When the Cardinals Were the “Other” Cardinals
By Matt Cordon (kh). Filed in Remembering Those Glory Days, Video Clips |
Growing up in St. Louis, we had two St. Louis Cardinals. At one time I followed the baseball version as closely as the Cowboys, to which I have made reference previously. The Big Red (what was supposed to resemble a football team) was another matter before they packed up and started losing elsewhere.
The year 1986 turned out to be an awful year, but it wasn’t at the time that Dallas visited St. Louis on Monday Night Football. The Cowboys were trying to become the third team in NFL history to start their season by scoring 30 or more points in each of their first four games. They did by winning 31-7 to improve to 3-1. But after starting the year 6-2, they lost quarterback Danny White to a broken wrist and won only one of their final eight games. The 7-9 record broke a streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons.
And if you’ve followed this site at all, you might remember the infamous Christmas video featuring members of the 1986 team.
Here is the story of that game::
Cowboys Ground Cardinals
By TIM COWLISHAW / The Dallas Morning News
ST. LOUIS – In Busch Stadium, where baseball’s leading base-stealer, Vince Coleman, can get run over by an electronic tarp, anything is possible. But after Monday night’s game, St. Louis coach Gene Stallings must be wondering only one thing – if it’s possible for the football Cardinals to win a game in 1986.
The answer is yes, anything is possible, but it didn’t happen Monday night. Didn’t even come close. Danny White threw three touchdown passes and the Cowboys’ secondary intercepted four passes as 31-7 proved to be the winning combination on the road for the second time.
The Cowboys, who beat the Lions, 31-7, in Detroit two weeks ago, lifted their record to 3-1 and remained one game in back of Washington in the NFC East, going into Sunday’s big game at Denver. The Cardinals (0-4) are off to their worst start since 1978, when they lost their first eight games.
St. Louis scored its touchdown on the first drive of the second half, a 10-yard run by O.J. Anderson that cut Dallas’ lead to 10-7. But Gordon Banks returned the kickoff 56 yards to the Cards’ 42, the longest Cowboy kickoff return in three years. Four plays later, White passed 13 yards to Tony Hill to give Dallas a 17-7 lead with 9:15 left in the third quarter. St. Louis never again crossed the Cowboys’ 45.
“I thought our big drive was the one in the third quarter,” coach Tom Landry said. “We did the same thing against Atlanta, let them come down and score in the third quarter, but this time we came back.”
The Cowboys got three interceptions in the final quarter, including one that went for a 34-yard touchdown by Ron Fellows. That came after White had passed eight yards to Herschel Walker for the Cowboys’ last offensive touchdown.
With Tony Dorsett sidelined with a left knee injury, Walker made his first NFL start. He gained 82 yards rushing on 19 carries and 57 yards on five receptions.
The Cardinals, who were without starting wide receivers Roy Green and Pat Tilley and running back Stump Mitchell, were held to 225 net yards.
“It’s hard to play in this league without any wide receivers,” Stallings said. “You hate to play badly on national television. It’s very frustrating for us.”
The Cardinals’ most frustrating moment came near the end of the first half, after Lionel Washington had intercepted a pass and the Cards had driven to the nine. Only one of the strangest plays of the year kept the Cardinals off the scoreboard.
Lomax tried a shovel pass to fullback Earl Ferrell, who was hit immediately by Vince Albritton. Ferrell flipped the ball back to a surprised Lomax, who rolled right and fired a pass toward tight end Doug Marsh in the end zone. The only two things wrong with that idea were that you can’t throw two forward passes on one play and the ball headed for cornerback Johnny Holloway. The Cowboys’ rookie intercepted the pass and Dallas declined the penalty to negate what had been only the second serious scoring threat of the half by St. Louis.
“It wasn’t planned that way,” Stallings said. “Neil just thought it was the best thing to do at the time.”
St. Louis’ only other first-half threat came on its first possession. The Cardinals moved from their 28 to the Cowboys’ 24, where a field-goal attempt by rookie John Lee of UCLA was blocked by Michael Downs. It was Downs’ second block in two weeks and also made Lee, the Cardinals’ second-round pick, just 2-for-6 on field goals during the regular season.
But St. Louis wasted little time getting back into the game in the second half. Taking over at their 24, the Cards’ gained 22 yards on the first play, 15 on a late hitting penalty against Eugene Lockhart. Ferrell broke loose for 21 yards on the next play.
Lomax hit J.T. Smith for 17 on a key third-and-8 to set up a 10-yard scoring blast up the middle by Anderson with 11:04 left in the third quarter.
But Banks, who was on the kickoff team because of a minor injury to Robert Lavette, reversed the momentum shift with his return to the 42. Walker ran for eight yards, then caught passes for 11 and 10 to set up White’s touchdown pass to Hill. On the TD, Hill drove inside, then beat Washington and linebacker Anthony Bell for the right corner. It was Hill’s 50th career touchdown catch, tying him with Frank Clarke for second on the Cowboys’ all-time list behind Bob Hayes. Hayes caught 71 in his 10-year career.
White opened the scoring in the first quarter – the first time the Cowboys had scored in the opening quarter of a game this year – with a 39-yard toss to rookie Mike Sherrard. Sherrard was running stride for stride with Wayne Smith, then pulled up around the five to make the grab while Smith kept going. It was Sherrard’s second touchdown in two games.
That play set the Cowboys on course for their third victory. No. 4 won’t be as easy: Dallas visits unbeaten Denver on Sunday.
“I don’t think there’s any question right now there’s not a worse place to go than Denver,” Landry said.
But Landry’s old friend, Stallings, might tell him that he knows of a worse place to be.
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