It took three players to overshadow the Dallas Cowboys debut of Deion Sanders. Somewhat surprisingly, he didn't even mind.
The excellence of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin enabled the Cowboys to overcome a 10-point, second-quarter deficit for a 28-13 victory Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons."I'm so happy to get this game over with so you guys can now treat me like an everyday football player," Sanders said. "That is the way I want to be treated. We have some great players on this team so I want you guys to spread the focus around."
That was easy to do Sunday.
Aikman completed 19 of 25 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Irvin had 10 catches for 135 yards and a score, and Smith took control of the ground game, racing for 167 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.
Sanders returned to the Georgia Dome for the second time since leaving the Falcons after the 1993 season. He made an impact a year ago with eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco, getting in a fight with Andre Rison and strutting past the Atlanta bench on a 93-yard interception return.
Sanders came close to scoring again, diving in the end zone on a 48-yard pass from Aikman that skipped off his hands. It would have been a spectacular catch.
"He wanted to perform like he thought he was able to," coach Barry Switzer said. "There was a lot of pressure on him, and he played well. They only threw his way once."
Smith cut Atlanta's lead to 10-7 on a 1-yard run that capped an 80-yard drive on the Cowboys' second possession. Dallas went in front to stay 15 seconds before halftime when Aikman hit Jay Novacek to end a 54-yard drive.
Dallas then took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and needed only six plays to go 68 yards, the final 43 coming on Aikman's pass to Irvin, who reached over defender Anthony Phillips to make the catch.
"He ran by the guy, I threw it up and he caught it," Aikman said. "Simple."
Daryl Johnston ended the Cowboys scoring on an 8-yard run just under five minutes into the final quarter, capping a 15-play, 81-yard drive that knocked 7:36 off the clock.
"I thought we grew up a little bit and did some good things, but not enough of them," Falcons coach June Jones said. "What we do from here on is going to decide our season."
Atlanta drove 71 yards with the opening kickoff to take a 7-0 lead on Jeff George's 42-yard scoring pass to Eric Metcalf.