IRVING, Texas — At game time last night, the rectangle of sky above Texas Stadium was as dark as the Cowboys' immediate future.
But when he sprinted onto the artificial surface before the first Saturday night Eagles-Cowboys game, Duce Staley ran right into an enormous shadow anyway.
That's because, as the jersey of overwhelming choice among Cowboys fans indicated, this was almost certainly the final home game for another running back who wears No. 22.
It wasn't going to be easy for Staley to distinguish himself on a night unofficially dedicated to Emmitt Smith, even if the many Eagles fans in the crowd did drone his name - the now-familiar "DUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE" - each time he touched the ball.
"You try to stay focused on your job," Staley said when asked if he had been affected by the potential drama surrounding Smith. "I had heard the rumors during the week, but I try to stay away from that stuff."
Staley, however, certainly did his best to yank the spotlight away from his more acclaimed counterpart. He helped to spoil Smith's night for the Cowboys and their increasingly unhappy fans in the Eagles' 27-3 victory.
Staley ran for 56 yards on 19 carries and caught three passes for an additional 27 yards in becoming the first Eagle to run for more than 1,000 yards and catch 500 yards' worth of passes in the same season.
The stutter-stepping back scored the game's first touchdown, shedding a couple of Dallas defensive backs on a careening 5-yard burst into the end zone in the first quarter.
"You've got to give credit to [offensive tackle] Jon Runyan," Staley said. "He pushed some people out of the way."
In the second quarter, when the Eagles were backed up to their own 2, Staley ran the ball three straight times to provide a welcome first down. On the next play, he gained 16 yards when he caught a pass thrown by A.J. Feeley.
When Staley picked up 5 yards with just more than two minutes left in the third quarter, the 27-year-old back surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing for third time in six seasons, the first time since 1999. That was the year before he suffered the foot injury that interrupted and threatened his career.
So the season hasn't been bad at all for a guy many Eagles fans had wanted to see replaced by Warrick Dunn in the off-season and whose playing time would certainly have been compromised had not Correll Buckhalter been hurt.
