Mid '80's Cowboys

[BD Sullivan]

Hogeboom not panning out also accelerated their decline. Instead, they had to go back to White, a guy who had lost the locker room a year before and had a knack for backbreaking turnovers.

Didn't White also lose the locker room after he became a scab (along with some other big names) in '87?

[slats7]

Hogeboom not panning out also accelerated their decline. Instead, they had to go back to White, a guy who had lost the locker room a year before and had a knack for backbreaking turnovers.

Didn't White also lose the locker room after he became a scab (along with some other big names) in '87?

Perhaps, but the team was so bad by that time that nobody cared.

Tex Schramm had a deal with the Colts' owner to acquire John Elway .. until the GM found out about it and quashed it. That too hastened their demise.

[7DnBrnc53]

Tex Schramm had a deal with the Colts' owner to acquire John Elway .. until the GM found out about it and quashed it. That too hastened their demise.

Really? I never heard about that one.

[slats7]

Tex Schramm had a deal with the Colts' owner to acquire John Elway .. until the GM found out about it and quashed it. That too hastened their demise.

Really? I never heard about that one.

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/gallery/nf ... 983-053117

See #2

[lastcat3]

I have heard the talk of Dallas making a push for Elway and Elway wanting to go there (no doubt it would have happened if both sides got what they wanted).

However looking back on it I think Elway going to Dallas back then would have been one of the worst possible things for the Dallas franchise as a whole. Sure he would have kept the late '80's Cowboys far more competitive but at the same time you know they never would have drafted Aikman. Elway may have kept the Cowboys respectable enough to where Jones wouldn't have been able to fire Landry when he bought the team and Landry would have continued to coach on into the '90's. No Aikman, no Jimmy Johnson, no Herschel Walker trade.

If Elway went to Dallas I think the Cowboys of the '90's would have more closely resembled the Cowboy teams of the last ten years than they would have the three time Super Bowl winning team of the decade.

[ChrisBabcock]

If Elway went to Dallas I think the Cowboys of the '90's would have more closely resembled the Cowboy teams of the last ten years than they would have the three time Super Bowl winning team of the decade.

...which would have opened the door for a certain other NFC team I root for to win a few more Super Bowls in the early 90s.

[slats7]

I have heard the talk of Dallas making a push for Elway and Elway wanting to go there (no doubt it would have happened if both sides got what they wanted).

However looking back on it I think Elway going to Dallas back then would have been one of the worst possible things for the Dallas franchise as a whole. Sure he would have kept the late '80's Cowboys far more competitive but at the same time you know they never would have drafted Aikman. Elway may have kept the Cowboys respectable enough to where Jones wouldn't have been able to fire Landry when he bought the team and Landry would have continued to coach on into the '90's. No Aikman, no Jimmy Johnson, no Herschel Walker trade.

If Elway went to Dallas I think the Cowboys of the '90's would have more closely resembled the Cowboy teams of the last ten years than they would have the three time Super Bowl winning team of the decade.

Oh I dunno. He took some Denver teams to the SB that had no right being there. Not hard to see him doing the same for the '85 Cowboys. Then again, no one was beating the Bears that year.

[Byron]

What do you make of the mid '80's Cowboys? It is a bit of an interesting period where they really weren't Super Bowl contenders anylonger but still an above average team that tended to start off seasons strong but then struggle to the finish line.

Was it a matter of a still talented team that was just getting some age on them and so they didn't have the stamina to be able to finish with those strong records? Was Landry beginning to show signs of the game passing him by at that point?

In '83 while looking back on it historically it probably was their weakest team of the early '80's but at the same time towards the end of the season they were 12-2 and those two losses were by a total of three points. They then end the season with two losses to Washington and to San Fran which really isn't too much of a surprise considering what those two franchises turned into during the '80's. They then lose in the playoffs to an underdog Rams team but it is hard to say if that loss was a sign of the team getting old or if it was just a sign of a team that was down on itself after two convincing losses.

'84 hits and they do lose their top WR after a car accident that ended his career but they still get off to a pretty strong start at 4-1. The season seems to be remembered as Landry being unable to decide on a starting qb as he regularly brought White and Gary Hogeboom in and out of the starting lineup. They finished 9-7 but were very close to finishing 11-5 (as they lost late in the year to the winless Bills and then were ahead of the Redskins 21-6 at halftime in week 15 and Washington came back in the second half to win 28-24).

'85 they get off to another strong start at 6-2. Then they lose to a Cardinals team that ended up finishing 5-11. They pretty much traded wins and losses after that and the real shocker was getting blown out by Cincy late in the year. Still made the playoffs that year based off of winning tiebreakers against the Giants and Redskins.

'86 is interesting. They again get off to another 6-2 start. You could blame the second half season collapse on losing White for the year and Pelluer coming in but Pelluer beat out White for the starting job the very next year.

So was it a case of a still talented team that was aging at that point. Where they could start off the year strong but couldn't make it through an entire season playing at that level? They obviously were not Super Bowl material anylonger but they at the same time definitely hadn't fallen off the cliff yet.

Dallas regularly started strong and finished weak in the first half of the 80s. White had lost the locker room in 83 (he irritated a lot of people during the 82 strike) and he had a knack of making the big mistake. There's no doubt they had a lot of talent on the team but, as pointed out, they drafted very poorly during this stretch and by the mid-80s it had caught up with them.

In 1984, they were fading fast when the Bills beat them. Honestly, they weren't even in that game; I remember watching it in disbelief. The Bills just outplayed them badly. The biggest game of the 84 season was the final against the Dolphins. That was a very entertaining shoot-out and a close loss that kept them out of the playoffs. Great game to watch if you can catch it on YouTube or somewhere.

1985 seemed to rejuvenate the team. They played very well most of the time (I think the addition of Mike Renfro added more to the team than many expected) but got pounded by the Bears (44-0) and the Bengals (50-24). That team was fun but it was not all that good. They got some lucky bounces along the way.

1986 was a very hopeful season for Cowboys fans. Walker arrived and Landry set him and Dorsett up in the Full House Backfield (along with Newsome) so they could be on the field at the same time. They also added speed at the WR position in Mike Sherrard, who had a ton of potential. White was back at QB and playing like an All-Pro before Harry Carson of the Giants broke his wrist and the season went down the tubes with Pelleur at QB.

White's wrist never healed and Landry went with Pelleur after that. He had some talent but also a knack for the huge mistake. The team overall was in steep decline as far back as 1984. They drafted a lot of poor talent (Danny Noonan?) and really didn't have anything left by the late 80s. Jones cleaned house in 89; a move that was roundly criticized but very necessary.