Video 570 join the team The Washington Redskins stormed into Super Bowl 26 and sailed away with a convincing win over the Buffalo Bills I think we expected to go to the Super Bowl. That's probably not fair, but that's what we're trying to shoot for. Again, that's what we want to try and do. But this is the badge of the new sheriffs in town. The Dallas Cowboys and their brilliant young quarterback Roy Aikman come riding high into the new season. Well, I think we've got potentially the ability to be a very good ball club. Many believe that the New York City Bulls are going to be the best team in the world. Well, I think we've got potentially the ability to be a very good ball club. Many believe that potential could become a Super Bowl reality with Aikman at quarterback and the NFL's leading rusher Emmett Smith. The Cowboys are a young and dynamic team and a win over the defending Super Bowl champions tonight would be a major first step in their ascension to power in the NFL. Both teams have high hopes. Obviously, Washington came off the Super Bowl championship last year and I was having hopes of getting there this season, so I think this game right here will set the tone for the whole year for both teams. It's one of the fiercest rivalries in football, the Redskins and the Cowboys on the season premiere of ABC's Monday Night Football. Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys. A sellout crowd on hand for the renewal of one of the NFL's long-running rivalries. The Dallas Cowboys and the defending Super Bowl champions, Washington Redskins, open their 1992 seasons on Monday Night Football. Hello again, everyone. I'm Frank Gifford with Al Michaels and Dan Deardorff. So happy you're with us as we kick off our 23rd season of ABC's Monday Night Football. And so many memories from the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys over the years, and hopefully we're setting the stage for another great game. The Cowboys have returned to playoff prominence. They were 11-5 a year ago, and only three years before that they were a 1-15 team. They have really turned it around. The Washington Redskins, you know about them, you know them well. They beat, of course, Buffalo in the Super Bowl 26-37-24. They're stronger, if anything, Al Michaels. They're solid in management. They have great coaching, but after they lost that final preseason game to Minnesota 30-0, you get the feeling there are a lot of concern because they played their regulars right into the fourth quarter. And, Frank, they also play in, very clearly, the toughest division in the National Football League, the NFCE. So you can make a case, even though it's a long season, for the four most important games on the Redskins' schedule this year, the two against Philadelphia and the two against Dallas, including, of course, the one tonight. Another reason it's significant tonight for Washington, they were not only bad, as Frank said, during preseason, but abysmal against Minnesota. If they win tonight, then the preseason becomes what it should be, meaningless ancient history. If they lose tonight, then you go home and you go, is something wrong here? Is there a bigger problem? So a big game, even though it's opening night, for the skins against the Dallas team. Dan, two years ago, they win one, then they win seven, then they win eleven. What next? What's next? Well, to listen to Jimmy Johnson and the folks who live here in Dallas, it's nothing less than an appearance in the National Football Conference championship game. Lofty goals, but no team in the league has their star rising quite as quickly as this Dallas Cowboys squad. Now, Jimmy Johnson is the first to say, this is a better team now than I had here a year ago. But a reality check is here tonight in the form of the defending Super Bowl champion Redskins. But watch out, if by chance Dallas should win this game tonight, then I guess a lot of people will say about America's team. Rightfully so. Texas Stadium is a bad place to be if you're another club in the NFL. And it is the only place to be in the Metroplex tonight because a crowd of 65,000 looks on in a much anticipated game. This area talking about the game since the day the schedule was announced. Here we go. Washington and Dallas with Chip Lowemiller kicking off for the Redskins. And Lowemiller booms one into the end zone, and it is down there by Alexander Wright. The Cowboys will begin their first drive of the season from the 20s. Troy Aikman, who has now developed into one of the premier quarterbacks in the National Football League. A lot of people think shortly he will be the best. Fully recovered from a knee injury sustained late last year. Emmett Smith is terrific. Led the league in rushing. Johnston is the blocker and sometime receiver. Martin and Harper start as the wide outs, and Novichek the tight end. Michael Irvin has signed. We will see him. Two and eight, Newton, Cornish is in the middle. Gisick and Williams, the guy they're missing, Mark Stepanski. Their top center just signed, but not in uniform. They might have him back next week against the Giants. Aikman to Smith, and we'll see this a lot tonight as Emmett moves to the left side. And is out of bounds at the 24-yard line, and a late flag is thrown after a four-yard game. To a penalty at the outset, the referee tonight is Dick Hantek. And that four-yard game will be negated on a holding call against Johnston's Cowboys. So Hantek getting the call from the headlinesman who threw the flag, Terry Gerke. Holding offense, number 83, 10-yard penalty, repeat the down, first down. That's Kelvin Martin, who had a great camp and has got the start tonight. Mann, Wilson, Johnson, and Stokes up front, a three-man linebacking four of Marshall Govea for the retired Millen and Andre Collins. And three of those guys were Plan B guys, Mayhew Copeland and Edwards. Green, of course, is the perennial All-Pro. The crowd responds because here's Michael Irvin. Not in on the first play, but in on the second. It is first and 19 from the 11. And Aikman on first down, throwing incomplete, intended for Alvin Harper. That's full, second-year wide receiver out of Tennessee, covered by Mayhew. It'll be second down in 19. Good coverage by Washington. Govea, a very active middle linebacker, was back into the coverage and forced Aikman to throw over his coverage, and he under threw Irvin. Irvin has only practiced a couple of days. It'll be interesting to see how he holds up. And again, it was 94 degrees just prior to kickoff, outside and warmer now in the field. And this stadium is very still. There is no air movement. Through the middle, Emmett Smith. He gets to the 14. It will be third down and 16. Bobby Wilson makes the tackle. Wilson and Tim Johnson starting as the tackles. Eric Williams, who would be a starter for the Redskins, is first. He's on injured reserve, and they'll get him back in early October. I don't think it's going to be any secret that Emmett Smith, their number 22, is the man the Redskins feel has beaten them when they have lost to the Cowboys. So with Irvin and Novichek, the two leading receivers for Dallas, being late arriving, if you're Washington, you think that the Dallas passing game is a little off in their timing. If that's the case, you do everything you can do to take Emmett Smith out of the ballgame, reduce his effectiveness, force Dallas to win by throwing. Third and 16 with Smith out, and Johnson staying in the block, and good protection for Aikman, but the secondary does a great job, and Aikman is forced out of bounds up at the 24 yard line, and Dallas will have to kick. Monty Coleman with the tackle. Aikman wanted to deliver the ball, and he had nowhere to put it, or he would have tried to get rid of the football because he knew he was not going to be able to pick up the yardage running the football. Monty Coleman drops back into the coverage, a good pass defender for Washington. He has his eye on Aikman right here, and he has great speed, times it out. No way Aikman's going to get the first, and they bring out the putting unit. Al, you called it, so that's a real confidence builder for the Dallas offensive line. A tremendous pass defense. Mike Jackson quietly does the job year after year, one of the better kickers in the league, facing one of the better punt returners in the league, and Brian Mitchell. Mitchell backs up, fields at the 24 yard line, and comes out to the 34, and a marker is down. Pellistray makes the tackle, and will get the call from Hantack again after a 52 yard kick and a 10 yard run back. Penalty is against the Redskins. Holding, on the return, number 20, penalized 10 yards from the spot of the infraction, first down. He's going to avoid Mays, and so Joe Gibbs looks on as his offense takes over at the 20 yard line. Mark Rippon came into his own last year. Tremendous talent, they waited and waited, and then he put it all together and was the Super Bowl MVP. Finer, the terrific running back, Sanders, Clark, Munk, the posse is back with War in the tight end. Lachey, as good as they get at left tackle, McKenzie, Bosick, Schlereth with the throw ball, and the venerable Joe Jacoby, the offensive front. Rippon with the crowd cascading booze, and he pays the price as he gets sacked by Vincent Smith at the 8 yard line. The Cowboys did not have one linebacker sack all of last season, and they start this season with a linebacker sack. I think you saw Mark Rippon trying to change the play, change the formation or something of the line of scrimmage. He was doing it with a signal because he could not get the message out vocally because of the crowd noise. Well, the Redskins are going with a no-huddle offense. This is no surprise, they've been working on it and getting it ready for Dallas. Mark Rippon is calling the plays at the line of scrimmage. They did not go back to the huddle, and he's getting precious little cooperation, as you can hear, from the Dallas crowd. Second and 21, Charles Haley, the newest Cowboy, number 94. And that's finally tackled behind the line of scrimmage by Jimmy Jones. The most auspicious beginning for a defensive unit that is suspect. Colbert, Jones, Newman, and Jeff Coates. They are missing Russell Maryland and Tony Casillas, the two tackles. Smith who had the sack, Robert Jones is a rookie, he starts in the middle, Norton on the outside. Then Holton Brown at the corners, Washington and Horton are the safeties. Again, the no-huddle offense, as Dan pointed out, and you have to communicate even though you don't huddle, and it's very difficult, particularly down near the corner of that end zone where the crowd is so noisy. Third and 24, at the six, with Monk in motion. And Rippon's throw is low, intended for Biner. And so the Dallas defense, and the Dallas defense will probably dictate in the long run the ultimate success or lack thereof for this team this year, and they couldn't have a better first series. No, you're right, Al. They will move the ball offensively. They did it a lot last year. Defensively, they weren't the strongest team in the league. Alright, let's take a look. There is Charles Haley, the acquisition from the 49ers, working against a great player, Jim Lachey, and Lachey was blocked off by his own man. And Haley very nearly became a factor in the play. Kelly Goodburn sets up at the back of the end zone, fields the high. Sam and the kick is blocked! Out of the end zone, it's 2-0 Dallas. Isaac Holt puts the block. His fourth career block put, Isaac Holt somehow gets it done. He's not orthodox, to say the least. But he has great quickness. And the cornerback, who is under tremendous pressure here in Dallas because of the number one draft pick, Devin Smith, the cornerback, makes the play. Watch number 30. Dream start for Dallas. At the 13-yard line, Alexander Wright leapfrogs his way out to the 36. And we have two flags on the play. Alright, let's take a look at the block put. Understand, look on the left here, two, three, four, five. That's the overload side because there are only four guys on the right. So Goodburn, the kicker, is taught not to kick it towards the right. But watch the poor blocking over here that allows Holt to come upfield. One return, number 34, 10-yard penalty, first down. But Goodburn turns and kicks away from the overload, but he wasn't expecting such poor blocking to his right side. You've got to take more out of Isaac Holt. That's Johnny Thomas just taking his shoulder. And Isaac Holt is too quick for that. You're kicking right into that area. Frank, as you well know, you have to break his stride. You have to make him come to a stop and start over. If you give the end man a free run, he'll get it. Stickly in your own end zone because you're playing much tighter to avoid just what happens. Coverage is of secondary importance. Exactly. Blocking for your punter is primary. Penalty was on Tommy Agee for a holding, moving Dallas back to a 16. Troy Aikman goes to the air, and the pass is incomplete as he throws into traffic intended for the second tight end. Alfredo Roberts, he and Ben Novacek both hit in the two-tight end set. Kurt Colvea got a hand on it, second down. The timing of the Dallas passing game, as I mentioned, you really have to wonder with their two number one guys coming.