Show - 4 ( ?: f v ' t ' ' r v' if - ‘ j - " - v "? - -- : - f x v ' 4 OGDEN UTAH r rac ''t - — V v ' (©giien n : FRIDAY EVENING NOVEMBER gtanbarb-Sxamtn- er ectian 23 1979 J Wo mis ®i? I - :r : doesn’t know how it happened The Houston Oilers couldn’t care less touchDan Pastorini’s down pass to Ken Burrough midway through the final period capped a drive kept alive by an indefensible Dallas mistake Thursday leading Houston to a 4 decision over the Cowboys that gave the Oilers their fifth straight victory It f- : 32-ya- $&&&: ir— I rr rd 30-2- and a s $T half-gam- e lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the W i v AFC Central Division “I don’t know how it happened” said Landry of his club’s key error “It happens to every team — it just happened to us at a bad time” Burrough’s TD catch ended a drive of 66 yards which had appeared halted when Houston punted from the Dallas But the Cowboys were penalized for having 12 men on the field giving Houston a first down and on h the next play Pastorini found middle down the streaking on a post pattern behind Bennie Barnes for the score Houston improved its record to the best in pro football The Oilers close the season at Cleveland and at home against Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in an effort to notch their first Central Division title The Cowboys lost their third straight and fell out ' Bur-roug- 10-- 3 -S 'P -4 c- Nk- - 8-- yi’ three-wa- y BATTLE OF TEXAS The Battle of Texas quickly developed into a brilliant individual V r-- Earl Campbell - y ts ' - - x ' duel between Houston running back Earl Campbell and Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach VA picks his way through a hole for yardage against Dallas Thursday No 31 for the Cowboys HOUSTON’S (34) is Benny Barnes The Oilers handed Dallas its third straight loss 30-2- 4 Standard-Examine- UPI Telephoto r Oilers Earn Texas Bragging Kightfs Texas (UPI) IRVING — The Houston Oilers Thursday exercised their option on the Texas bragging rights they had won earlier in the afternoon “They may be America’s team’’ said Houston Coach Bum Phillips “but we’re Texas’ team I wouldn’t have it any other way’’ Houston had just whipped the for the first Dallas Cowboys time in regular season play in as exciting a game as professional football has to offer The victors — amid alligator cowboy boots and hats — were aware that another era might have begun when in the frantic last minute Roger Staubach missed by inches bringing his team back Mike Renfro son of former Cleveland Brown’s receiver Ray Renfro spent his childhood in the Cowboy organization when his father was a Cowboy assistant coach “Dallas has been winning most of the football games in this state for a lot of years” said Renfro who caught one touchdown pass “We had begun to catch up to them and hopefully we passed them today” If the Oilers did it was due to 30-2- be-feather- ed 4 10-gall- on powerful running back Earl Campbell who rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Dan Pastorini who completed nine of 17 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns Both were graceful in their victory QUIET SORT Campbell described by Pastorini as normally a “quiet sort” walked triumphally up the ramp from Texas Stadium shouting and waving his upthrust index finger in the air After those first minutes of emotion he reverted to his quiet self “I think the Dallas Cowboys can beat anybody they want to” he McCarthy to Begin TV Show Sunday “I think we can too The Cowboys hit hard but we let them know we were in the game too” Pastorini w'ho also professed great respect for the losers refused to allow the game to become a “Texas Bowl” “I know there’s a lot of pride in Texas and I know some of the other players on our team have heard a lot about the Dallas Cowboys over the years” Pastorini said “But I’m not a Texan And I’m not going to sit here and jump up and down because we beat the Dallas Cowboys “I have the upmost respect for the Cowboys and Mr Landry (Cowboy coach Tom Landry) and I always have It was good to beat said them” “This was probably the most emotional game I’ve ever been involved in” said Phillips “But the thing I’m most pleased about is Weber State basketball coach that in spite of that both teams Neil McCarthy will begin his weekhard and played like profesly television show Sunday at 11 played and gentlemen Tempers sionals on channel 20 pm were controlled and I’m thankful This will be the first time a Webfor that” er State coach has had a regular TV show Don Spainhower will serve as show host Campbell took over the NFL rushing lead with 195 yards including first half scoring dashes of 61 anc 27 yards Staubach the league’s for 281 top rated passer hit two and touchdowns yards A few Oilers positively gushed after the emotional victory and took out their decade long frustration at being known as that “other” team in Texas “America’s team? Ha Happy 21-of-- AFTER BEATING PROUD COWBOYS Tight end Mike Barber a native of east Texas gloated coming up the ramp off the field “America’s team? Hah Happy Thanksgiving Dallas Hah” Later in the dressing room he amplified “Dallas has never been one of my favorite teams” Despite the loss Dallas can still win its division championship if it beats in succession the New York Giants Philadelphia and Washington “People assume the Dallas Cowboys are going to turn it around” said Landry “We have always turned it around before because we had the people to turn it around That doesn’t mean we’re going to turn it around this time “I can’t fault our effort If we play with this same intensity the rest of the way we’ll be in the playoffs” 30 Thanksgiving Dallas” said Hous- ton tight end Mike Barber “They shouldn’t have fired Hollywood” said Rich Caster referring to flamboyant linebacker Thomas Henderson who was put on waivers by the Cowboys earlier this week and retired in retaliation “Now they got to bring Hollywood back” Despite the loss Dallas can still win its division championship if it beats in succession the New York Giants Philadelphia and Washing- ton Landry however doesn’t sound particularly confident “People assume the Dallas Cowboys are going to turn it around” he said “We have always turned it around before because we had the people to turn it around that doesn’t mean we’re going to turn it around this time” In the only other NFL game Thursday Detroit halted an eight WINNING TEAM Others on the winning team were not so kind Awaits Crudal Contest BYU United Press International Brigham Young coach LaVell Edwards is a pretty good judge of talent but he admits even he underestimated the potential on this year’s squad With the nucleus from the team that captured the Western Athletic Conference title team in 1978 back favorite to BYU was the win the league race again But expected the hardly toanyone be undefeated going inCougars to the final game of the year “This season has been a success beyond any of my expectations” said Edwards on the eve of his team’s showdown with San Diego State in the nationally televised game Saturday that will decide the WAC champion and the league’s representative in the Holiday Bowl next month The unbeaten and ranked 10th overall going into Cougars are with the dangerclash Saturday’s overall and ous Aztecs who are in the conference A BYU victory would give the Cougars their first unbeaten season in the football history school’s and undisputed claim to a fourth straight WAC title pre-seaso- n 10-- 0 8-- 5-- 5 tie with Washington and the Eagles for the top spot in the NFC East of a 2 1 57-ye- ar AT LEAST TIE BYU with a league mark at least a tie locked has up already of the league title A San Diego State triumph would leave the two in a tie for the league title but the 6-- 0 Aztecs would get the Holiday Bowl bid But while San Diego State needs to win to assure itself of a bowl invitation such is not the case for BYU The Fiesta Bowl which is not tied to any conference would likely invite the Cougars should they lose Saturday The Fiesta Bowl selection committee last week invited Pittsburgh which is 1 going into this week’s season finale against Penn State A matchup of the Panthers and BYU the nation’s most explosive offensive team would give the Fiesta Bowl one of the most attractive of the bowl packages Edwards concedes that beating San Diego State will be no easy assignment The Aztecs have won 21 of their last 22 games at San Diego Stadium and are currently winning working on a 9-- four-gam- e streak “This will be the toughest road game we’ve had since Texas A&M” said Edwards “I think they are comparable to A&M defensively and certainly better of- fensively” TO GO UNBEATEN Brigham Young can also become the first team since the 1975 Arizona State squad to go unbeaten in the league Led by All America quarterback Rookie Jeff Komlo threw for 244 yards and one touchdown and Detroit posted its first shutout in more than two years avoiding what would have been a club record 12th defeat The Lions also got a one-yar- d scoring run from Rick Kane and field goals of 35 and 29 yards from Benny Ricardo to end 2-- 11 Chicago’s four game winning streak and drop the Bears to ‘‘We were our own worst 7-- 6 enemy” said Chicago Coach Neill Armstrong “We had a chip shot field goal and missed it we had a snap on another field goal try go over our holder’s head those were things we haven’t been doing “Our defense picked off three our offense interceptions and which had scored 28 points a game the last five games couldn’t score a point” The Bears fell victim to the Lions’ pride — which was fueled by a nationwide audience “Television it helped us” Komthink we’re losers that we’ve been getting blown out every week I’ve been trying to tell people we’re not that far from doing the things we’re trying to do” Komlo who completed passes for 244 yards capped an TD pass drive with a to Leonard Thompson and Detroit drove 49 yards for its second score as two Chicago penalties inside the Bears’ 15 set up Kane’s run Detroit end Bubba Baker — last season’s NFC Rookie of the Year — had four sacks and drove starting quarterback Mike Phipps from the game in the last eight minutes with a possible broken nose The Lions also shut down Walter Payton who entered the game second in the NFL with 1207 yards rushing Pay-toin his third straight game below 100 gained only 54 yards in 18 lo said “People around the country 16-of-- 30 80-ya- 22-ya- rd rd one-yar- d n carries In Sunday’s games Washington is at the New York Giants Oakland at Denver Buffalo at New Eng- land Cleveland at Pittsburgh St Louis at Cincinnati New Orleans at Atlanta Minnesota at Tampa Bay Philadelphia at Green Bay Kansas City at San Diego Los Angeles at San Francisco and Miami at Baltimore The New York Jets are at Seattle Monday night Wolf Pack NAU Meet In Finale Associated Press o When joined the Big Sky Conference this season some of the coaches predicted the Wolf Pack’s last football game against defending Big Sky champ Northern Arizona might decide the league crown They were wrong because Montana State salted away the Big Sky football crown a couple of weeks contest still ago But the NAU-Ren- o looms as one of the most important of the season because the winner probably will be picked for the NCAA Division playoffs in Nevada-Ren- 15-ga- Texas-Arlingto- a 1 mark since Boise State was is 2 in on probation Nevada-Ren- o 6-- 4-- Schaefer at Mark Halda and Aztecs haand the quarterback ven’t lost since The Aztecs’ also have the league’s top running back in senior tailback Tony Allen Allen a is the only rusher in the conference to go over 1000 yards this season In other games on this final week of the season New Mexico and Colorado hosts Wyoming The at is Hawaii State New game will Mexico New coach for be the last was fired who earlier Bill Mondt this week 190-pound- 5-- s a?” 3 last-minu- te two-poi- nt o ¥ ' N?- ji HOPING FOR TIE Montana State which finished its season at 4 probably is hoping for a tie Boise Athletic Director Lyle Smith is on the NCAA selection committee He said earlier in the week if there’s a tie the committee will have to think about NAU MSU and Nevada for the playoff spot Idaho State hasn’t won since October 1978 Coach Bud Hake who 6-- er 6 7 4-- league and NAU finished But past results indicate the Wolf Pack will be strongly favored Both played MSU about the same losing by a couple of points But while Boise State had to stave off a conversion attempt to beat Nevada by one point the Broncos had a field day against NAU and won by 37 points Nevada-Renalso has scored 99 more points than the Axers and has surrendered five less 3-- San Diego State bidding for the year in the league also likes to throw the ball Coach Claude Gilbert has in recent weeks been platooning Chris n MSU won the Big Sky crown with WAC title in only its second Mexico-Wyomin- g Lions 20 Bears 0 December The contest is one of the last two on the Big Sky schedule this weekend Idaho State locked in a losing streak has a final chance to win a game this season at 1976 4-6- -1 upgame losing streak with a set of Chicago that crippled the Bears’ playoff chances A candidate Marc Wilson BYU leads the nation in total offense passing and scoring Wilson has set numerous NCAA and WAC records this season and goes into the final game of the season with 3442 yards and 24 touchdowns for the year Wilson has had seven games this season of 300 or more yards total offense and can set still another NCAA record if he can keep the streak going against San Diego State He currently shares the record with Tommy Kramer of Rice who set the seven game mark in 4-- To Ofr 20-- 0 Dallas Coach Tom Landry W'&'f r r Diro irkoy 0©iy TTy Unitad Pras International I ©©ftmnfi IrUofyJSftOlfiL 5 CHICAGO BEARS’ Walter Payton (34) lands upside down as he tries to dive over the line during Thursday’s 20-- 0 NFL loss UPI Telephoto to Detroit Standard-Examine- r has suffered through a series of crippling injuries to his players said split end John Kalivas can’t of a play this weekend because shoulder separation in the 42-- loss last weekend to Fullerton State 7 |