Flailing Cowboys Grasp for Answers

In Bill Parcells’ first season, the story line was the rebirth of the Dallas Cowboys.

This year, it’s more like a disheartening reincarnation.

The team that was 5-11 in each of the three seasons before Parcells arrived is 5-11 since last Thanksgiving -- a setback that makes Parcells’ 8-3 start last season look like a wistful mirage.

The Cowboys (3-7), who play host today to Chicago (4-6), are desperately searching for a way to salvage their season. After assembling one of football’s best defenses last season, they’re now among the worst in several categories. Each of their last four losses has been by 20 points or more, a franchise record. And they’ve struggled each week to assemble a competent, healthy starting lineup.

“Tex Schramm and Tom Landry have to be rolling over in their graves with the present state of the Cowboys,” said Charlie Waters, a defensive star on the great Dallas teams of the 1970s. “It isn’t a pretty sight.”

Dallas’ pass defense is a mess. The Cowboys have given up 22 touchdown passes and have only four interceptions this season. According to STATS Inc., the Cowboys have one interception in the last 262 opponent passes, whereas the league average this season is about one interception for every 34 passes.

“The defensive line just isn’t getting to the quarterback, and that leaves the cornerbacks out there on an island -- and now it looks like ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ ” said Everson Walls, the last Cowboy to register double-digit interceptions, collecting 11 in 1981.

Parcells said the Cowboys are lacking confidence -- the kind only a victory can bring -- and his players echo that. Hope today could come in the form of rookie quarterback Drew Henson. He’ll replace Vinny Testaverde, who’s nursing a sore throwing shoulder. Henson, who will be making his first NFL start, showed encouraging flashes in last Sunday’s 30-10 loss to Baltimore. After fumbling on his first play, he settled down and played well, completing six consecutive passes late in the game.

“I’ve come a long way” since training camp, said Henson, 24, whose NFL career was postponed while he pursued a future in professional baseball with the New York Yankee organization. “The speed of the game has slowed down for me.”

Parcells has seen enough over the years to know it’s easy to overestimate a rookie’s composure.

“That composure leaves you when you get hit in the head two or three times,” the coach said.

But Henson has something else on his side: a curious historical trend. On Thanksgiving 30 years ago, quarterback Clint Longley came off the bench to throw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Drew Pearson and defeat Washington with 28 seconds remaining.

In 1984, on the 10th anniversary of the Longley game, Danny White came in for Gary Hogeboom and led a game-winning drive to defeat New England.

On Thanksgiving 10 years later, it was quarterback Jason Garrett, making only his second start, who defeated Green Bay, 42-31, by leading the Cowboys to a club-record 36 points in the second half.

So quarterback changes in 1974, 1984 and 1994 precipitated dramatic Cowboy victories on Thanksgiving. Will Henson continue the trend today? This much we know: The eyes of Texas are upon him.

“It’s a special feeling [to play] on Thanksgiving,” Walls said. “It’s more pressure than ‘Monday Night Football.’ You can always get a ‘Monday Night Football’ game; everybody doesn’t get a Thanksgiving game.”

Privilege doesn’t guarantee success; Dallas has lost three of its last four and five of its last seven Thanksgiving games.

But the Cowboys certainly get their chances on the biggest stage. They have five nationally televised games this season -- three Monday nights and a Sunday night, plus today’s game -- and their every move and news conference is detailed and dissected on the club’s 24-hour cable channel. The eyes of Texas, indeed.

When Parcells took the job, there was widespread speculation that his strong personality would eventually clash with that of Jerry Jones, the outspoken and hands-on owner of the team. The two have stuck together so far, and very well could continue to do so, but the wear and tear of a rough season is showing.

“It’s very discouraging and frustrating,” Jones told reporters in the locker room after Sunday’s loss. “We have some guys that we’re laying a lot of resources in -- money -- and two to three guys when the game was on the line made critical mistakes. They’re killing us, and they’re costing us games.

“Other teams make miscues too, but we’re making more miscues than they are. That’s why these scores are ending up the way they are.”

Parcells, for the most part, has stopped publicly criticizing his players after losses. At least temporarily, he has stopped saying how embarrassed he is, how frustrated, how disappointed.

He has chosen to concentrate on what few positives he can find. From a coach skilled in lighting fires under his players to make them better, that might be the most discouraging sign of all.

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Little for Which to Be Thankful

The Cowboys started the Bill Parcells era with eight wins in their first 11 games and went into last season’s Thanksgiving game against Miami tied for the NFC East lead. Things have gone downhill since -- especially for the Dallas defense. The Cowboys under Parcells, including playoffs:

*--* Before Thanksgiving 2003- Thanksgiving 2003 Sunday 8-3 W-L 5-11 15.3 Opp. points/game 25.2 0 Turnover difference -22 238.5 Opp. yards/game 331.9 63.8 Opp. passer rating 96.1 Source: STATS Inc.

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