er 2; Tuesday • September 2, 1997
Sports
LE PHOTO/The Battau
;d the MVP ofth
FILE PHOTO/Associated Press
Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin caught seven passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns in the Cowboys 37-7
dctory over Pittsburgh. The Cowboy’s offense is trying to improve on the 1996 season which saw them finish 24th
in total offense.
Dallas offense no longer
one dimensional unit
j IRVING, Texas (AP) — Last year
~ Hjie Dallas Cowboys could not move
;aid alterwardi,^ E mm jtt Smith couldn’t run.
irtable torforj They showed Sunday against
■he Pittsburgh Steelers they have
he has talked mg firepower this season to make
jdSeligaboutit| eam s pay for loading up against
t prevents hinimith
u‘ld or into the The off-season addition of An-
four tickets fo|]iony Miller gave Troy Aikman a
! and sat in thlsmft, sure-fingered target and
dugout next tbielped free Michael Irvin.
Between them they caught 9
passes for 196 yards and three
—rSouchdowns in the 37-7 win.
! "This team is going to be very
pplosive,” Miller said Monday.
It’s really going to be fun to watch
as soon as Troy and I have more
time to practice together.”
Miller, a five-time Pro Bowler
who played for San Diego and
Denver, played in only one presea-
songame because of a June knee
o/mtion. He got the Cowboys go-
ingwith a 31 -yard touchdown pass
from Aikman.
Irvin, who caught 7 passes for
153 yards, caught two touchdown
passes as Aikman burned Pitts-
aurgh’s 8-man front.
A year ago Irvin was watching
he Cowboys season opener, a 22-
loss to Chicago, on his couch
while serving a five-game suspen
sion for drug possession.
“I tried to down play it, but the
game was important to me,” Irvin
said. ‘‘We showed what we can do
now that we have Anthony on the
other side to loosen up the defense
on me.”
“This team is going to be
| very explosive. It’s really
going to be fun to watch.”
ANTHONY MILLER
COWBOY'S WIDE RECEIVER
Smith said it didn’t bother him
that he only got 69 yards on 26 car
ries.
“Several times I was just one
man away from breaking a long
one, but that’s what happens when
you see 8-man fronts,” he said
Monday. “My day will come.
Teams can’t keep loading up
against the run, or Troy will make
them pay.”
Aikman hit 19 of 30 passes for
295 yards and four touchdowns,
the most productive opening day
game in his career. His touchdown
pass total was one-third of his pro
duction all of last year.
"The offensive line was great.
I only got knocked down one
time,” Aikman said. “If we can’t
run this year, we KNOW we can
throw. I was pleased with the way
we won. If we keep this kind of fo
cus, we have a chance to accom
plish our goals.”
The Dallas defense, featuring
an inexperienced front-seven,
held up well against the Pittsburgh
running game, allowing only 85
yards.
Rookie linebacker Dexter Coak-
ley intercepted a pass as Dallas
held the Steelers to 89 yards pass
ing.
“I like this group,” said defen
sive coordinator Dave Campo. “We
have a lot of speed and that makes
up for mistakes.”
The Cowboys got off to a 1-3
start last year, and it was the de
fense that held them together for a
fifth consecutive NFC East title.
The offense was 24th in the
NFL.
“It’s time for the offense to show
what it can do,” said fullback Daryl
Johnston, who caught a TD pass
from Aikman. “We’re anxious to
put last year behind us.”
Rice out for season
49ers receiver sidelined with torn ACL
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Jerry Rice, the NFL’s
greatest receiver, probably will miss the rest of the year
because of a knee injury in the season opener.
Rice, an offensive cornerstone of the San Francis
co 49ers, underwent surgery Monday and could be
sidelined for up to six months. Until now, he had nev
er missed a game because of injury in his 12 seasons.
“Not only is Jerry Rice one of the great performers
on out football team but he’s one of our leaders,” coach
Steve Mariucci said. “That we will miss. We’re going to
have to pick up the pieces with somebody else.”
Mariucci said an MRI showed that Rice tore the an
terior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his
left knee as well as cartilage when he was tackled dur
ing the second quarter of San Francisco’s 13-6 loss at
Tampa Bay on Sunday.
Team physician Dr. Michael Dillingham was oper
ating on Rice while Mariucci spoke at a news confer
ence. The possibility remains that another operation
will be needed to complete the repairs.
“The prognosis is he’ll be out four to six months and
it is unlikely he will return for this season,” Mariucci said.
Rice, the NFL career leader in touchdowns, recep
tions and receiving yardage, is an 11-time Pro Bowler.
The injury will end his streak of 189 straight regu
lar-season, nonstrike games. He has played 176 games
in a row with at least one reception.
In the same game, the 49ers saw Steve Young go
down again with a concussion. He returned to play and
was listed as probable for Sunday’s game at St. Louis.
Young said the prospect of playing without Rice
would be difficult for the 49ers.
“It’s going to test our mettle,” Young said. “It’s going
to test who we are, top to bottom. We’ll be able to watch
it, you’ll be able to see how we do on the test.”
Rice was hurt on a running play, a reverse late in the
second quarter. After taking a handoff from running
back Garrison Hearst, Rice ran to his left but was in
tercepted by Tampa Bay defensive tackle Warren Sapp,
who had burst into the 49ers’ backfield.
Sapp grabbed Rice, getting a hold of his facemask,
and pulled him down awkwardly. Sapp was penalized
on the play and said after the game the tug on the face-
mask was inadvertent.
Rice, who had weathered so many other hard shots,
stayed down on the turf in agony for some five minutes
before being helped off the field by doctors and train
ers. He returned to the sidelines on crutches and in
street clothes to watch the rest of the game.
On the plane ride home, Mariucci said Rice vowed
he would be back, applying the same zeal to his reha
bilitation as he did to offseason workouts that kept him
in remarkable shape and injury-free for so many years.
“He said, ‘Coach, it’s going to
be OK,”’ Mariucci said. “Re
gardless of how long I’m going
to be out, I’ll be back.’ And he
will. He’s got a roster spot re
served on this football whenev
er he does come back.”
Rice has credited a rigorous
off-season conditioning pro
gram for his durability and suc
cess.
“It was clearly the most spec
tacular run,” said teammate
Brent Jones. “I’m not putting
him out of the game next week,
but to me what he’s done is
much more amazing than Cal Ripken.
“In professional football, to be a marked man for all
those years, guys making late hits on him and be able
to do what he has done, yeah there’s a side of me that
thought Jerry Rice was just never going to get hurt.”
Terrell Owens, a second-year pro, will step in for
Rice. Mariucci said he hopes he can continue to run a
full-complement of plays for the new man.
“Terrell Owens will run what Rice ran but we don’t
expect him to be Jerry Rice,” he said. “We’re going to
run pretty much the same things.”
And he said the team was already looking forward
to Rice’s return.
“You know he will rehab and recover as quick as
anybody,” Mariucci said. “You know he doesn’t want to
go out on that note. It was a tough blow but we have to
move on and get it done without him.”
“There’s a
side of me that
thought Jerry
Rice was new
er going to get
hurt.”
BRENT JONES
49ER TIGHT END
Big 12 names outstanding players
DALLAS (AP) — Kansas’ Patrick Brown, who became
the third linebacker in NCAA history to return two in
terceptions for touchdowns in a single game, was
named the Big 12 Conference defensive player of the
week on Monday.
Oklahoma State quarterback Tony Lindsay, who
came off the bench Saturday to complete eleven of 15
passes for 104 yards and no interceptions, was named
offensive player of the week, the conference said.
Brown, a 5-11, 210-pound junior from Westerville,
Ohio, picked off two passes and scored on runbacks of
53 and 21 yards as the Jayhawks beat Alabama-Birm-
ingham 24-0 Thursday. He also had a hand in six tack
les.
Lindsay, a 6-2, 190-pound redshirt freshman from
Denver, also rushed 12 times for 42 yards and a touch-
II 1.0 I 2
€ O N ¥ K H ilN C O
down in a 21-14 victory over Iowa State.
The Big 12 specialty player of the week was Okla
homa State punter Jason Davis.
The 6-0, 220-pound senior from Kerrville, Texas,
booted six punts against Iowa State for a total of 311
yards. Davis averaged a league-best 51.8 yards.
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