The Dallas Cowboys won their final three games of the 1965 season to finish at 7-7, thus marking the first time that the team did not complete a season with a losing record. It became quite a habit. Starting in 1966, Dallas finished the next 20 seasons with winning records.
The Cowboys lost Danny White for the season in week 9 of the 1986 season.
The winning streak in 1965 began in week 12 of that season. Between that week (December 5, 1965) and week 8 of the 1986 season (October 26, 1986), the Cowboys played 300 regular season games. The team’s record during that span: 217-81-2, for a 72.3% winning percentage.
On November 2, 1986, Dallas traveled to the Meadowlands to face the Giants. Late in the first quarter, New York linebacker Carl Banks came in untouched and blasted quarterback Danny White, breaking White’s wrist in the process. White was gone for the season, and even though he played in 1987 and part of 1988, he was never the same.
The Dallas defense held Phil Simms to just 67 passing yards (46 net passing yards when taking sacks into account), but the Cowboys could not stop running back Joe Morris. The Giants gained 199 yards on the ground, and Morris’ two touchdowns gave the Giants a 17-7 lead.
Tony Dorsett gave the Cowboys hope when he scored from 23 yards out in the fourth quarter. Backup QB Steve Pelluer completed 28 of 38 passes for 339 yards against the feared Giant defense, and late in the game, Dallas had a chance to kick a game-tying field goal.
The problem became right tackle Phil Pozderac, who committed penalties that wiped out big plays to Dorsett and Timmy Newsome. The Cowboys were left to try a 63-yard field goal with seconds left, but it fell well short.
With the loss, the Cowboys were 6-3 and trailed the Giants and Redskins by a game. It got much worse.
Between week 9 of the 1986 season and the end of the 1988 season, the Cowboys played 36 regular season games with regular starters (excluding the three replacement games in 1987). The team that won 72.3% of its games over more than 21 seasons went 9-27, for a winning percentage of 25%.
To this day, I still shake my head when I hear the name Phil Pozderec… still to this day.. argh!
What a late-season collapse. Kind of reminds me of 1997 a bit. A couple of dynasties ending not with a bang, but with whimpers.
If it makes you feel better DavidH, ALL dynasties end that way..
I remember that on the Dorsett run and Pozderac was called for a hold. But replay showed that the call was unjustified and both Madden and Summerallcommented on it. I know we all like to bust on Phil P., but…. Anyway, the value of Danny White was never better demonstrated when he went out with the injury, even with Steve Pelleur’s occasional yardage production. Agonizing game that led to the beginning of an agonizing next two years.
I think that the Packers and Steelers dynasties ended with “bangs” not whimpers. One year they won the Super Bowl, the next they were out of the playoffs.
After the Packers SB win in 1967, then went 6-7-1. Lombardi had retired and all that season there were concerns they were too old and were fading. Pittsburgh went 9-7 after 1979 season and also missed the playoffs. But both franchises hovered around the .500 mark and had intermittent playoff appearances for a few years. You can check it all on Pro Footbal Reference.
I would mark this game as the beginning of the end of the Landry era instead of the Dallas dynasty. Dallas had not been a strong playoff contender for a couple of years (after the three year streak of NFC championship appearances).
I agree with Tim.
I think the end of the Cowboys ’70s-era dynasty actually happened when the ‘Niners beat us in the ’81 NFCCG. Yes, we made it back to the ’82 NFCCG and won the East again in ’85, but realisticaly, our last shot as a SB contender during the Landry era was that ’81 team.
The last half of the ’80s was painful to watch.