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| | Wednesday, November 10 | ||||||||||
MINNEAPOLIS -- Dallas Cowboys stars Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman were forced from Monday night's 27-17 loss to Minnesota, Smith with
a broken bone in his right hand, and Aikman with what was described as a "minor concussion."
Smith was scheduled for surgery Tuesday and is expected to miss two to five weeks of action. "Yeah, you have injuries, that's part of the game," Dallas coach Chan Gailey said. "But you can't lose Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman and expect to be exactly the same." On a first down at his own 37 with 6:21 left in the second quarter, Smith broke through over right tackle, cut right and outran the Vikings defense until rookie cornerback Kenny Wright jumped him behind at the 10. Rather than shrug him off, Smith simply stiffarmed Wright and carried him into the end zone. But in the process of trying to push off Wright, Smith apprently broke his hand."I can't really describe it," Smith said. "It was just one of those things that happened. I stuck my hand up for a stiff arm and that was that. I came to the sideline. I felt it and it felt funny and then we got a quick turnover. I didn't really have time to look at it so I just grabbed my helmet and ran back on the field." "I don't know how he hurt his hand," Wright said. "Maybe he did it grabbing my face mask." After the Vikings fumbled the kickoff, Smith scored from 24 yards out on the next play for his second TD in 18 seconds. But Smith, who gained 140 yards on 13 carries in just 21 minutes, wasn't able to add to that total. Aikman was lifted for Jason Garrett after being sacked on the final play of Dallas' first second-half possession. He had been hurt last week after being hit in Indianapolis and complained of headaches during the week. This was the sixth concussion of Aikman's 11-year career, the most recent coming two seasons ago. He finished 14-for-24 for 129 yards, and Smith carried 13 times for 140 yards in less than a half. Both men were at or close to milestones. With his 66th career 100-yard game, Smith surpassed Eric Dickerson on the all-time rushing list with 13,313 yards. His second touchdown tied him with Marcus Allen for second on the all-time list with 145. Smith already is the league's all-time rushing TD leader with 135.Aikman left the game 16 yards short of 30,000 career passing yards. The Cowboys already are without star receiver Michael Irvin and fullback Daryl Johnston due to injuries. Irvin will be sidelined for at least another month after he suffered an injury to his spine in an Oct. 10 game at Philadelphia. Johnston will miss the rest of the season with a career-threatening neck injury. "Everybody has guys hurt," Cowboys center Mark Stepnoski said. "Nobody wants to hear about injuries. But when you look around the huddle and Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Daryl Johnston are not in the offensive huddle, that's a lot of weapons, and with those guys hurt, we are shooting blanks." | ALSO SEE Cowboys to face Packers minus Aikman, Smith, Irvin
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AUDIO/VIDEO   Emmit Smith talks about his injury.wav: 205 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Chan Gailey talks about the injuries to the cowboys.wav: 163 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6  | ||||||||||
