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The Cowboys, fresh from a 52-14 breeze past Cleveland in their first-round playoff game in the Cotton Bowl, were loose and happy during their practice at Lambeau Field the day before the title game. It was calm and partly cloudy, and the temperature was 16 degrees. Beneath the field, Lombardi's new $80,000 heating grid was humming away. "It feels good," wide receiver Bob Hayes said after running a couple of deep pass routes. Linebacker Chuck Howley nodded. "If we have another day like this, it will be ideal," he said. On Sunday morning, the hotel operator rang the players' rooms with a wake-up call. "Good morning. It's 8 a.m. and the temperature is 16 degrees below zero." That 32-degree downturn occurred shortly after 3 a.m., when a fierce wind pushed a new cold front through Green Bay. When Lombardi arrived at Lambeau Field, he learned it wasn't nice to fool Mother Nature. His pet underground heating system had conked out before its official debut. The field was solid ice, and gusting winds during the game would force the wind chill factor as low as minus-46. Until this day, the coldest championship game in NFL history had been played in 1945. It was 5 degrees above zero in Cleveland when the Cleveland Rams edged the Washington Redskins, 15-14. The Rams won by virtue of a safety awarded when Sammy Baugh passed from his end zone and saw the swirling wind blow the ball against the goal post on the goal line. The next year, the Rams moved to Los Angeles. Back in Green Bay, the Cowboys-Packers matchup had changed drastically. Football's jet set would have to challenge the proud but somewhat frayed champions on an ice rink. The game was blacked out on local TV, so the stadium was packed with fans dressed like Arctic explorers, puffing huge clouds of steam with each breath. They watched a weird game with two determined teams slip-sliding around and just one artistic play. On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Cowboys faced second-and-5 on the 50 when, at the urging of halfback Dan Reeves, Don Meredith called a play known as "fire pitch." The play began as a sweep left by Reeves, but he pulled up and threw a long touchdown pass to Lance Rentzel, who was wide open after defensive backs Bob Jeter and Willie Wood moved up to play the run. This gave Dallas its first lead, 17-14, and it almost held up to the finish. Almost. With 4:50 left, the Packers got the ball, needing to cover 68 yards for a touchdown, and Starr started them on a strange drive toward one historic play. Packers delivered key yardage on some plays, Cowboys simply slipped down on others, but with 16 seconds left the ball was about two feet from the goal line on fourth down. Starr used the Packers' last timeout to talk with Lombardi, who told him to go for the touchdown rather than try a field goal that could have sent the game into sudden death. In his book Instant Replay, right guard Kramer described the situation. "In the huddle, Bart said, 'Thirty-one wedge, and I'll carry the ball.' He was going for the hole just inside me, just off my left shoulder. Kenny Bowman, the center, and I were supposed to move big Jethro [Pugh] out of the way. I came off the ball as fast as I ever have in my life. . . . I wouldn't swear that I wasn't actually offside on the play." No penalty flag was thrown, however. The Packers had another title, and the Cowboys had a heap of heartache. "It's most disappointing to have this happen twice in a row," Meredith said in an eerily quiet locker room. The Cowboys had self-destructed in the fading seconds a year before after having first down on the Green Bay 2. "I guess, we can do everything except win the big one." Anyone who recalled the quarterback's medical history for the season - broken ribs, pneumonia, broken nose, twisted knee - would have felt Meredith was being too harsh with himself. But this was the year he wanted to see the Cowboys make it all the way to the top, and now the opportunity had been lost in the cruelest weather conditions in football history. As fullback Don Perkins observed, "Our whole offense - everything we'd worked on all year - went out the window." And so did the Cowboys' championship dreams for the next three years.
On a gray, freezing afternoon in old Metropolitan Stadium, Roger Staubach threw up a 50-yard prayer. Down near the goal line, Drew Pearson answered it with an awkward one-handed catch and stepped into the end zone as stunned defender Nate Wright sprawled on the turf. "I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary," Staubach said in the locker room after the unheralded Cowboys' victory over what probably was the best Vikings team ever. Thus the most memorable play in Cowboys history was christened. The Hail Mary pass became an enduring source of joy or agony, depending on your allegiance. Staubach and Pearson still find people eager to talk about it wherever they go, and probably always will. Of course, it would have been long since forgotten as just a long incompletion with 24 seconds left if Pearson hadn't trapped the ball on his right hip as he and Wright reached back for the underthrown pass. Wright stumbled to give Pearson a split-second chance for the catch. "When the ball hit my hands, I thought I had dropped it," he said. "I said, 'Oh no, I blew it!' But I was bending over, and the ball just stuck between my elbow and my hip." Pearson clutched the ball as he crossed the goal line, then held it high in triumph. The entire Cowboys team rushed on the field to celebrate while the Vikings blew their stacks. They howled that Pearson had pushed Wright down to get to the ball. Defensive tackle Alan Page got so ugly with his protest that officials assessed the Vikings a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. A few years ago, Wright had no complaint about Pearson when he recalled his coverage on that play. "I saw the ball in the air, and I really thought I could intercept it because I was in good position," Wright said. "Suddenly, my mind became confused. Next thing I knew I was on the ground, and I saw Drew catch the ball on his hip and run into the end zone. I was in shock." Wright and Pearson agreed there was incidental jostling between them as they raced downfield but no intentional pushing when the ball came down. "I was looking for the ball out and away, and I felt I had one more gear to get past Nate, but then I saw the ball was underthrown," Pearson said. "Nate was running at an angle a little in front of me to cut me off if the ball went deep. But I came back with my arm in a swim move, reaching over Nate's shoulder for the ball. I was as surprised as anyone in that stadium that I caught that ball." Staubach wasn't. "Drew was a Hall of Fame receiver. No matter the pressure, if he got his hands on the ball, he caught it." Afterward, Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton suffered a much greater shock. He learned that his father, a Pentecostal minister in Georgia, had died of a heart attack while watching the game with two of Fran's brothers. The Rev. Tarkenton's first name was Dallas.
More historic than dramatic, the Cowboys' Super Bowl breakthrough finally convinced everyone they deserved to be world champions. Dallas was too talented in all phases of the game, and the young Dolphins should have realized they could have lost by 35 points instead of 21. Roger Staubach threw touchdown passes to Lance Alworth and Mike Ditka and was named the game's MVP. Duane Thomas and Walt Garrison ran tough behind splendid blocking. And the sweetest moment on defense, fittingly, belonged to Bob Lilly. A year before, the perennial All-Pro defensive tackle had thrown his helmet 60 yards in rage when the Colts won Super Bowl V on a last-gasp field goal. This time, Lilly ran down Miami quarterback Bob Griese for a 29-yard sack, to give him his second Super Bowl record. "This one was a lot more fun to remember," Lilly said. So was the game.
Truly a clash of the titans. Pittsburgh and Dallas were the best the game had to offer in the '70s, and they waged a dandy battle to determine the Team of the Decade. Winning quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a record four touchdown passes, one of 22 Super Bowl records set in this game. Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach threw for three touchdowns and had a fourth dropped by Jackie Smith in the end zone. Randy White mistakenly fielded a low, short kickoff and fumbled it away to the Steelers, setting up a quick six for Pittsburgh. Field judge Fred Swearingen apparently penalized the wrong team when he called Benny Barnes for tripping Lynn Swann on a long, incomplete pass, a break the Steelers quickly followed with another touchdown. All three mishaps occurred in about a 10-minute span of the third and fourth quarters. After that, Dallas' 14-point rally was too little, too late.
Like Super Bowl VI, this one was historic but hardly dramatic. The Cowboys reached the top again in Jimmy Johnson's fourth season as head coach with an easy victory over outmanned Buffalo. Offensively and defensively, Dallas players did pretty well what they pleased. Troy Aikman was a superb quarterback, earning the MVP trophy with peerless passing: 22 of 30 for 273 yards, four TDs and no interceptions. The defense smothered Buffalo's offense, intercepting Jim Kelly and Frank Reich twice each and recovering five fumbles. The defense also scored two touchdowns.
Chuck Howley gave a virtuoso performance at linebacker to earn the MVP trophy, the only time the award ever has been won by a player on the losing team. That was one of the more positive things about the Blooper Bowl. The Cowboys were leading, 13-6, early in the third quarter, when Duane Thomas fumbled on the Baltimore one-yard line. With veteran Colts defensive tackle Billy Ray Smith yelling, "Our ball! Our ball!," official Jack Fette signaled a Colt recovery, then refused to change his call when center Dave Manders emerged with the ball. Late in the fourth quarter, Craig Morton threw a pass that slipped off Dan Reeves' fingers and into the hands of linebacker Mike Curtis, whose return set up Jim O'Brien's winning field goal with five seconds left. And with that, a furious Bob Lilly threw his helmet 60 yards downfield in disgust. The Cowboys should have won handily but somehow lost, remaining the champions of Murphy's Law.
Joe Montana goofed, and the Cowboys left their hearts in San Francisco. Montana, the 49ers quarterback, said later that he had wanted to throw the ball out of the end zone when he got rid of that third-down pass under heavy pressure with 58 seconds left. But he didn't put quite enough on it. He also didn't plan on receiver Dwight Clark leaping so high on the back edge of the end zone that he got one hand on the ball and pulled it in for the decisive touchdown. Neither did Everson Walls. He was a rookie cornerback then, and a good one. Now he's approaching middle age and people still ask him what went wrong with his coverage on Clark on that play. "I still can't believe how high he got, and how he managed to grab it with four fingers," Walls said. "Joe rolled to my left, his right, and the play took so long. He went inside me, and danced around in the back of the end zone, and when I turned around to look for him, the ball was already up. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I thought he went out of the end zone before he made the catch. "It's not the best catch I ever saw, but it was the most important one." The 49ers went on to win their first of five Super Bowls over the next 14 years. The Cowboys, so close to making it to another one, would have to wait 11 more years.
When the season began, the Cowboys had no reason to think they might even make the playoffs. Their rebuilding era was just beginning. When it ended, the Cowboys had good reason to think they might have won this Super Bowl. Super-tough (and rough) Pittsburgh got all it wanted from a young Dallas team that proved both gifted and gutsy. The Cowboys still came out of this one feeling good about themselves. They proved that season that when Roger Staubach is hot and you play with lots of heart, good things can happen. And even an occasional miracle.
"How about them Cowboys?" Jimmy Johnson yelled in an uproarious locker room. Everyone from Dallas had good reason to strut a little. This game validated the return of a storied franchise from the depths of the NFL. The Cowboys, with Troy Aikman at the controls, just took off and left a fine opponent in the muck of a torn-up field. Aikman and Alvin Harper hooked up on two long passes in the second half that left the 49ers reeling. In the third quarter the Cowboys broke a 10-10 halftime tie when former high jump champion Harper reached over the top of cornerback Eric Davis for a 38-yard catch to the 49ers' 7-yard line. After the 49ers closed to 24-20 with just over four minutes left, Aikman and Harper combined on a 70-yard play to the 6, setting up the final touchdown. There was no looking back, as the Buffalo Bills would learn in the upcoming Super Bowl. The Cowboys were good enough now to run over people and just keep going.
Does the Big Easy refer to the city or the way Dallas wins world championships there? The Broncos, like the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI, were lucky this one wasn't even more one-sided. On this day, Orange Crush was what Randy White, Harvey Martin and a raging Dallas defense made of Craig Morton and the Denver offense. And once Staubach hit some key passes and calmed down the offense, victory was assured for the Cowboys.
Rookie quarterback Clint Longley, also known as The Mad Bomber, came in cold when Roger Staubach was KO'd in the fourth quarter and pitched the Cowboys out of a 16-3 hole. Longley hit two touchdown passes, the clincher a 50-yarder to Drew Pearson with 35 seconds left. Guard Blaine Nye, a Stanford guy, called Longley's performance "a triumph of the uncluttered mind."
The last of Staubach's legendary comebacks. Dallas erased a 34-21 deficit in the last two minutes, climaxed by Staubach's 7-yard touchdown pass to Tony Hill with 39 seconds left. Staubach retired after this season.
Staubach, sidelined since suffering a badly separated right shoulder in August, led perhaps the most stirring Cowboys comeback ever, wiping out a 28-13 deficit after relieving Craig Morton. Staubach-to-Billy Parks (20 yards) cut the 49ers' lead to 28-23 with 1:10 left. Mel Renfro quickly gave Dallas possession again after Preston Riley couldn't hold a tricky onsides kickoff by Austrian soccer star Toni Fritsch. Fritsch approached the ball as if aiming to kick it to his left, then suddenly swung his right foot behind his left ankle and drilled the ball 45 degrees to his right. "The other team," Fritsch said, "they didn't know from which way come the ball." Staubach sure knew where to take it. He scrambled inside the 30, then nailed Ron Sellers for the winning touchdown in the dying seconds. On a wild and crazy Cowboys sideline, the usually stoic Tom Landry jumped, waved his arms and laughed. A few feet in front of him, defensive linemen Bob Lilly, George Andrie and Larry Cole turned somersaults. Roger the Dodger had turned the game upside down.
America's Team was born in this weirdly wonderful game. The flashy, young Cowboys lost when they self-destructed after facing second down from the Packers 1 in the final minute, but they won millions of hearts with their dash and determination. Green Bay led, 14-0, in the first five minutes before the Dallas offense ever touched the ball, but it was an even game by the second quarter when the Cowboys answered with 14 points. The veteran Packers, thrice NFL champions in the previous five years, finally seemed in control when Bart Starr threw his fourth touchdown pass with 5:20 left to make it 34-20. But Bob Lilly stormed through to block the extra-point kick to leave the door ajar for a comeback. Quarterback Don Meredith soon stormed through it with a 68-yard bomb to Frank Clarke. An inspired defense forced a weak punt on fourth-and-25, and Dallas had the ball on Green Bay's 47 with 2:19 left. Meredith quickly threw deep again for Clarke, who was racing open near the goal line, but desperate defender Tom Brown grabbed Clarke at the 2 before he could run under the ball. Pass interference gave the Cowboys a first down there, but they never scored - an illegal procedure penalty and a dropped pass helping do them in. The Cowboys came so close and were so exciting that nearly everyone figured they couldn't miss winning the next NFL title. Yeah, sure.
Lots of talk of a Dallas dynasty after the Cowboys drilled the Bills again. This one was more of a contest than 52-17 in XXVII, but not much. MVP Emmitt Smith pounded the Buffalo defense for 132 yards and two touchdowns behind superb blocking. In all the post-game jubilation, no one imagined this would be Jimmy Johnson's final game as Cowboys coach.
This was the high-water mark of the Barry Switzer era, and the oft-criticized coach definitely was up for it. "We did it our way, baby!" Switzer yelled to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on national TV during presentations at midfield. Then he tried to wrest the Lombardi Trophy from Jones, who two seasons earlier had hired Switzer out of what the ex-Oklahoma coach thought was permanent retirement. Jerry wasn't about to give him the trophy, but he did give Barry two more years before cutting him loose. Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith produced three touchdowns behind a solid offensive line, helping the Cowboys outlast the Steelers to win their third title in four years. Cornerback Larry Brown was selected MVP for intercepting Neil O'Donnell twice in the second half, returning them 44 and 33 yards and leaving the Cowboys a total of only 24 yards to move for 14 decisive points. Brown should have considered handing that trophy over to O'Donnell, whose judgment turned to jelly in crunch time.
Three days before the game, Jimmy Johnson guaranteed a victory. In the first half, Troy Aikman made his coach look like a peerless prophet. He hit 14 of 18 passes to fuel a 21-point halftime lead. Aikman retired from action when he suffered a concussion two plays into the third quarter, but Bernie Kosar's fine relief and a relentless defense helped produce the 49ers' most one-sided loss in coach George Seifert's five seasons. The victory set up a Super Bowl rematch with Buffalo, with the site moving from Pasadena to Atlanta. Everyone in roaring Texas Stadium probably knew this except Aikman. When the woozy quarterback was quizzed about the upcoming Super Bowl site after taking a knee to the helmet, he guessed Henryetta, Okla., his hometown. Aikman also could not name the previous year's Super Bowl MVP - himself.
Emmitt Smith suffered a separated shoulder in the second quarter, but he gutted out this crucial battle in the freezing, wind-torn Meadowlands for the glory of the Cowboys. Smith's heroics (132 yards on 30 carries, another 61 on 10 receptions) carried Dallas to its second straight divisional title. He crashed and battered for 41 yards in the inspirational, winning overtime drive. His 42 combined rushes and receptions set a club record.
A year after Staubach played his last game, Danny White flashed a flair for daring drama. He connected with Drew Pearson, Staubach's favorite clutch receiver, for two touchdowns in the final 3:40 to overtake a strong Falcons team that twice had led by 14 points. White-to-Pearson for 14 yards cut it to 27-24, then a 23-yarder sealed Atlanta's fate with 42 seconds left. Tom Landry called Pearson's two scoring catches "miracles." Falcons coach Leeman Bennett winced at the memory of his team's losing a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead. "You just can't afford to relax against a team that has the kind of firepower that Dallas does," he said.
After entering the playoffs by beating five straight opponents with losing records, the Cowboys proved they could beat a hot team with a winning record. A raging defense threw a shutout, and the Cowboys advanced by a baseball score. Landry smiled when asked what impressed him most. "Zero," said a coach who gloried in watching his first love, iron-fisted defense, win the game. Dallas' "D" brimmed with heroes. The rush line of George Andrie, Bob Lilly, Jethro Pugh and Larry Cole kept coming at quarterbacks Greg Landry and Bill Munson like high tide. Meanwhile, the secondary of corners Mel Renfro and Herb Adderley, strong safety Cornell Green and rookie free safety Charlie Waters provided near-flawless pass coverage. It was a day for ball control and the Cowboys' running game was another big plus. Duane Thomas, Walt Garrison and the offensive line took on the Lions' top-ranked rushing defense and whipped off 209 yards, 135 by Thomas.
The 49ers jumped out to a sudden 21-0, lead but the mistake-ridden Cowboys, hoping to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls, kept battling. "It's really kinda comical, like the Keystone Kops," Barry Switzer said. "You play the first five minutes and give San Francisco 21 points. But you know what? If the referee makes the same [interference] call on Deion Sanders [then a 49er cornerback] that he made on Larry Brown, we're going to score and it's 38-35 with five minutes to go." Instead, Switzer drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for bumping an official in exasperation over the non-call. It was just a lousy day on San Francisco Bay for the Cowboys.
On a miserable Thanksgiving Day, with freezing rain and snow blanketing the field, the Cowboys had apparently clinched a 14-13 win in the final seconds with a blocked field goal. But Leon Lett, with his teammates shouting to stay away, touched the dead ball. He slid into the ball at the 7-yard line, and the Dolphins' Jeff Dellenbach recovered on the 1 with three seconds left. An amazed Pete Stoyanovich this time kicked a 19-yarder true for a weird victory.
The second-year franchise opened the season with the most incredible performance in the Cowboys' brief history. Their first NFL victory after an 0-11-1 inaugural season displayed the grand theatrical aspects of pro football: the great comeback (10 points in the final 56 seconds) built around a great defensive play (middle linebacker Jerry Tubbs' leaping interception of Bobby Layne's pass up the middle at the Dallas 38 with 10 seconds left) coupled with a great offensive play (Eddie LeBaron's 41-yard pass to Bill Howton, who stepped out of bounds on the Pittsburgh 21 with one second left), leading to one final opportunity under terrific pressure. Rookie kicker Allen Green, who earlier had missed field goals from 41 and 35 yards and had a punt blocked, this time kicked true from 27 yards, and the Cowboys finally had a victory to celebrate.
Playing before the first sellout crowd in club history (a Cotton Bowl-record 76,251) the young Cowboys were in great position to upset the defending NFL champions: first down on the Cleveland 1 with 4:34 left. With the Browns' biggest linemen jamming the middle, Don Meredith chose not to hand the ball to gutsy fullback Don Perkins, who gained 86 yards to Cleveland legend Jim Brown's 99 despite a badly bruised rib. Instead Meredith threw a bullet pass at Frank Clarke, jammed among three Browns behind the goalpost. The ball was tipped by a Brown and fell lazily into the hands of astonished linebacker Vince Costello. The Dallas Morning News' Gary Cartwright began his story, "Outlined against a gray November sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. You know them: Pestilence, Death, Famine and Meredith."
One year and three days after that bitter loss to the Browns, Don Meredith and the improving Cowboys faced their nemesis in the Cotton Bowl again and played their finest game in the club's seven seasons. As a record crowd of 80,259 and an impressed national TV audience watched, the Cowboys celebrated their first game on Thanksgiving Day with clutch play on offense and defense. Afterward, everyone knew they had a good shot at winning the NFL Eastern Division and advancing to the league championship game. Tom Landry spoke glowingly of Meredith: "In the second half, Don was just great. It was the best job he has ever done for us at quarterback."
Don Meredith, in his second year of retirement from the Cowboys, returned as a rookie color commentator for ABC Monday Night Football, hoping to see his old team shine. Instead, it was the Cowboys' darkest hour. Dallas suffered its worst home shutout ever and fell to 5-4. Thousands of fans look up to the TV booth and chant, "We Want Meredith!" Dandy Don grinned sadly and said, "No way you're getting me back down there."
Danny White, knocked unconscious in the first half of a 31-17 loss to the Redskins in the NFC title game the previous January, returned to RFK Stadium with a vengeance. He and the Cowboys struggled in the first half, and the defending Super Bowl champs led, 23-3. But White threw for three touchdowns and the Cowboys scored 28 unanswered points to take charge in the second half.
The Cowboys looked stone-cold dead in Veterans Stadium, just like their hopes of winning their way back to the Super Bowl. In a 7-degree wind chill, they played as if the cold had numbed their football instincts. Two minutes left in a 17-17 game and facing fourth-and-1 at the Dallas 29, Emmitt Smith was slammed short of the first down - but the play was whistled dead. Given a second chance, Barry Switzer didn't punt and Smith was stopped again. With Gary Anderson's field goal a few plays later, the Eagles had a gift victory. It left the Cowboys 10-4 for the season but 2-3 in their last five games.
Understudy Jason Garrett was brilliant in his first extended playing time. Troy Aikman was ailing, but the Cowboys' offense wasn't once Garrett fired up in the second half. He led his guys to 36 points (a club record for a half) and five straight touchdown drives. And his passing statistics certainly had star quality: 15-of-26 for 311 yards and two touchdowns.
Don Meredith, flattened two plays earlier by blitzing linebacker Chris Hanberger, looked groggy as he lofted a high floater toward Dan Reeves on fourth-and-4 with 10 seconds left. Reeves, left uncovered when Hanberger stuck with Frank Clarke, waited patiently for the ball to fall, then carried it into the end zone for a 36-yard game-winner. Asked if he noticed that Meredith looked out of it, Tom Landry said, "I'm so used to seeing him that way, I can't tell the difference anymore." Meredith, the NFL leader with nine touchdown passes in four games, shrugged, "Another day at the office."
Roger Staubach had won back the quarterback job after missing most of '72 with a shoulder injury, but Tom Landry pulled him in the third quarter when he missed a key and was trapped. Dallas led, 7-0, and Staubach was angry about being replaced by Craig Morton. The quarterback switch didn't help. Late in the fourth quarter, it was a 7-7 tie when Brig Owens picked off Morton's errant pass and raced 26 yards to score. The Cowboys threatened to score in the last seconds, but Ken Houston bulldoged Walt Garrison down on the 1 at the final gun.
The Cowboys won with offense, defense and special teams as they opened a season that would see them return to the Super Bowl after a 13-year absence. "I think you've just got to brag on them and say it was their night," Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said. "They just looked a lot better than we did.' Emmitt Smith enjoyed his fourth straight 100-yard game against the Redskins, ripping for 139 yards on 26 carries. 33.
The Cowboys had won their last two games with the Browns by a combined score of 80-21, and both games were played in the Cotton Bowl (Christmas Eve '67 and the past September). No one seemed too concerned that this time they had to play in cold, dreary Cleveland. The Cowboys were 12-2 and hot to get to the Super Bowl. By the time the Browns scored late in the first half for a 10-10 tie, the Cowboys had become erratic and shaky. Don Meredith suffered two interceptions in the first 2:30 of the third quarter, and Cleveland cashed in on both for a 24-10 lead. Craig Morton relieved Meredith, but the Browns were too strong. Meredith watched the final 27 minutes, a sad, lonely figure. He and fullback Don Perkins both retired after this season.
A year later and another playoff showdown with the Browns didn't help the Cowboys' confidence. "I'm closer to the team because I'm the quarterback now," said Craig Morton, promoted to No. 1 when Meredith retired. "This time the team seems nervous, afraid, scared. I didn't sense that the last time." Morton thought that edginess was a good sign, remembering how the confident Cowboys had collapsed a year earlier. Not so. On a cold, rainy day in the Cotton Bowl, the Cowboys played as if they were stuck in the mud, the Browns as if it were a dry track. Bill Nelsen, in his first season as Cleveland's starting QB, was near-flawless throwing the wet ball: 18 of 27 for 219 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.
The Cowboys' new home had a hole in the roof and an instant nickname -the Half-Astrodome. But a crowd of 65,708 liked everything about it that Indian summer Sunday. Duane Thomas ran for 56 yards for a touchdown on the fourth play, and the fun never let up.
Winless in their first nine games under new coach Jimmy Johnson, the Cowboys avoided the humiliation of an 0-16 season by stunning the Redskins. Backup quarterback Steve Walsh subbed for ailing Troy Aikman and carefully directed a victory with no turnovers and no penalty yards.
The Cowboys, 6-2 for the first half of the season, began a long slide when a blitzing linebacker slammed Danny White in the first quarter, breaking his right wrist. White was lost for the remainder of the '86 season and Dallas finished 7-9, snapping a streak of 20 winning seasons. It would get worse.
Danny White was sidelined with a concussion late in the first half, and the Cowboys lost the NFC Championship Game for the third straight year. Young Gary Hogeboom replaced White and gave the Cowboys some hope with a brilliant third quarter. But he threw two interceptions in the fourth, and one was returned for a touchdown. Washington went on to win the Super Bowl, and Dallas would not reach another NFC title game for 10 years.
A landmark performance by 5-7 quarterback Eddie LeBaron and an inspired cast allowed the first Cowboys team to finish 0-11-1 at the expense of Tom Landry's old team. LeBaron, his injured ribs heavily taped, threw two touchdown passes to L.G. Dupre and a third to Bill Howton to erase a 31-24 deficit with 2:37 left. When the Cowboys' plane arrived at Love Field at midnight, two fans met them with signs: "Well Done, Cowboys." "Well," Tom Landry shrugged, "we're making progress.'
The Cowboys' playoff spot was already clinched in the strike-shortened season, so they played this one just for pride. Tony Dorsett certainly did himself proud, sprinting for an NFL record 99-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. |
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