Though the Bucs would finish the season 5-10-1, from the perspective of Week 3, they were still the team who had reached the NFC Championship Game in 1979. The Cowboys came into RFK, and the combo of Dorsett, Ron Springs and James Jones ran for 177 yards in a 17-3 win.Ī second straight road trip to Denver didn’t go quite as well, with an early 17-0 deficit and a 41-20 defeat. The ‘Skins had a tough year in front of them and it started on this night. The league put the two archrivals on the Monday Night stage to open the season. The 1979 regular season had ended with Dallas beating the Washington Redskins in come-from-behind fashion to both win the NFC East and knock the Redskins out of the playoffs. Most notably with defensive end Harvey Martin and strong safety Charlie Waters. Dallas had Pro Bowlers at defensive tackle, in Randy White, and middle linebacker, with Bob Breunig, but age was catching up at other spots. It was enough to cover for a defense that was still pretty good-ranking 13 th in points allowed-but definitely on the decline from its halcyon days of 1977. This Cowboy offense was truly outstanding work-they’d had other units that were more talented, to say nothing of the quarterback change, but still scored more points than anyone else in the NFL. Overseeing the offense was coordinator Dan Reeves, soon to be John Elway’s mentor in Denver. White threw for nearly 3,300 yards, with a 28/25 TD-INT ratio-while that interception total was high, even given the standards of the era, it wasn’t unacceptable, the way it would be today. Tony Hill was the top receiver, going over 1,000 yards. The left side of the offensive line, Pat Donovan and Herbert Scott were each in the Pro Bowl and they lead the way for Tony Dorsett to gain nearly 1,200 yards on the ground. The 1980 team kept the winning going, and even without Staubach, they did it on the strength of the most potent offense in the league. They were just two years removed from back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, including a 1977 championship. GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTSĭallas was synonymous with winning and with playoff football in those days under head coach Tom Landry. The long-time understudy proved he was more than capable of being the leading man, and even though White didn’t get the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl, they remained in the NFL elite. Legendary quarterback Roger Staubach retired after the 1979 season and Danny White took over. The 1980 Dallas Cowboys represented a new era in franchise history.
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