ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALLAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
IT MAY HAVE BEEN COLD Sunday in Philadelphia, but Cowboys coach Barry Switzer had to be feeling the heat all the way from Dallas.
All Dallas Cowboys fans wanted a month ago was a Super Bowl championship. Now, after the Cowboys dropped their second consecutive game and fourth of the season, they want coach Barry Switzer dropped.
``I think he'd make a great high school coach - but not in Texas,'' said Joe DeLaurier, who works for a Dallas movie distributor.
What has Cowboys fans foaming at the mouth?
First came a loss to the hated Washington Redskins, who entered the game favored to lose by about two touchdowns.
Then came the loss to the hated San Francisco 49ers, when Dallas coaches watched all-universe receiver Jerry Rice line up in the slot position, race 81 yards for a first-quarter touchdown and still didn't make a defensive adjustment until the third quarter.
Next came another loss to underdog Washington, this one before a packed house at Texas Stadium.
Then came Sunday.
Switzer ordered his offense to try for a first down on a fourth-and-short play with a little more than two minutes left, even though the score was tied at 17 and Dallas was on its 29-yard line. Emmitt Smith was stuffed on a run up the middle, but officials ruled the play didn't count because the two-minute warning had been whistled.
Switzer decided to stick with his decision during the two-minute timeout, but Smith again failed on what almost looked like an instant replay of the first attempt. Philadelphia's Gary Anderson kicked a game-winning 42-yard field goal 30 seconds later.
``What a smart move that was!'' DeLaurier said. ``If at first you don't succeed, and don't succeed again ... my God!''
Out at The Main Street Liquid Co. in Richardson, one man sat at the bar stirring his drink and said he was too angry with Switzer to talk about it.
Monnique Pangilinan, a Dallas receptionist, was not at a loss for words.
``We got a chance after that two-minute warning call and then he did it again,'' she said. ``That made it twice as bad.''
The play-calling sent the Texas media into a frenzy.
A banner headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram screamed: ``Dumb and Dumber.''
Columnist Gil LeBreton, who called the play choices ``Switzercide,'' said: ``There may have been worse decisions made in the annals of time. The Edsel. The leisure suit. Adam biting on the apple.''
Despite the avalanche of howls, Switzer stubbornly stood by his decision.
``I knew we weren't going to win the ballgame if we didn't make the plays,'' he said. ``If we would have had the wind, we would have kicked the football. The wind was a factor.''
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who gave Switzer a vote of confidence after the loss to San Francisco, stood behind his coach and the call.
``We usually make those kind of plays,'' Jones said.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Quarterback Troy Aikman (left) is standing by Dallasby CNBcoach Barry Switzer's decision to go for it - twice - on fourth down
against Philadelphia on Sunday. color.