”

Said Lassiter: “We talked in the huddle that somebody’s got to step up and make the play. Either it’s [the football’s] coming out, or we’re going to punish him for carrying it.”

Smith, who broke his hand two weeks ago against Minnesota, ran into the back of one of his teammates as he hit the line.

“I just lost my momentum, and before I knew it, everyone was on top of me,” he said.

Arizona punter Scott Player took an intentional safety with 1:49 left that made the score 13-9, then Deion Sanders returned the free kick 31 yards to the Cardinal 43.

“They respect me so much they even took a safety, and you say my game is gone,” said Sanders, who also had his first interception of the season.

Dallas drove to the 22, but on fourth and three, Jason Garrett threw a short pass to Rocket Ismail, who was stopped at the 21 with 12 seconds left.