I’ve probably watched the Dallas/SF playoffs—all of them—a dozen times, the Super Bowls—all of them—at least as often.
What I saw, or thought I saw at the time looks really different now.
First, Dallas used to run. A LOT. In the playoff vs. SF in 1970, which Dallas won (then lost to the Dolts), I think Craig Morton only threw 14 passes the entire game.
Now, admittedly the league as a whole was a much more run-dominated team then, but still . . . Morton looked terrible. His most successful throws were screens to Walt Garrison and Duane Thomas. The year after we beat Miami in the Super Bowl, we were in the divisional championship vs. SF and fell behind big—I think at one time, 15 points in the second half. Morton was terrible, and fumbled twice.
That lost to the Colts in the SB was the only time in my life I ever cried over a SB loss. It was like the Cowboys were cursed.
What I now see is that those Dallas lines were NOT very good at pass blocking. They were pretty good run blocking teams—Neely, Niland, Liscio. But neither Morton nor Roger ever had many clean pockets. It reminded me that Dallas basically wasted some really good years—later years, but still good—out of Lance Alworth, Billy Parks, and Mike Ditka.We also had three exceptionally good runners in Thomas, Hill, and Garrison.
Looking at the first Super Bowl vs. the Steelers, we were way outclassed, and only there because of Landry’s genius installing the Shotgun. That we made it as far as the SB was entirely on Staubach and Landry that year. But the second Steeler SB, they were even, and we had two horrible breaks that I think robbed us of another SB—one when Pitt squib kicked the ball right to Randy White—who had a cast on his hand and bungled it—and the famous Jackie Smith drop. Those two plays made the difference in the game. I felt so bad for JS, as he was an awesome tight end.
Thinking about the 80s, White just didn’t have it. He at times could be good, but I saw him for three years at ASU and he didn’t have the arm even in college. So I wasn’t surprised they could never get back to a Super Bowl. Even so, it took a fumble to give SF the win in the "Catch" game.
Now, compare either the 70s teams or today’s teams to those early 90s teams and what stands out are two things. 1) The O-line was absolutely dominant in almost every game. If you look at those games, Aikman often had a deep pocket for a 7-step drop and plenty of room. 2) The defenses were superb. Easily our backups like Washington were starter material elsewhere. We could discuss what led to the ultimate demise—Jimmy’s departure, but I think losing Norv Turner was as important as losing JJ. Turner’s timing pattern was the absolute perfect scheme for a lead-draw team.It reminded me of how the "West Coast Offense’ was perfect for Montana. Our offense never had quite the zip after Norv left. I wonder today if Dak was using a timing scheme if he wouldn’t be better.
One last recollection: the Deion acquisition probably helped give us the 95 SB. He caught a key deep ball from Aikman that gave us a TD. Other than that, the O could not move the ball consistently in that game. Anyway, what you saw (I think) after Norv left was an attempt to replace Harper and Novacek (terrible attempt at moving Moose to TE one season) and it probably hurt Emmitt, too. THe lines hadn’t lost much—still had variations of Tuinei, Newton, Stepnoski, Donaldson, Gesek, Kennard—but I think the pass game declined badly. Someone can probably counter with some stats, but that’s how I remember it.
Final thoughts, Landry never had nearly as much as JJ did, and worked miracles. But when he reached the end of his bag of tricks, he was done. The failure to replace Novacek and Harper was crucial. Unlike many I liked David LaFleur—certainly we missed on Gonzalez, but Dallas was thinking more run than pass from the TE. LaFleur was a very good blocker, but got hurt one year in and that was that. Reminded me of S Randy Hughes, who was on track to be a pro-bowl safety before ending his career with a rotor cuff.
Hope you enjoyed a walk down memory lane as much as I did posting it. All started because I was thinking of those tough runs by Walt Garrison in the Super Bowl.
