A Lone-Star State

“Shock,” Jerry Jones said.

The stunned look still registered in his eyes, two days after his Dallas Cowboys’ 27-0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Long after everyone else saw the dynasty dim, maybe it finally flickered Sunday for Jones.

That was not a playoff team he watched against the Ravens, and he knew it.

You hardly ever hear the words “America’s Team” anymore, but today the Cowboys--at 4-7--will be on display for a nation.

During the dominance of the 1990s that brought them three Super Bowl titles, the Cowboys won their traditional Thanksgiving Day game six of seven years.

If they lose to the 9-2 Minnesota Vikings today, it will be their third loss in four Thanksgivings.

Troy Aikman is battered, playing every game with a sore back that has required two rounds of cortisone shots, and he knows his next concussion could end his career at 34.

He threw three more interceptions Sunday against Baltimore--he has 12 this season to go with only six touchdown passes--and he has the second-lowest passer rating in the NFL at 60.8. Only Cincinnati’s Akili Smith has a worse rating, and he has been benched.

The loss sent Jones into full reassessment mode, but instead of talking about life after Aikman, he is talking about playing younger players as the season winds down and what must be done to fix the defense.

“Where we are right now does cause me to look ahead,” Jones said. “I think you’ve got to learn from a game like that the other day. That hurt real bad. Those aren’t good feelings, and they cause you to make some decisions--maybe ones that are productive down the road.”

But brace yourself for this: Jones insists he still believes that with the right adjustments the Cowboys can win another Super Bowl with Aikman.

“I recognize where he is in his career, and felt and feel our best chance under any set of scenarios to get back to a Super Bowl is with him healthy at quarterback,” Jones said.

“I still feel that. I felt that after last weekend, I felt that when he got hurt. I look ahead to next year and I feel that next year.

“That’s our best chance--and I’m not in the business of perpetuating legends, or just trying to create a place for players to finish their careers. That’s not what we’re about.

“The facts are, at that position and with his unique skills, if he can get to the playoffs and be healthy, we have a chance to win a Super Bowl, any season. That was our plan this year.”

Whether the plan will continue to include Aikman remains to be seen.

Aikman said he won’t consider whether to retire until after the season. Jones clearly wants him to stay, and such friends of Aikman as Pat Summerall, the Fox broadcaster, say they believe loyalty to Jones is one reason Aikman might keep playing.

If he doesn’t, the Cowboys are completely unprepared. Backup Randall Cunningham is 37, and the Cowboys have not drafted a quarterback to groom as Aikman’s replacement.

“The plans are and were as early as this fall that Troy would have four to five more years to play,” Jones said. “Anything short of that is going to be a major adjustment in my thinking and a major adjustment in how we plan the future of our franchise.

“I think the key thing we have to look at next year is where we are going to be with Troy. And by the way, I would hope [Randall] Cunningham would come back as well.”

There were doubts about the Cowboys before this season--before Joey Galloway, the receiver acquired from Seattle for two No. 1 draft picks, was lost for the season to injury in the first game. Before injuries to receiver Raghib Ismail and three former Pro Bowlers--defensive tackle Leon Lett, safety Darren Woodson and center Mark Stepnoski.

It all hit home Sunday when the Ravens--a team that went five weeks without scoring a touchdown--scored 27 points against the Cowboys and didn’t give up one, ending a streak of 151 regular-season games since Dallas had been shut out.

“Now reality sets in. You lose enough games or enough teams win ahead of you, you start seeing that we are looking at a long-odds situation,” Jones said.

That is where the Cowboys are, and Jones--so often accused of being in denial--seems to be searching for a new path.

The moves he made after buying the Cowboys in 1989 helped create the Cowboy dynasty.

He named Jimmy Johnson coach, and then the Cowboys made Aikman the No. 1 selection overall in 1989.

That same year, Herschel Walker was traded to Minnesota for five players, six conditional draft choices and a 1992 first-round draft choice. Two products of that monumental deal are still on the team today: Emmitt Smith and Woodson.

The Cowboys went from 1-15 in 1989 to Super Bowl champions after the 1992 season.

But Jones has not made many such moves lately. The Cowboys have endured a coaching churn that has seen the team go from Barry Switzer to Chan Gailey to Dave Campo in four seasons, and the team this week denied a report Jones had been talking to former defensive coordinator Butch Davis, now the coach at the University of Miami.

In addition, the draft has been largely unproductive in recent years--and trading 2000 and 2001 first-round picks for Galloway means the Cowboys won’t be the beneficiaries of what could be a high pick this season.

Jones pins his hopes on two things--parity, and the fact that he still believes even a diminished Aikman is better than many of the young quarterbacks playing around the league.

“Teams are a lot more equal. So I think we can tweak rather than completely rebuild, make some moves that fundamentally rebuild some of the shortcomings you have that you have to address,” he said. “And I think we can compete with these guys [Aikman and Smith] in the key positions.

“I hear people saying, ‘Well, for Troy’s health . . . .’ I’m not trying to diminish the seriousness of his injuries. Certainly the head-trauma aspect. One thing I believe very strongly is that because of all we’ve benefited from with his skills as a player, the very first thing that I want is his well-being and his health. But I do know how much he enjoys competing.

“I’m not trying in any way to sound oblivious to the reasons why we might not be able to compete, whether it be injury risk or where the players are in their careers. But if you compare that to the kinds of risk you take doing it any other way, with let’s say a younger, less-proven quarterback, a draft-pick running back. If you look at it doing it any other way, my odds of playing in a Super Bowl are as good as yours.”

The prospects of Dallas playing a Super Bowl soon may seem dim, but no dimmer than the chances of St. Louis last season.

Jones clings to the idea that a little hardship might provide the impetus that propels the Cowboys.

“I’ve never lost a game that wasn’t painful. I’ve always felt real responsible for losing, just the nature of how you place yourself and the perception you have of yourself,” he said.

“Every time we lose a ballgame, I really accept the responsibility, just by the way I’m structured and the way we’re structured. There’s a lot of ownership in the NFL that is not as directly responsible for the day-to-day decisions that are made.

“The defensive coaches we’ve got back there, I hired those coaches. I hired those offensive coaches. I didn’t have the head coach hire them, I hired them. Same thing with the players.

“So when we don’t play well, when we don’t execute well, when we don’t coach as well as we’d like, I’m the ultimate one responsible.”

At 4-7, it doesn’t feel so grand.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Cowboy Woes

A closer look at the Dallas Cowboys:

* A Dallas Morning News poll asked if the Cowboys can rebuild with Jerry Jones as owner. More than 1,600 people voted, with 62.3% saying “no” and 37.3% “yes.”

* No teams with a losing record are left on Dallas’ schedule.

* In the age of the salary cap, 13 players on the roster are earning more than $1 million this season.

* Michael Irvin and Darryl Johnston retired and Deion Sanders left the team before the start of this season.

* The Cowboys traded fourth and seventh-round picks to get tight end O.J. Santiago from Atlanta before the season. He was released Tuesday.

* The Cowboys traded two first-round picks to get Joey Galloway from Seattle, but he was sidelined for the season because of an injury in the season opener.

Today’s Game

New England at Detroit

9:30 a.m., Channel 2

*

Minnesota at Dallas

1 p.m., Channel 11

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