Back With A Vengeance

It was a merry band of Dallas Cowboys who gathered last Saturday to pose for the team picture. They laughed when Chad Hennings, a defensive tackle, took a false step and nearly plunged from the scaffolding on which the players were standing. They laughed harder as defensive end Charles Haley repeatedly encouraged Cowboy owner Jerry Jones to pluck the hairpiece from the pate of a team executive standing beneath him. And they looked on with delight as Leon Lett, the usually reserved defensive tackle, kicked up his heels in imitation of the touchdown dance of a certain Jheri Kurled, two-sport mercenary who earlier that morning had become the newest Cowboy.

These 'Boys had reason to be boisterous. Ten hours earlier, ringmaster Jones had capped a chaotic week (page 60) by successfully luring free-agent cornerback Deion Sanders to Dallas with a seven-year, $35 million deal. Prime Time, who's currently toiling in centerfield for the San Francisco Giants, will need arthroscopic surgery to clean out his injured left ankle once the baseball season ends, and he may not be ready for football until late October.

Dallas has no problem with that. The Cowboys host the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 12, and judging by the ease with which they handled their first two opponents, they may not need him until then. Despite the distractions to which their owner subjected them last week, the Pokes went into Texas Stadium on Sunday and simply overpowered the Denver Broncos. The final score, 31-21, belied the extent of the Cowboys' domination: The Broncos filched a window-dressing touchdown in the game's final minute.

Did you think Dallas might be a team in decline? Did you think that after losing a shot at the Lombardi Trophy to the 49ers, then losing Pro Bowl center Mark Stepnoski and wide receiver Alvin Harper to free agency, the Cowboys were on the slippery slope to the NFL's second tier? Think again.

The core of talent with which they won two of the last three Super Bowls is intact. Quarterback Troy Aikman, wide receiver Michael Irvin and running back Emmitt Smith reported to training camp in the best physical condition of their lives. Pro Bowl offensive tackle Erik Williams has returned from the October 1994 car accident in which he was nearly killed, and is mowing down opposing linemen as before. Smith is, for the time being, free of the hamstring injuries that kept him out of all or part of five games in '94. The Cowboys are at last comfortable with coach Barry Switzer, the hands-off, delegating, diametric opposite of his predecessor, Jimmy Johnson. They vividly remember how it feels to play in the Super Bowl and are desperate to return.

If the Cowboys needed added incentive to knock off the team that supplanted them, they got it in February at the Pro Bowl. According to several Cowboys the 49ers were strutting around, putting on airs. Said one Dallas player, "They were looking down their noses at our guys, acting like their——don't stink."

By September the Cowboys seemed to have all the motivation they would need. During a conversation with Smith just days before the Cowboy opener, Irvin noted the absence of Stepnoski and Harper, saying, "We've got to pick it up this season." And how did they figure they could do that? "You haven't seen me run yet," Smith said simply. "This season I'll run like I need to run." Here was a three-time NFL rushing champ announcing: You ain't seen nothing yet.

He meant it. Smith was flat-out awesome in the Cowboys' 35-0 drop-kicking of the New York Giants on Sept. 4. The first time he touched the ball, he went 60 yards up the gut for a score. Fifteen yards from the end zone, the usually businesslike Smith raised one hand in the air and turned to mock the nearest Giant. Could Smith, through this bit of showboating, have been trying to make Neon Deion feel at home?

Smith rushed for 163 yards and scored four touchdowns in that game. Against a more rugged Denver defense he piled up 114 yards on 26 carries. Three plays in particular defined him:

•Midway through the second quarter, with the Cowboys facing third-and-six on the Bronco 16, Aikman drops back to pass and is in danger of being sacked by blitzing Bronco linebacker Keith Burns, who is taken out by Smith's textbook cut block. Burns goes ass-over-teakettle; Smith springs off the ground, sprints to his left and catches a pass for a 14-yard gain.