Giants Score Big Over Cowboys

It was Barry Switzer’s worst nightmare.

Not only did the Dallas Cowboys have that feared letdown against the New York Giants, it was his biggest players who let him down - Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.

Sanders, Irvin and Aikman made crucial mistakes that either led to New York points or took them away from Dallas in a 20-6 loss to the Giants on Sunday. The Giants defense forced five turnovers and limited Smith to 18 yards rushing.

“We screwed up all night,” said Switzer, who benched Smith in favor of Sherman Williams in the fourth quarter. “We stunk. We didn’t take care of our business. We gave them four turnovers that led to points.”

Actually, only two of the turnovers led to points, but one really cost the Cowboys (7-5).

Safety Tito Wooten broke the game open by returning an Irvin fumble 54 yards for a touchdown just before halftime for a 13-3 lead. Brad Daluiso kicked two second-quarter field goals, and Dave Brown added a clinching 4-yard touchdown pass to Brian Kozlowski with 6:01 left as the Giants (5-7) snapped a two-game losing streak.

“It was a combination of things, but basically they made the plays and we didn’t,” Irvin said. “You don’t look past teams in this league, but we weren’t as emotional as we had been the last two games. We were nowhere near the emotional level we need to be at to win this game.”