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Show H Scoreboard B4 Comics B6 Business B7 u The Daily Herald Young BYU should only get better By RICHARD ROSENBLATT AP Sports Writer Norv Turner did it before, but 1 say. But can they finish better than their pick at No. 3? Can't say. But can they make it to the NCAAs again? Can't say. But put the question to these guys and they do say: They believe they can play. And they've got some evidence leaning their way. This year's team appears to be a Roger Reid type of a team, a squad that is motivated every game to go out and prove something and get respect. There is no thinking on this team that they're favored, picked, predicted to do anything. Dick Harmon Washington Redskins they could do it again. Sweeping Dallas is no small feat these days. The last time it happened was 1990 when the Cowboys finished 9 and lost tw ice to both the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. Turner, however, has a unique he taught the Cowadvantage boys' offense just about everything it knows, serving as offensive coordinator from 1990 until he took over the Redskins last season. "If there were 53 guys in this state who thought we would win, they were all in our locker room, and I'm not sure about all of them," Turner said after the underdog Redskins beat the Sunday for the Cowboys 24-1- 7 rare series sweep. "This win reinforced our program." It also stalled the Cowboys' bid to clinch a playoff berth and may be a factor in their drive for the Sidelines No prima donnas. They just bring hard hats and picks to work. That's why No. 8 Mississippi State found itself scared to death down the wire with the Cougars Saturday afternoon in Starkville. Miss. After coming within a Todd Christsensen basket of taking the Bulldogs into overtime with three seconds left, BYU players watched the television replay of KSL's broadcast on tape. They were livid. Nobody seemed to give them credit for a gutty comeback, tough defense and key plays. So they returned home wanting to write Bonneville International letters and get after Utah State Tuesday. Roger Reid loved it. For the record, the Cougars held Mississippi State without a field goal for the final 5:29 of the game. If basketball is a game of makinsi baskets, the Cougars made 30 field goals to MSU's 24 and took 76 shots to the Bulldogs' 52. But the home team got and 42 free throws to BYU's made 27 of those. BYU MSU and their twin towers 42-- 4 . This year's Cougars are quicker, stronger, more athletes who can run BYU's motion offense crisper and faster than the last two years. They can get out and formulate a fastbreak more efficiently because their wing players ate quicker and better Bryon Ruffner is a better player than Russell Larson in terms of shooting range, shooting skills, dribbling, defense, rebounding, and a ton of other intangibles. Justin Weidauer, the biggest surprise on this team, has j'ven the Cougars their best rebounding in years with games of nine. 10 and 5. And he only started for the first time Saturday night. And. the former Mr. Basketball in Utah can knock down shots. The Cougars are developing Jarkko Ahlbom to be a defender on the low blocks and Jermaine Thompson, who could have melted on the bench because of the Ahlbom investment against MSU. candidate Erick held Dampier without a field goal in the final five minutes of Satur- r i f5 i . the postseason. On Oct. 1. it was Washington 27, Dallas 23. Terry Allen nn for 98 yards and two TDs and a surprisingly composed Heath Shuler threw for another as Turner's troops controlled the tempo and the defense held off Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. 0 took a The Redskins ) lead on Shuler's 10 yard TD pass to Henry Ellard w ith 5:01 left in the third period and added run another TD on Allen's still in the fourth as Dallas (10-3- ) 4 ft. , : 4 " .J aiZ 1 fc, & i r. I J " .. ' f, , f i 1 '"v , remained two games ahead of in the NFC ) Philadelphia AP Photos (8-5- East. "We didn't deserve to win right from the beginning." Dallas coach Barry Sw itzer said. "They ran the ball on us through huge caverns. Why wouldn't we be focused? This was a very important game. Now we have to win the next three Washington's Stanley Richard during the fourth quarter of their matchup Sunday in Texas Stadium. The Redskins won knocks the (24) football away from Dallas' Emmitt Smith (22) ver 31. Jacksonv ille 23: San Diego 31. Cleveland 13: Carolina 13. Indianapolis 10; New Orleans 31. won the AFC Central ers (9-with a 21 7 win over Houston and took the AFC the Chiefs (11-2- ) West with a 29-2- 3 victory over Oakland. Elsewhere, it was San Francisco 27, Buffalo 17: Miami 21. Atlanta 20: Green Bay 24. Cincinnati 10: Seattle 26. Philadelphia 14: Den 4) -- games." While the Cowboys were humbled, Pittsburgh and Kansas City clinched division titles. The Steel- - New England 17; St. Louis 23. the New York Jets 20: and Minnesota 31. Tampa Bay 17. Chicago is at Detroit tonight. Stealers 21, Oilers 7 Pittsburgh extended its NFL- - to post a the game sweep of their division rivals. 24-1- 7 regular-seaso- n high winning streak to six games toughest I've spent in im coaching and won its third AFC Central in career." said Miami coach Don coach Bill Cow her's four seasons. Simla, who spent the week listenNeil O'Donnell threw two first-hal- f ing to why he should quit. "Everv-thin- g has been so negative, it's TD passes and Bam Morris been hard to stav focused." had 102 vardsandaTD. Packers 24. Bengals 10 Chiefs 29. Raiders 23 At Green Bay. Wis.. Brett Favre At Oakland. Calif.. Marcus Allen had 124 yards and a TI) as was 31 of 43 for 339 vards and Ins fifth' 300-yar- d Kansas City beat Oakland (8-- 5 ) for three TDs the fifth straight time and 12th in game this year and 10th of his are alone career. The Packers ) the last 13 meetings. Allen became the NFL's first plaver to run for atop the NFC Central in December more than 10.000 yards and catch for the first time since lc)72. Seahawks 26. Ladles 14 5.000 yards in passes. The Raiders in At Todd Peterson had a Seattle. a third row. their dropped i'.nir field goals as career-bes- t 49ers27, Bills 17 At San Francisco. Lee Woodall Philadelphia lost lor the second ) turned the game around in the third time in nine games. Seattle won its fourth game in the last five. quarter when he scooped up a fumble and ran 96 yards for a TD as Rick Mirer was 17 of 130 for 169 San Francisco (9-4- ) won its fourth yards and ran for 40 vards. includaid score. in a row. ing a 0 Broncos 31, Jaguars 23 and With the score tied John Llwav was 22 of 34 for the Bills ) with a 286 vards and lour TDs as Denver at the 1. linebacker Gary Plummer forced a fumble by Darick Holmes overcame several special teams' mistakes. Jacksonv ille w ith a devastating hit and Woodall got a d kickoff return for a TD did the rest. d when Desmond Howard ran 9 San Francisco's five Buffalo vards and then threw across the defense forced field to Jimmy Smith, who went Woodall with turnovers, leading the way with 10 tackles, a sack and the remaining 85 vards. Denver (7 6) is tied with Indianapolis and two fumble recoveries. Miami for the final two AFC wild20 Falcons Dolphins 21, At Miami. Dan Marino broke card slots. most 300-varanother record Chargers 31. Browns 13 San Diego, rookie Aaron At this won but the Dolphins games Havden. v 2 time on his replacing the injured yard TD pass to h rushed 32 limes Natrone Means, In II left. seconds ing Fryar with 127 vards and his fust two NFL for three-gam- e a streak, losing ending w n for ) the Dolphins needed two TDs in the TDs as San Diego si Clevein second time davs. the last eight minutes. Marino now has its lost tilth land ) straight. 52 300-plu- s yard games. Atlanta ) Panthers 13. Colts M fell two games behind the 49ers At Clcnison. SC.. Carolina (6- in the NI C West. ( See M L. "This past week has been the PaeB2) (9-4- " . - .... V. V... " (6-7- " ' 'ni VjVfcJw 5 " f 2-- v 10-1- (8-5- (3-1- "4-yar- top-ranke- d -- -- rr" ; (6-7- play-maki- 6-- l 14-1- well-round- 6-- ""-.- homefield advantage throughout 1 This team goes 9 (with Jeff Campbell). 6-- 6 and 7 across the starting line, but it plays five inches taller in the statistics and it doesn't mind getting floor burns. The Cougars are explosive. They can come back. They play defense. And they're still learning what they're doing. Guys like Nate Cooper. Todd Christensen, Weidauer and Campbell are hunand play gry and eager to play hard with some heart. They aren't bored with their roles and getting a minute on the court really means something to them. So they're fun to watch. "We may be fun. but sometime we have to start winning," said assistant Lvnn Archibald with a smile. y-- nt 1 day's game. 1 u ., outre-bound- 1 n - 7-- (4-9- 1 I l " had a hard time convincing his Spend one week on the road with the new-loc- k Cougars and a person could come away impressed, even after witnessing two losses. Young, inexperienced, raw on the edges, still searching for roles and chemistry, BYU in 995-9- 6 will only improve. But can they beat Utah? Can't December 4, 1995 Monday, (4-9- (7-6- Kansas City's Marcus Allen (32) breaks away from Oakland's Terry McDaniel during Sunday's contest the Oakland Coliseum. The Chiefs downed the Raiders by a score of in 29-2- 3. Cougars return home to host USU Aggies By DICK HARMON Daily Herald Sports Editor After one week of living out of suitcases through a road swing that took them from Utah to Reno and on to Mississippi, the BYU are home for a Cougars (1-Utah Tuesday matchup with (3-State at 7 p.m. There is no live TV scheduled. This game will have some emotion involved due to the reunion of former Aggie Bry on Ruffner with his former teammates and USU coach Larry Eustacy. Ruffner left USU a year ago and transferred to Utah Valley State College before enrolling at BYU. "We're looking forward to playing the Aggies at home." said BYU coach Roger Reid. "They have some talent which we respect, especially Eric Franson. who has had a great career for them." The Aggies are led by Ruffner 2) 2) long-tim- e friend Franson. a 6-- iesta faces title matchup By RICK WARNER AP Football Writer Fiesta Bowl director John Junker called it "one of the s of all time." 8 cemer and outstanding low block player. A year ago Franson caught fire on the Cougars in Logan and chased BYU out of the Spectrum mega-game- 83-5- 9 blowout. Silas The Aggies also have Mills, who has been a solid scoring weapon last year and in five games this season. Mills leads USU in scoring with a average. Franson. who is from American Fork, is second w ith 18 points per game. The Aggies got 22 points from Franson and 18 7 win over from Mills in a Lewis and Clark Saturday night. The Aggies have played" five games due to a trip to Hawaii where they defeated Simon Eraser, then and lost to Wichita State also beat Haw aii Hilo The other Aggie starters include 6-- 5 Jon Wickier. 6-- 1 Justin Jones and cither Myron Simms or Jermaine Womack. in an 6-- S 24-poi- 61-5- . Florida coach Steve Spurrier said "it's as close to a playoff as we can get." and Nebraska coach Tom Osborne was "delighted" with the matchup. What made them all smile was the official announcement Nebraska will that play No. 2 Florida for the national championship Jan. 2 in the Fiesta Bowl. "It worked out this year that the two undefeated teams are going to play in the Fiesta Bow l, and we're excited to be one of top-rank- them." Spurrier said Sunday during CBS" bowl selection show. After enduring months of criticism, the bowl alliance achieved its goal of getting a national championship game between the top two teams in the and ) country. Nebraska are the only Florida (12-0- ) undefeated, untied teams in and the winner of Division their showdown will be the undisputed champ of college (11-0- football. "In the absence of a playoff, this is certainly the best thing w e can do for college football." Osborne said. Nebraska-Florid- a The matchup couldn't have conference Ficsta-Orange-Sug- The Fiesta Bowl's dream game became a realitv Saturday beat night when Florida Arkansas 34-for the SEC championship. Florida is seek3 hap- pened under the old system of tie-in- bowl the alliance. "I think it worked out the way we anticipated it would." said SF.C commissioner and alliance chairman Ro Kramer. "We put together the I and 2 teams. That would not have been possible before we went this route." Nebraska would have gone to the Orange Bowl as the Big Light champion and Florida would have gone to the Sugar Bowl as the Southeastern Conference winner. Now. except for the Rose Bowl's agreement with the Pac-1- 0 and Big Ten. league champions are free to plav each other in ing its first national title, while is trying to become the first team to w in consecutive Nebraska championships since Alabama in 1978-79- . The Orange and Sugar bow ls also made their selections on the CBS telecast. The Orange took No. 6 Notre Dame (9-2- ) and No. 8 Florida State (9-2- ). while the (See BOWLS. Papc |