12/27/2000

Grading the Cowboys' players

Two reasons for smiles

Aikman takes another beating

Debut not total loss for Campo

Run defense run out of town

Injuries took toll throughout

Season recap

GRADING THE PLAYERS

QUARTERBACKS (4)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Troy Aikman	F	Injuries played a role in him being the worst-rated starter (64.3) in the NFC
Randall Cunningham	C	Can still throw the deep ball and move, but went 1-2 as a starter
Clint Stoerner	I	Spent the season shuttling between practice squad and active roster
Anthony Wright	D	Strong arm and good poise, but not ready to start

RUNNING BACKS (4)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Emmitt Smith	B	Six 100-yard games and 1,203 yards but he fumbled seven times, losing five
Troy Hambrick	I	Spent most of the season on the practice squad
Robert Thomas	C	Bruising blocker, who can catch and run. His fumble in OT loss to Philadelphia was a turning point this season
Michael Wiley	C-	Did OK in limited opportunities, but fumbles too much

WIDE RECEIVERS (7)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Chris Brazzell	D	Had an opportunity early, but failed to catch a pass. 10 special teams tackles
Joey Galloway	I	Season-ending knee injury in Game 1
Damon Hodge	I	Caught three passes against the Giants in October loss and never received much playing time after that
Raghib Ismail	D	Injuries slowed him, and offensive coordinator Jack Reilly failed to involve him
Wane McGarity	D+	2 punt returns for TDs but only two catches of more than 20 yards
James McKnight	B	Set career highs in catches (51) and yards (917)
Jason Tucker	F	Off-season surgery to remove bone spurs from his big toes hampered his ability to return kicks and run routes

TIGHT ENDS (3)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Jackie Harris	C	Team-high five TD catches, despite not being an offensive priority
David LaFleur	D	Painful pelvic injury resulted in career lows in catches (12) and yards (109)
James Whalen	I	Spent most of the season on the practice squad

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN (10)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Flozell Adams	C	Too many inconsistent performances
Larry Allen	A	Selected to sixth consecutive Pro Bowl
Jorge Diaz	I	Reserve who played sparingly
Ben Fricke	C-	Proved to coaches he can be a solid NFL backup
Kelvin Garmon	I	Reserve who played sparingly
Al Jackson	I	Reserve who played sparingly
Craig Page	I	Signed last month from Tennessee's practice squad
Solomon Page	C	Struggled early after spending training camp at tackle because of Erik Williams' holdout
Mark Stepnoski	B-	Played well until knee injury in November ended his season
Erik Williams	D	Too many penalties (15) and a terrible September after training camp holdout

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN (12)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Greg Ellis	D	He rushed back from a broken leg in 1999, which affected his play
Ebenezer Ekuban	F	Lost his starting position after one game and didn't play well until the last few weeks of the season
Aaron Fields	I	Activated from practice squad in early December
Chad Hennings	D	Struggled because of scheme changes that didn't play to his strength
Leon Lett	F	Trouble against the run and little pass rush before knee injury ended his season
Michael Myers	D	Played well in spurts, but needs consistency
Brandon Noble	D	Undersized technician, who occasionally had trouble at point of attack
Chris White	I	Signed to active roster this month
Noel Scarlett	I	Signed to active roster in December
Alonzo Spellman	F	Too many penalties (14) and not enough production in the first three months
Dimitrius Underwood	C-	Led the team in quarterback pressures (16), despite starting only six games
Peppi Zellner	D	Made little progress as a pass rusher. Second on team in special teams tackles (13)

LINEBACKERS (6)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Joe Bowden	F	Signed to start, he struggled to grasp scheme
Dexter Coakley	D+	Second on the team in tackles, but not enough big plays for a player of his caliber
Orantes Grant	C-	Tied for 5th on team with 10 special teams tackles
Darren Hambrick	C-	Led team in tackles
Dat Nguyen	D	Lost his starting job because of injuries and finesse approach to run defense
Barron Wortham	D+	Strong in short yardage

DEFENSIVE BACKS (12)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Mario Edwards	D	10 special teams tackles, but not much else
Dwayne Goodrich	F	Drafted to compete for a starting spot, he didn't touch the field on defense until the final game
Duane Hawthorne	D	Failed to earn regular spot in the nickel or dime defenses
Kareem Larrimore	D	Lost starting position after four games and played sparingly until injuries forced him into the lineup
Ryan McNeil	B	Wasn't tested much, though his meltdown at Philadelphia probably cost Dallas a win
Greg Myers	C	Solid job, considering he was starting less than a week after he signed
Earl Riley	I	Signed to active roster in December
Izell Reese	B-	Led team in special teams tackles (22) and did a solid job in pass coverage after injuries forced him into the lineup
Phillippi Sparks	C	Team-high five interceptions and solid tackler, who overcame shaky September
George Teague	C-	Cerebral player who didn't provide big plays the way he has in the past
Charlie Williams	C	Third on the team in special teams tackles
Darren Woodson	B+	Best overall season since 1996

SPECIALISTS (3)
Player	Gr.	Comment
Dale Hellestrae	B	One of the better deep snappers in the NFL
Micah Knorr	B+	Finished in top half of NFC in punting (42.8). Excellent on kickoffs
Tim Seder	B+	Made 23 of 31 field goals

Two reasons for smiles

Louis DeLuca / DMN Two wins over the Redskins were bright spots for Dallas.

Owner Jerry Jones won't admit it. Actually, it's too delicious for him to admit.

But the twinkle in his eyes and the smirk on his face gives him away every time.

Here's Jones' secret: There's no one he loves beating more than Washington and its petulant owner Daniel Snyder.

Dallas beat the Redskins twice this season, running Jones' personal record against Snyder to 4-0 and wrecking Washington's season.

The first win – 27-21 – came at FedExField on Monday Night Football, when Dallas was 0-2.

Nearly three months later, the Cowboys officially ended Washington's playoff hopes.

Emmitt Smith turned in a vintage performance with 150 yards and a touchdown as the Cowboys' thrashed Washington, 32-13, despite losing Troy Aikman to a concussion in the first quarter.

Anthony Wright helped Dallas win, though he threw only five passes.

The loss left Snyder so mad that he trashed his suite at Texas Stadium.

Jones refused to say if he sent Snyder the bill.

– Jean-Jacques Taylor

Aikman takes another beating

Michael Ainsworth / DMN Perhaps no player felt the weight of the Cowboys' 5-11 season more than quarterback Troy Aikman.

Quarterback Troy Aikman endeared himself to fans while leading the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins. But he found out who his real friends were during the most difficult of his 12 seasons.

After he was knocked out with a concussion in the first game, Aikman found himself embroiled in a quarterback controversy with Randall Cunningham. While Aikman was recovering from the eighth concussion of his NFL career, Cunningham performed well in a 32-31 loss to Arizona and a 27-21 upset of Washington.

When he returned to the starting lineup after the Redskins game, Aikman was booed at Texas Stadium during a 41-24 loss to San Francisco.

While some fans clearly wanted a change, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and coach Dave Campo stayed in Aikman's corner. So did Cunningham, who made no public claims of wanting to be the starter.

But while playing well against Jacksonville, Aikman hurt his back in that game, and his degenerative back problem sidelined him for the Philadelphia game the following week.

After the week off, needing cortisone injections to play, Aikman had his best game against Cincinnati, then made it through three more games before suffering another concussion against Washington on Dec. 10.

With their playoff hopes over, the Cowboys went with Anthony Wright, who spent most of the season on the practice squad, as the starter in the final two games. Wright was 0-2 as a starter. Aikman was left to contemplate his future.

– Bill Nichols

Campo's debut not a total loss

AP Despite the record, Dave Campo's debut season as a head coach provided reasons to expect he can be successful.

Dave Campo enjoys talking about learning experiences.

He's had a multitude of them in his first season as the fifth head coach in the Cowboys' illustrious history.

He learned to keep his star players off the field in blowout losses after losing Joey Galloway to a season-ending knee injury in the fourth quarter of a 41-14 loss to Philadelphia in the opener.

He also learned that it's a bad idea to scrap a defensive scheme that he spent the entire off-season and pre-season trying to implement. That's the main reason Dallas finished the season 31st in the NFL in run defense.

More important, Campo said he learned that he can be a successful head coach in his league.

That's because coaching in the NFL these days is about talent and intensity. Campo proved he can get a team with no hopes of making the playoffs in November to play hard the rest of the season against a brutal schedule.

With more talent on the roster, he should get better results.

– Jean-Jacques Taylor

Cowboys run out of town on defense

Damon Winter / DMN Philadelphia's Duce Staley, who torched Dallas for 201 rushing yards in the opener, was one of many running backs to run roughshod over the Cowboys' defense.

Owner Jerry Jones left training camp thinking that his staff had assembled the best front four since he bought the team. He thought the biggest question facing the defense would be replacing cornerback Deion Sanders.

As it turned out, that would be the least of the Cowboys' concerns. They were so poor against the run that opponents did not need to pass to beat them. Most teams were too busy setting club records for rushing.

Philadelphia's Duce Staley set the blueprint on how to beat the Cowboys in the first game, when he gained 201 of the Eagles' 306 rushing yards.

Staley was the first back to gain 200 yards on the Cowboys since 1984, but he wouldn't be the last. San Francisco's Charlie Garner matched Staley three games later. Tampa Bay's Warrick Dunn rushed for 210 yards in the 13th game.

Instead of having one of the best front sevens in team history, they took their place in Cowboys history as perhaps one of the worst.

The three 200-yard performances surrendered set an NFL record. And they finished the season last in the NFL in run defense for the first time since 1963, allowing more rushing yards than any team in Cowboys history.

The Cowboys changed schemes after the first four games, reverting to a gap-control style they hoped would eliminate big plays. But while that change stopped some of the bleeding, nothing ever really covered up their poor tackling.

– Bill Nichols

DEFENDING THE RUN
The top rushing performances against the Cowboys with total yards and average per carry.
Player	Team	Yds.	Avg.	Result
Warrick Dunn	Tampa Bay	210	9.5	L, 27-7
Duce Staley	Philadelphia	201	7.7	L, 41-14
Charlie Garner	San Francisco	201	5.6	L, 41-24
Jamal Lewis	Baltimore	187	6.7	L, 27-0

Injuries took toll throughout

In the opener, quarterback Troy Aikman suffered a concussion when he was slammed to the turf, then receiver Joey Galloway tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the waning moments.

Those injuries to key players struck a big blow to the Cowboys' new offense while setting the tone for the season.

Dallas struggled to develop consistency with Aikman shuffling in and out of the lineup with Randall Cunningham. And the loss of Galloway, then receiver Raghib Ismail to a season-ending injury, left the Cowboys' timing-based offense without its big-play threats. While the offense was designed around Aikman's passing, it also revolved around Galloway and Ismail being able to turn short passes into long gains.

With the instability at quarterback and receiver, the Cowboys had to change their approach, relying primarily on the running of Emmitt Smith.

As the season progressed, things only got worse, with the Cowboys losing their starting defensive tackles and safeties. Safety George Teague broke a bone in his foot. Defensive tackle Leon Lett endured a season-ending knee injury while practicing on the artificial turf at Coppell High School, and defensive tackle Chad Hennings suffered a potential career-ending neck injury. Center Mark Stepnoski was sidelined for the season by a knee injury. Even punter Micah Knorr was knocked out of two games with a hairline fracture in his leg.

After safety Darren Woodson broke a bone in his forearm, the Cowboys played the final five games without seven players who were starters on the season-opening roster.

– Bill Nichols

SEASON-ENDING INJURIES
Pos.	Player	Injury	Games missed
WR	Joey Galloway	Knee	15
WR	Raghib Ismail	Knee	11
C	Mark Stepnoski	Knee	5
DT	Leon Lett	Knee	7
DT	Chad Hennings	Neck	8
FS	George Teague	Foot	7
SS	Darren Woodson	Forearm	5
DE	Peppi Zellner	Knee	4
Total 62

SEASON RECAP

Sept. 3  (0-1)
Eagles 41, at Cowboys 14
Philadelphia running back Duce Staley rumbles through the Cowboys' defense for 201 yards, and it wouldn't be the last time this season that the 200-yard barrier is broken.

Sept. 10  (0-2)
at Cardinals 32, Cowboys 31
Randall Cunningham threw for 243 yards, but Dallas fell to the NFC East basement with this intra-division loss.

Sept. 18  (1-2)
Cowboys 27, at Redskins 21
On Monday Night Football, the Cowboys did what they've done best lately: beat their archrival. The win came thanks to a brilliant performance from Randall Cunningham, Troy Aikman's replacement at quarterback, and a defense that didn't break.

Sept. 24  (1-3)
49ers 41, at Cowboys 24
San Francisco's Terrell Owens twice raced to midfield to celebrate on the Cowboys' star after scoring touchdowns. Safety George Teague flattened Owens after the second celebration, but that seemed to be the only time Owens was stopped.

Oct. 1  (2-3)
Cowboys 16, at Carolina 13
Playing gap-control defense, the Cowboys won in overtime. Emmitt Smith rushed for 132 yards on 24 carries.

Oct. 15  (2-4)
at Giants 19, Cowboys 14
No single Giants back gained 200 yards, but Ron Dayne, Tiki Barber and Kerry Collins combined for 203 yards on the ground as the Cowboys dropped another division game. Troy Aikman threw five interceptions.

Oct. 22  (3-4)
at Cowboys 48, Cardinals 7
Quarterback Troy Aikman's problems, and those of his team, were swept away in this one-sided affair. In order to play, Aikman needed anti-inflammatory shots to reduce pain caused by a herniated disk in his back.

Oct. 29  (3-5)
Jaguars 23, at Cowboys 17
Alvis Whitted caught a short pass, faked out Phillippi Sparks and sprinted 37 yards down the right sideline for the game-winning touchdown as the Jaguars won in overtime.

Nov. 5  (3-6)
at Eagles 16, Cowboys 13
Duce Staley was injured and didn't play, but kicker David Akers nailed a 32-yard field goal in overtime to give the Eagles a sweep of the season series.

Nov. 12  (4-6)
at Cowboys 23, Bengals 6
The Bengals were a great tonic for what ailed the Cowboys. Troy Aikman completed 24 of 37 passes for 308 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown to James McKnight. Aikman had no interceptions.

Nov. 19  (4-7)
at Ravens 27, Cowboys 0
The Cowboys' streak of 150 games without being shut out ended in Baltimore. Their defense was just as bad as their offense, allowing rookie Jamal Lewis to run for 187 yards.

Nov. 23  (4-8)
Vikings 27, at Cowboys 15
Randy Moss made the Cowboys pay once again for not drafting him. Moss had seven catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

Dec. 3  (4-9)
at Bucs 27, Cowboys 7
Warrick Dunn became the third rusher to go over 200 yards against the Cowboys on the 2000 season with 210 yards on the ground.

Dec. 10  (5-9)
at Cowboys 32, Redskins 13
This was a game reminiscent of the days when the Cowboys dominated opponents. Emmitt Smith rushed for 150 yards, and the defense recorded five sacks.

Dec. 17  (5-10)
Giants 17, at Cowboys 13
With Anthony Wright making his first start at quarterback, the Cowboys led, 13-0, at intermission but surrendered 17 points in the second half.

Dec. 25  (5-11)
at Titans 31, Cowboys 0
The Cowboys were shut out for the second time in six games. The loss marked the fourth time the Cowboys were beaten by more than 20 points this season.

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