St. Louis Halts Its Losing Streak as Defense Ties Up the Cowboys, 21-10

ST. LOUIS — Neil Lomax and Danny White agreed that the play of the St. Louis defense was the reason the Cardinals were able to rally for a 21-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys Monday night.

“Our defense played a heck of a game,” said Lomax, the St. Louis quarterback who threw second-half touchdown passes of 46 yards to Pat Tilley and nine yards to J.T. Smith as his team snapped a four-game losing streak. “It’s the best I’ve seen them play in a long time.”

The defense was aimed at White, the Dallas quarterback who was largely neutralized in the last 30 minutes of the game.

“We were fired up, but you have to give them credit for stopping us. They just played extremely well,” White said. “It’s the best defense we’ve played all year, without question. They were very well prepared.”

“It was an attitude thing,” said St. Louis defensive back Leonard Smith, who intercepted a pass. “We wanted to do it and we played aggressively. Everything White put up in the air we thought was ours.”

While St. Louis staggered against the Cowboy defense, Dallas built a 10-0 halftime advantage on White’s eight-yard pass to Tony Hill and a 19-yard field goal by Rafael Septien.

The St. Louis comeback dropped Dallas (6-3) into a first-place tie with the New York Giants in the NFC East. The Cards, meanwhile, improved to 4-5.

“Offensively, we couldn’t do anything but improve,” Lomax said. “I don’t know how to explain it, we were just playing hard.

“People said we were a playoff team before the season started. We were 9-7 last year, but that’s not that good. We knew we had a lot left to prove, and I’ve still got a lot of grooming to do.”

Said St. Louis Coach Jim Hanifan: “When we were down, 10-0, at the half, the guys hung in there and fought. We never felt we were out of it. We knew good things would eventually happen. It was a hell of a defensive struggle. It was just a fantastic job. Our self-respect hung in the balance. We certainly had not been playing the way we are capable of playing, but tonight we did.”

St. Louis caught fire on its first possession after halftime, with Lomax’s 10-yard pass to Doug Marsh lighting the fuse on an 81-yard drive. Lomax followed with a 13-yarder to Tilley, and the Cards picked up an additional 15 yards on a roughing penalty. Lomax then connected with Tilley on the long touchdown play to cut the Dallas advantage to 10-7 with 12:05 left in the period.

Television replays appeared to show that Tilley spiked the ball before reaching the end zone.

The Cardinals moved 65 yards on their next possession for the go-ahead touchdown. Lomax completed passes of 11 yards to Smith and 15 and 12 yards to Tilley to set the stage for Earl Ferrell’s eight-yard touchdown run with 4:07 left in the quarter.

While the Cardinal offense rolled, the Dallas offense was frustrated throughout the second half by an aroused St. Louis defense that prompted two turnovers.

St. Louis moved 80 yards in 10 plays for the clinching score. Stump Mitchell ran 21 yards and then took a Lomax pass for 25 to put the Cardinals on the Dallas 42. Lomax hit Smith for gains of 10 and 19 yards before connecting with Smith on a nine-yard scoring play with 4:13 left in the game.

It was the Cardinals’ third straight Monday night victory over Dallas, which had won 11 of the previous 13 games between the teams, including the last three at Busch Stadium.

Lomax completed 17 of 32 passes for 260 yards while White completed 21 of 36 for 203 yards with 1 interception.