1985 Cowboys vs. 1985 Raiders

[CSKreager]

Both of these long-time NFL empires were at the end of a nearly 20 year run of football excellence.

In '85, they each squeaked out one last division title over teams that made the SB one year later (Cowboys swept the Giants with the two games having a combined margin of 8 points, Denver lost two OT games to the Raiders).

Both lost in the divisional playoffs (Dallas got ran over by Eric Dickerson, Raiders had a handful of turnovers vs. New England)

Both teams didn't make the playoffs the rest of the decade and both teams had a different look by the time they resurfaced in the early 90s.

For just this year- not 1986, when they began their decline- which of these seemingly vulnerable but still proud NFL behemoths did a better job in staving off the inevitable one more time?

[sheajets]

I would probably lean Cowboys in this one since I'd be more confident with Danny White under center than Marc Wilson. Dorsett put up his last great season, while Allen had an out of this world season (best of his career) Cowboys had a better receiving corps with Hill-Renfro-Cosbie mixing in the two backs as well, Newsome and Dorsett. They could flat out move the ball and still had a good share of reliable tried and true weapons

Both teams did a great job getting to the QB.

Dallas had two very ugly blips that year which was the famous 44-0 thrashing at the hands of Chicago and then giving up 50 to Cincy. They had a weirdly inconsistent defense that year. Very bend but don't break. Gave up a lot of big plays but stiffened in the redzone.

The Cowboys weren't exactly all that horrible in stopping the run all season. Kind of middling. Even with Dickerson...did not see that kind of meltdown coming

[7DnBrnc53]

Even though the Boys had the better QB, I think the Raiders had the better team that year. Dallas should have made the playoffs in 1984, not 85 (they had Washington down big in Week 15 of the 84 season before blowing it at home).

[74_75_78_79_]

I pick Raiders too; and by a noticable enough margin, and not just because they were 12-4 to Dallas's 10-6. Yes, the 'Boys swept Wash & G-men, but that's it. Those two, in '85, were an even lesser 'plain good' team than Dallas was. Other than those stinkers in Weeks #2, 3, 9, and 10, Raiders were a great regular season team. Beat a handful of winning teams, sweeping 11-5 Denver, with a nice 6-0 finish to boot! As already mentioned, 0-44 and allowing that 50-burger at Riverfront hurts Dallas as well.

[BD Sullivan]

The Raiders were the top seed in the AFC and -5.5 favorites against the Pats, but watched their season go down the tubes after having gone 7-1 at home during the regular season. Meanwhile, the Boys started out 5-1 and then bounced back and forth between good (or decent) winning performances and the aforementioned disasters. racking up a thoroughly mediocre 3-5 road record entering their playoff game in Anaheim.

[conace21]

The 1985 Cowboys did two things very well. They sacked the QB (62 times) and they intercepted passes (33 of them.) In both categories, they finished a close second to the Bears. In every other category, they were fair to middling.