DATE: Monday, November 17, 1997             TAG: 9711170174

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson, Staff writer 

DATELINE: IRVING, TEXAS                     LENGTH:   62 lines

EVEN THESE COWBOYS CAN SAVE THEIR BEST FOR LAST

IRVING, Tex. - Whether you love them, or whether you'd love to see them swallowed up by a big hole in the earth, this is why you must always respect the Dallas Cowboys.

With less than six minutes to play Sunday against the Washington Redskins, the Cowboys moved a football 97 yards to score a touchdown, completed a two-point conversion to tie the game, held the Redskins to three plays and one shanked punt, then drove 28 more yards before kicking the game-winning field goal with four seconds left.

Before all of this happens, you are thinking, ``These Cowboys cannot do this. Not these players. Not these coaches. Not this day. Not this year.''

These Cowboys are in disarray. These Cowboys have an ill, beleaguered head coach whose pushy owner hovers yards away on the sideline. These Cowboys kick field goals like crazy, but they cannot score touchdowns.

These Cowboys, in fact, are ghosts of their famous selves, clinking and clanking along, well aware that had Philadelphia not botched a gimme field goal back in September, the playoffs for them might already have turned to smoke.

In thinking this, you are not alone. Michael Irvin, the Cowboys' great receiver, is thinking this, too. When Matt Turk's 45-yard punt sails out of bounds at the Dallas 3-yard line with 5:48 to play, Irvin takes the field.

The season is flashing through Irvin's mind. The Cowboys, at this moment, are 5-5, a loss away from near extinction in the muddled NFC East. The Redskins, trailing 6-0 at halftime, have outplayed and overtaken them in the second half and lead 14-6.

They have held Irvin to three harmless catches for 27 yards. On the giant video screens inside Texas Stadium, they are replaying Irvin's battles with Redskins cornerback Cris Dishman. Dishman is winning.

``When that ball went out on the 3, I just shook my head,'' Irvin admits later. ``Like, it really can't get any worse than this. I thought, `This has been quite a season.' ''

His season gets better. Quickly. Quarterback Troy Aikman goes to Irvin twice in the first three plays, both incomplete passes. But then they connect for 18 yards. The next play, they gain nine more.

Two plays later, fourth-and-2 from the 50, Irvin ditches Dishman, who stumbles, and Aikman finds him for 31 yards to the Redskins' 19.

Soon after it's third-and-goal from the 6. Irvin tangles with Dishman in the end zone. They push, they grab. Aikman looks the other way, then Irvin shakes loose as Aikman's gaze returns to him.

Aikman throws. Irvin catches. A touchdown, which Emmitt Smith punctuates with a wonderful catch for the tying conversion.

It is still not over. The Redskins get the ball back with 1:55 to play. But suddenly your thinking has changed. These Cowboys just went 97 yards. These Cowboys are brimming with confidence. These Cowboys are going to win.

And they do, 17-14, when Cunningham, who looks exactly the way a guy named Richie Cunningham should look, makes his third field goal of the day, a 42-yarder, and his 30th of the season.

Superstar cornerback Deion Sanders enters the postgame interview room.

He says this has been deja vu for him. He has seen in advance that the Cowboys would win a game this way. He is asked, OK then, what will happen next week when the Cowboys go to Green Bay to play the Packers.

``I think you've got the wrong person,'' Sanders says. ``That's Dionne Warwick, not Deion Sanders.''

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