Thoughts on Super Bowl XII (Dal 27 Den 10)

[Gary Najman]

I expected Dallas to play the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship, but the Rams got upset by the Tarkenton less Vikings (Fran was injured). The field was a quagmire of mud and the Rams could not seem to do anything. So, the Bobby Lee led Minnesota Vikings advanced to the NFC finals against Dallas. I believe that the Los Angeles Rams would have had a much better chance to beat the Cowboys.

The Rams played well against the Cowboys in the postseason--away from home. They had won there the year before ('76) and would also knock them out in '79. Their '73 loss had them trailing by only a point with just under 10 minutes left when Staubach (who had taken a big hit in the first quarter) connected with Pearson at midfield on 3rd-and-14 and Pearson outran the Ram defenders.

Ironically, when the Rams hosted the Cowboys in the playoffs in the Knox era, they were a disaster, being outscored 65-7 in two conference championship games.

They met again three times in the 80s. In 1980 the Cowboys destroyed the Rams at Texas Stadium in the Wildcard game after losing to them two weeks earlier in a MNF at Anaheim. Then in 1983, the Rams won in the Wild Card game over the Cowboys (again at Irving) when Dallas was heavily favorite and a few weeks earlier they were one of the top teams in the NFL. In 1985, Eric Dickerson and the Rams blanked the Cowboys 20-0 at Anaheim in a Divisional Playoff game (Ironically that Tom Landry's last two playoff games were losses against the Rams).

[Gary Najman]

Butch Johnson didn't have that ball secured not even for a split second, yet touchdown was signaled almost immediately.

I also think that by the rules of the day Johnson didn't had possession long enough (according to referee Jim Tunney and field judge Bob Wortman, the official no. 84 who made the touchdown call, it was the correct call since Johnson broke the plane, but when he felt the ball went to the ground. I'm a Cowboys fan, but I believe Denver's defensive backs Steve Foley and Bernard Jackson were right to signal that Johnson had dropped the ball.

[JohnH19]

It certainly was a borderline call but Johnson did have the ball longer than Mel Gray did on his controversial "catch".

[lastcat3]

As others have already said in this thread this was a painful game to watch. I'm a Cowboys fan and even I can't make it much further than the first quarter of a Super Bowl game that they won.

They said the Broncos made a lot of mistakes in the game but the Cowboys made almost as many.

I would imagine that this game was probably the nail in the coffin for the nfl to finally make some rules changes that would make the game more entertaining to watch.

[JohnH19]

How do you think the rules factored into the sloppiness of the game? How do you explain the sloppiness of so many of today's games with even more rule changes designed to open up the offense?