It used to be said of Bear Bryant that “He could take his’n and beat yours’n and then take yours’n and beat his’n” – in other words, he won not with superior talent but by out coaching the opposition. Bill Parcells, it can safely be said, is the Bear Bryant of pro football.

It almost seems as if Bill Parcells became a football coach in order to take on reclamation jobs. Whereas Bryant took four college programs and turned them around, Parcells took four pro teams and immediately reversed their directions.

In some ways, Parcells’s feat of turning the Cowboys into a 10-6 playoff team in just one year is his greatest. The 2004 Cowboys won five more games than the previous team without any major roster changes, something that no other current NFL coach could have been expected to do.

Normally, such a turnaround would have generated much optimism, but Cowboys fans can be forgiven for wondering it the Parcells magic is already over. Over the last seven weeks of the 2003 season and the first round of the playoffs, the Cowboys lost five of eight and were outscored 153-118. Before yesterday’s 31-21 victory over the Lions, Dallas sat at 2-4 this season, and had been outscored by 49 points.

What happened? For one thing, the bedrock of Parcells’s Cowboys, the bedrock of all Parcells teams, the defense, wasn’t nearly so good last season as its no. 1 rank in total yards indicated. In the first half of the season, Dallas was able to overcome lack of talent with aggressiveness and technique. Parcells had a great defensive backfield, particularly when his prize pick, cornerback Terrence Newman, blossomed almost immediately, and Parcells’s tactic of jamming receivers at the line and daring opponents to try and slip someone downfield was paying off.

Then, around the second half of the season, opponents studying Cowboys’ game films noticed the Cowboys pass rush wasn’t capable of putting much pressure on their quarterbacks. Teams began holding the ball longer, putting more pressure on the Dallas secondary to tie up the receivers, but inevitably this resulted in the Cowboys giving up more and more big plays as the season went on.

In the past, Parcells had always been able to plug holes with an ingenious trade or free agent acquisition, but salary cap loopholes are harder to exploit now, and Parcells has found it increasingly difficult to stockpile talent. There were no big free agent acquisitions or blockbuster trades in the off-season; the Cowboys didn’t have enough talent to deal, and there wasn’t enough room under the salary cap to deal for any free agent superstars.

When injuries hit – the losses of big-play wide receiver Terry Glenn and the much-heralded running back Julius Jones, were particularly jolting – Parcells, for the first time in his career, was forced to settle for second raters and tired veterans.

Forty-year-old Vinny Testaverde was picked to replace the departing Quincy Carter, a move that left many football analysts scratching their heads. To replace Jones, Parcells brought in 31-year-old Eddie George; George’s replacement, Richie Anderson, is 33. Keyshawn Johnson, 32, was asked to replace Terry Glenn. Almost overnight, the Cowboys found themselves starting the oldest trio of players at the so-called “skill positions” in the NFL.

The first six games of the 2004 season confirmed the worst fears of Cowboy rooters: The team was living off the fumes of Parcells’s reputation. Going into yesterday’s game with the Detroit Lions, Dallas was faced with what amounted to either a season-ending loss or, if they won impressively, it was thought, there was the faint hope of a turnaround. They won, but as Fox’s Kenny Alberts said in a rare display of candor, “The Cowboys won, but it wasn’t clear that they are any better than the Lions. It isn’t clear that they’ve found a way to turn their problems around.”

It was an ugly, sloppy game from start to finish. The Lions played as if they expected to lose simply because they always lose to the Cowboys, collecting 112 yards in penalties. Their running attack never began to materialize, totaling just 39 yards all day – if nothing else, Parcells’s teams can usually tackle better than just about anybody else.

The Cowboys’ offense, though, was slow and sluggish. George, who has been clamoring for more work, carried the ball 31 times but gained just 99 yards. On a second quarter off-tackle run, he broke into the secondary for a 21-yard gain, but it was Dallas’s only rush of the afternoon that netted more than 10 yards. The team’s most important running play of the game actually came from Testaverde, who ran into the end zone untouched on third and goal from the 3-yard line. (After the game, Vinny quipped to color man Tony Siragusa, “I had so much room, Tony, I think you could have run it in.”)

As the game wore on, the Cowboys saw a tactic that opponents had been using more and more this season – six, seven, and, on two occasions, eight-man fronts, virtually daring the Cowboys to pass. Former Cowboys running back and now commentator Daryl Johnston noted, “In just about any situation, the Lions are willing to challenge the Cowboys’ receivers man-to-man.”

It worked most of the time. In the second quarter, Detroit’s Dre’ Bly picked off a Testaverde pass and ran it back 55 yards for a TD. But Testaverde accepted his three interceptions as part of the game and kept gambling that he could burn Detroit’s single coverage often enough to win. He was right, with 26 and 38-yard strikes to Keyshawn Johnson. But better defenses aren’t likely to keep giving him single coverage.

No one is expecting much from the Lions this year. For the Cowboys, though, things are beginning to take on an air of desperation. There are still two games to play with the far-superior Eagles and one left with the archrival Giants as well as one each with Seattle and Baltimore.

Realistically, the Cowboys would have to win at least three of those five to have a playoff shot, and that doesn’t seem likely. If Testaverde should go down with an injury, it’s going to be high noon for Parcells and the Cowboys.