In July 1987, the Cowboys decided that Tony Hill showing up to camp out of shape was enough of a reason to cut the team’s all-time leader in receiving yards. The team was rather confident in veteran Mike Renfro and a slew of younger receivers, including second-year pro Mike Sherrard.
Lawrence Taylor stops Herschel Walker on a fourth-down play late in the week 2 matchup between the Giants and Cowboys.
In the first week of August, the team lost Sherrard for the season with a broken leg. Coach Tom Landry had said prior to the injury that the team had redesigned the offense to take advantage of Sherrard’s skills.
Without Sherrard and Hill, the team’s receiving corps consisted of Renfro, Kelvin Edwards, Rod Barksdale, Kelvin Martin, and Gordon Banks. Quarterback Danny White was expected to return, but the team was unsure about how well he might perform.
The team fortunately had the duo of Herschel Walker and Tony Dorsett, but most commentators expected nothing better than an 8-8 record.
Week 1: St. Louis 24, Dallas 13
When White hit Banks on a 20-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys held a 13-3 lead. The Cardinals had difficulty moving the ball all game, but in the final four minutes, the Cowboys gave up three touchdowns. Walker and Dorsett combined for 261 of the team’s 322 total yards.
Week 2: Dallas 16, N.Y. Giants 14
To avoid an 0-2 start, the Cowboys had to travel to the Meadowlands and beat the Giants. This was, of course, the same place where Danny White was lost for the season with a broken wrist, leading to the team’s 1-7 finish in 1986.
After the Cowboys took a 10-7 halftime lead, the Giants stormed ahead. The Cowboys made two field goals to take a 16-14 lead, and late in the game, the team moved inside the Giant 1 with less than two minutes left. On a fourth-and-goal play, Walker attempted to leap over the pile, but he was met by Lawrence Taylor and knocked backwards. The Giants drove into Dallas territory, and a 46-yard Raul Allegre field goal would have won it for the Giants. The kick, though, hooked just left, and the Cowboys pulled out the win.
Here’s a clip showing the missed kick:
Coming up… the Cowboys field a pretty good team of replacements.
Didn’t Sherrard break his leg in successive seasons while he was with Dallas? I shudder to think the Cowboys might never have drafted Michael Irvin had Sherrard remained healthy during his tenure in Dallas.
Sherrard broke his leg again in preseason in 1988. Dallas drafted Irvin that year, but I wonder if the team would have gone in that direction if Sherrard had played in ’87. I am not sure that he would have made a huge difference, although the team had a terrible time getting receivers involved that year.
I think I caught a glimpse of Robert Lavette and Manny Hendrix.
I remember when Sherrard broke his leg, just pushing off on a run. The slo-mo showed the exact moment when his leg parted. Made me afraid to run full speed on the playground.
I remember Sherrard playing for San Fran for a few decent seasons including one of their Superbowls.To my surprise,he played thru the ’96 season.Mike also averaged 18 yards a catch his rookie and only year here on 41 receptions.
Mike’s comments above got me interested in checking out Mike Sherrard’s career. He did indeed catch 41 passes his rookie year with 5TD’s and 18+ avg (744 yards). He played 4 years for SF catching 79 (1167 yards/4 TD’s). He did best in his three years with the Giants catching 121 (1835 yards 12 TD’s). One year with denver to close out his career (16 catches,185 yards, 1 TD). Overall a solid if unspectacular career of 257 catches, 3931 yards, 22 TD’s. Mike is correct that Sherrard was with the SF SB champs of the 1989 season, but he caught no passes. He did catch one pass in the SB for 13 yards. All on Pro Football Reference.com
I meant to mention that as part of Matt’s posting of the video, you can watch the previous series by Dallas in which they did not score on the YouTube choices provided after its run. I had forgotten that Gordon Banks went out of bounds at the 1 on a pass he might have taken in for a TD to seal the game.
The Giants game I remember well, for some reason it seems like it might have been a MNF game but perhaps it was the second game that season with the Giants that was on MNF…