4B
Thursday, September 22, 1994
SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sanders wins showdown against Smith in Dallas
The Associated Press
PONTIAC, Mich. — Soft-spoken Barry Sanders won't be drawn into comparisons with Emmitt Smith. Yet his teammates swear there was a special look in his eyes when the Lions lined up against the Cowboys.
Sanders carried a club-record 40 times for 194 yards at Detroit defeated Dallas 20-17 in overtime Monday night. Smith wasn't bad, either, rushing for 143 yards on 29 carries.
But the game clearly belonged to Sanders. He dazzled die-hard Dallas fans with his myriad of start, stop, sideways, hop moves.
"I saw a look in his eyes that I'd think Ive ever seen before," center Kevin Glover said.
"In the huddle, he was smiling and nodding his head like, 'Hey, we're going to win. We're going to get it on tonight."
Herman Moore saw the look even sooner than that. He thought Sanders was different before they ever went on the field.
"Barry wasn't saying anything," Moore recalled. "We joke around all the time before games. But not this time. Barry had this look, like he was saying. 'No more loking around.'"
Being compared with someone is notnung new to Sanders. It has been going on as long as he as been in the NFL. When he came into the league, people were trying to decide whether he was better than Christian Okoye. Then it was Thurman Thomas. Now it's Smith.
In the week leading up to the game the comparisons were being made, especially in Detroit and Dallas. There almost always is a newspaper lying in the bottom of his locker, so Sanders certainly knew what was being written and said.
"I promise I don't get caught up in that." Sanders said. "I think Emmitt is good. But there are a lot of reasons why we had a good game against Dallas.
"First of all, it's easy to get up for a team like the Cowboys. But it didn't really feel like I had the eye of the tiger or anything like that. Also, we had a terrible game at Minnesota the week before. That was some motivation, too."
the 10-3 loss at Minnesota. That's not nearly enough action for him. He knows it, and Lions coach Wayne Fontes knows it. Yet it isn't in his nature for Sanders to complain — especially during a game.
Sanders had only 12 carries for 16 yards in
Fontes vowed to get the ball to Sanders more against the Cowboys. Yet he and Sanders never dreamed it would be 40 times.
It didn't seem like 40, Sanders said.
It didn't seem like 40 to Cowboys coach
Barry Switzer. It seemed more like 80.
"I thought he had more than that," Switzer said. "Barry Sanders is the most dangerous back in the game."
As the game wore on, Sanders never lost his look. When others were gasping for air.
Sanders was taking the football.
"Barry was on," Lions quarterback Scott Mitchell said. "They couldn't touch him. Dallas is very fast, and he made them look bad."
There have been only three better games turned in by running backs in Lions history. Sanders holds the club record with 220 yards against the Vikings in 1991. Bob Hoernschemeyer rushed for 198 in a 1950 game against the New York Yanks, and Mel Farr had 197 in a 1967 game against the Vikings.
In 1934, Dutch Clark matched Sanders with a 194-yard game against Cincinnati.
"It's hard to hold Barry for four quarters, much less five," Dallas safety James Washington said.
RIVER VALLEY
MUSIC
CAFE
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