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IRVING, Texas (Ticker) -- Earlier in the week, owner Jerry Jones challenged his star players to earn their big contracts. Today, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith delivered the Dallas Cowboys their eighth playoff berth in the last nine years. Aikman passed for 288 yards and two touchdowns and Smith rushed for 122 yards to lead the Cowboys to a 26-18 victory over the New York Giants. The win clinched a wild card berth for the Cowboys, who became the second 8-8 team this season to make the playoffs, joining the Detroit Lions. The 1990 New Orleans Saints was the only other NFC team to reach the playoffs with an 8-8 mark. "There was lots of talk about urgency this week, but I don't feel that this game meant any more to us than last week's game," said Aikman, who completed 23-of-32 passes. The Cowboys were beaten by the lowly New Orleans Saints last week, but were still in control of their playoff destiny and capitalized today. After the loss to New Orleans, Jones spoke to more than 20 players on the team and urged them to justify their paychecks. "I thought our guys went out with a sense of purpose," said Cowboys coach Chan Gailey, who was under fire after the loss to New Orleans. "We played hard and played well. Not great, but well. You have to give credit to our offensive line. I thought they played fabulous today." Dallas' win eliminated the Green Bay Packers (8-8) from the postseason race. The Giants had a chance to ruin Dallas' postseason hopes, but could not make the playoffs as a result of Green Bay's win earlier in the day over Arizona. New York finished the season with three straight losses. "Obviously, its disappointing to end the season this way and my guys gave it their all," said Giants coach Jim Fassel. "I have an emptiness in my stomach right now. Yeh, it hurts." The Cowboys will play the Minnesota Vikings at the Metrodome on Sunday in the wild card round. "In the playoffs, it comes down to who's playing with confidence," said Aikman, who led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles in the 1990's. "We'll find out if this game helps us along." Smith carried the ball 22 times today and finished the season with 1,397 rushing yards, his highest total since 1995. Washington's Stephen Davis led the NFC with 1,405 rushing yards. "The opportunity to get into the playoffs was very motivating," Smith said. "There was no revenge factor or thinking of personal stats today." The Giants beat the Cowboys, 13-10, on October 18 in the first meeting between the teams. Eddie Murray kicked three field goals and Aikman hit Rocket Ismail with a four-yard scoring pass to stake the Cowboys to a 16-0 halftime lead. New York scored its first points on a 29-yard field goal by Cary Blanchard with 5:24 left in the third quarter. However, 70 seconds later, rookie Jason Tucker caught a short pass off a slant from Aikman and turned it into a 90-yard touchdown to open a 23-3 lead for the Cowboys. "The play was a slant that was called for me and the coverage was there for me to go one-on-one," Tucker said. "I just broke it." Tucker finished with four catches for 122 yards. The Giants made a big play of their own when Kerry Collins connected with Joe Jurevicius on a 71-yard pass to the Dallas 1. Jurevicius was ahead of the field after he caught a long pass, but was run down and tackled by Deion Sanders before he reached the end zone. One play later, Joe Montgomery scored on a one-yard run with 10:19 left in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys then went on an 11-play, 57-yard drive which consumed more than six minutes and resulted in Murray's fourth field goal of the game, a 40-yarder with 4:09 remaining. Collins hit Brian Alford with a seven-yard touchdown and Montgomery ran for the two-point conversion to pull the Giants within 26-18 with 57 seconds left. However, Dexter Coakley recovered the ensuing onside kick to seal the win for Dallas. Collins was 31-of-48 for 314 yards and a touchdown with an interception. Running back Tiki Barber was his favorite target with 13 catches for 100 yards. "This is about as difficult as it gets to finish the season the way we did," Collins said. "We didn't play well at all. I know that there's positives. In a couple of weeks, we'll find some things that we can be encouraged about. But right now it's really hard."
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