Cowboys seek to pave bad stretch of road
10/26/99
By David Moore / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING - Beating Washington has become second nature.
Winning at home has been a given.
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What is not given - and what could pull the Cowboys back to .500 before they return to Texas Stadium next month - is the team's ability to win road games outside of the NFC East.
Dallas hasn't beaten a non-division opponent on the road in more than two years. The Cowboys have accrued seven consecutive losses by an average of 12 points.
This trend rears its ugly head as Dallas (4-2) prepares for Sunday afternoon's game at Indianapolis followed by a Monday night date in Minnesota on Nov. 8. The sense of urgency coach Chan Gailey noticed in the 38-20 victory over the Redskins can't be allowed to wander as the team wanders away from the division.
"I hope we don't stay on an even keel," said Gailey, who has yet to win a road game against a team outside the NFC East as the Cowboys coach. "I hope we build on this.
"If you don't have somewhat of a sense of urgency every week in this league, you'll lose. You'd better keep that edge."
That edge is needed now that the Cowboys have embarked on the most arduous part of their schedule.
Four of the team's next six games are on the road. Three of those games are against teams outside the division. The two home games in that stretch are Green Bay, which awaits the Cowboys after their Colts-Vikings two-step, and Miami.
The Cowboys don't want to put a limit on their performance. But since the team has struggled in all games outside of the division - Dallas is 6-11 overall since 1997 - a split in the next six games could be regarded as a success.
That would leave Dallas two games above .500 with four games remaining. The combined record of those four teams is 8-19.
The stretch run appears to favor Dallas. But it's the next six weeks against unfamiliar opponents that could make or break the Cowboys season.
"I don't look at this block of games any differently than I did before the start of the season," owner Jerry Jones said. "Each one is a special challenge.
"You really are presuming a lot when you start looking ahead because of the way injuries and other things can influence a team. Everything can change in a week."
Gailey, who has watched his team suffer unexpected losses to Philadelphia and the New York Giants, also refuses to be drawn into this sort of conjecture.
"I've never gained anything by doing that because all that matters is how we do this week," Gailey said. "If I looked at a block and looked at those last two games and said, 'we need to make sure we look at those last two' . . . If we lose our next four, those last two won't matter a lot. Especially the further down the season you get.
"You're better off focusing on this ball game and this ball game only. Every second I spend thinking about that fourth game or fifth game, I'm not thinking about this game and that's not doing our team justice."
The scales of victory have been tipped against Dallas on the road the last 26 months. The Colts and Vikings have a chance to extend that misery.
Jones, however, isn't about to concede a thing.
"I'm a lot more sensitive about the skill of the quarterback and the other key players on the team than whether we're playing on the road or not," Jones said. "I'm a lot more interested in how focused we are and whether we're beating ourselves and making mistakes." |
