Rested and at Home, Carolina Has Chance to Upset Dallas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Recent history suggests the Dallas Cowboys are catching the Carolina Panthers at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

Much has been made of the fact that Carolina is in the unenviable position of playing its first-ever postseason game against a team that’s won three of the last four Super Bowls.

But the Panthers have two factors working in their favor: Sunday’s NFC game is at Ericsson Stadium and comes 14 days after Carolina last played.

Twice this season, the Panthers have had more than a week to prepare for visiting opponents. Both times, Carolina responded with lopsided victories.

The Panthers opened the season by sacking Jeff George seven times and holding Atlanta’s run-and-shoot offense to 162 passing yards and two field goals in a 29-6 victory.

Later in September, Carolina came off its bye week and built a 17-0 lead on its first three possessions against San Francisco. The Panthers went on to a 23-7 victory that put them in first place in the NFC West.

Carolina went on to win the division and finish the regular season with a 12-4 record, earning a first-round bye and a date at Ericsson Stadium for its the second-round game.

Coach Dom Capers breaks into a slow smile when asked what his upstart Panthers could do with their latest extra week of preparation time.

“I don’t think there’s any question it helps,” he said.

What also should help the Panthers is their 8-0 record at Ericsson, where they have given up only 56 total points, including 13 in the second half. Five of Carolina’s opponents have been held scoreless in the second half at the Panthers’ $187 million stadium in downtown Charlotte.

“That’s incredible,” Dallas Coach Barry Switzer said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

While the Panthers had a businesslike two weeks of practice, it’s been a busy period for Dallas, both on and off the field.

The Cowboys’ 10-6 record and NFC East crown weren’t enough to earn them a first-round bye, so they defeated Minnesota, 40-15, last Saturday in a wild-card game.

Three days later, a 23-year-old woman alleged that two of Dallas’ best and most troubled players, Michael Irvin and Erik Williams, had held her at gunpoint and forced her to have sex.

Irvin and Williams have denied any wrongdoing. The continuing police investigation has led to a circus-like atmosphere at the team’s headquarters as various allegations and rumors are aired through the media.

“We’ve handled things like this before, so I’m sure we’ll be ready to play,” Switzer said. “It’s just another day around the block with these guys.”

Dallas was held without a touchdown in three of its last five regular-season games but got four against the Vikings. Emmitt Smith, who rushed for 116 yards and two scores, isn’t sure the Minnesota game is an accurate representation of the state of the Cowboy offense.

“The thing we have to establish is consistency,” he said. “It’s one thing to go out there and put up 40 points against Minnesota. It’s another the next week to not score hardly any points at all. So if we can go out and score points this week--not necessarily 40, but if we can go out and put the ball in the end zone--then I think we will be establishing something.”

While Smith may not think the Cowboys are back on track, Capers had a differing view after watching tapes of the Minnesota game.

“Emmitt looked better and some of those holes he was running through looked awful big, too,” he said. “There was a gear shifted last week with the Cowboys.”

That’s something Dallas appears to grow accustomed to every season at this point. The Cowboys are making their sixth consecutive appearance in the NFC semifinals.

Carolina, on the other hand, still is trying to answer all the questions about how a second-year franchise could get this far--and how much farther it can go.

“If there is another gear,” defensive end Gerald Williams said, “we better find it.”