1974 Cowboys

[lastcat3]

I just watched a video yearbook of them off of youtube and it got me wondering how dangerous of a team they would have been had they made the playoffs. Could they have been much of a threat to get to the Super Bowl in the '74 season if they qualified for the post season?

It was definitely a year of transition for Dallas as many of their stars from the late '60's were getting old and would retire soon after that year and many of their players that would carry the team through the late '70's and early '80's were up and coming young guys. Interesting team as most all of their losses were very close games (even to teams like Minnesota and Oakland). Infact they were inside the 10 yard line late in the game at Washington down by 7 and if they had been able to pull out that game they would have been in the playoffs.

They started the year off 1-4 but finished 7-2 and those two losses were close games against Washington and Oakland.

Would the '74 Cowboys of been a team that could have made a lot of noise in the playoffs had they made them? They definitely seemed to be better than many non playoff teams throughout NFL history.

[BD Sullivan]

I don't think so, since I recall that before the 1975 season, it was being considered a rebuilding year for the Boys. That quickly changed when they won their first games and started 5-1, with the shotgun coming back into vogue for good.

[Jay Z]

1974 Cowboys fixed a couple of things during the season. Toni Fritsch got hurt during the preseason. The Cowboys picked up Mac Percival from the Bears as a replacement. Percival was bad, going 2 for 8 and lasting three games. He was 1 for 5 in the two losses with a missed extra point, but the Cowboys made other mistakes. The only TD by the Eagles in that loss was on a 96 yard fumble return. Ouch. The Giants game was a terrible performance to what would be a 2-12 team.

Efren Herrera replaced Percival, and was an improvement. Landry also finally gave up on Charlie Waters as a CB, and Mark Washington and Benny Barnes played a lot more in the second half of the season.

Staubach did not have a great 1974, with 11 TD and 15 INT. He and Longley were sacked 47 times, which led the league in a bad way. This is part of the reason Landry went to the shotgun the next year, because the line couldn't protect Staubach. A SB IX with the Cowboys against the Steelers would have been a massacre. The Steelers sacked Staubach 7 times the next year when things were a lot more even. In 1974, Staubach might not have made it through the first half. The 1974 Rams also might have been rough on Staubach in a playoff game, as they were a couple of other times.

[74_75_78_79_]

Even though they, at 8-5, were just one game behind both StL & Wash going into the finale against Oakland, and that game being on Saturday night with StL & Wash playing the next day, Dallas was already out due to automatically not having as good a division record as both. Just the same, had Dallas still gotten in I’m not sure they would have been “dangerous”. Down the stretch (7-2 finish) they didn’t seem that much worse than the others in the NFC playoffs, but nothing real special either. Vikings or Rams would have been the first team they’d have to play and I just don’t see them advancing in either case. It was a transition year after all.

Side note - Craig Morton finally got his wish to be traded after six weeks in. And his first game the very following week...vs Dallas! A loss, as would be the case the rest of his career vs his old team, SBXII being the highlight of such. Yes, Denver walloped Dallas in a Week #2 upset in 1980, 41-20, but it was Matt Robinson playing QB for Denver in that game. 41pts and no passing TDs; Robinson’s 2 TDs was he running them in.

[BD Sullivan]

The 1974 Cowboys were 4-4 and finished 8-6, though their final four wins weren't terribly spectacular. The first came against a 49ers team that was on the downside, the second was against an improving Oilers team--with the defense doing most of the work in a 10-0 win. The last two came in the Longley Hail Mary game on Thanksgiving and a Week 13 blowout against a Browns team that had collapsed. What killed this team was their 1-4 start, especially the home loss to the Giants.

[RRMarshall]

Hard to say which was the worse loss, the home loss to the Giants or the 13-10 loss to Philly on MNF. It always seemed ironic to me to have one of the worst losses in team history in the same season as one of its most memorable victories, the Hail Mary win over the archrival Redskins on Thanksgiving Day (anyone ever read about why there was single coverage on Drew Pearson on that play?). But the 1974 team just had too many positions where you had established vets at the decline of their careers, and as was pointed out the place-kicking issue killed them in the early games. I doubt they would have done much in the postseason.

[BD Sullivan]

Hard to say which was the worse loss, the home loss to the Giants or the 13-10 loss to Philly on MNF. It always seemed ironic to me to have one of the worst losses in team history in the same season as one of its most memorable victories, the Hail Mary win over the archrival Redskins on Thanksgiving Day (anyone ever read about why there was single coverage on Drew Pearson on that play?). But the 1974 team just had too many positions where you had established vets at the decline of their careers, and as was pointed out the place-kicking issue killed them in the early games. I doubt they would have done much in the postseason.

Redskins assistant coach Ralph Hawkins explained that six DB's were in the game and that Pearson cut between Mike Bass and Kenny Stone. He elaborated: "Pearson froze Stone with a little inside move and then raced by. By that time it was too late for Bass to get over and back the play up. Structurally, we were in the right coverage, but we didn't execute."

[Jay Z]

Hard to say which was the worse loss, the home loss to the Giants or the 13-10 loss to Philly on MNF. It always seemed ironic to me to have one of the worst losses in team history in the same season as one of its most memorable victories, the Hail Mary win over the archrival Redskins on Thanksgiving Day (anyone ever read about why there was single coverage on Drew Pearson on that play?). But the 1974 team just had too many positions where you had established vets at the decline of their careers, and as was pointed out the place-kicking issue killed them in the early games. I doubt they would have done much in the postseason.

The Giants was a far worse loss. The Eagles were decent that year, 7-7. That game turned on one play; if Lavender doesn't run back a fumble 96 yards for a TD, the Cowboys likely win. The Giants game was never close; the Cowboys scored their TD with about 30 seconds left. Staubach was sacked 6 times.

The 1975 draft is much vaunted, and in the long term it was excellent. But its impact on the 1975 Cowboys is overstated. Only one rookie started in 1975, Burton Lawless at guard in place of John Niland. Ironically, Lawless wound up not lasting. The Cowboys did lower their sacks allowed a bit, to 38, and Staubach had a better year. They came up with a lot more turnovers, 44. On defense, a retired Bob Lilly was replaced by Larry Cole and Bill Gregory, but both of them had been around for a while. Pat Toomay was traded to make room for Too Tall/Too Mean, but they weren't rookies either. Charlie Waters went to safety, replacing the retired Cornell Green. But again, the guys replacing Waters at CB had already had some starts in 1974.

Toni Fritsch was better than Percival/Herrera, but again, Fritsch was simply hurt in 1974, not a new player. Preston Pearson was signed to make up for the loss of Calvin Hill to the WFL, but Pearson was older than Hill. Jean Fugett went most of the way at TE, but again, he was older than DuPree. Robert Newhouse was full time at FB when Garrison got busted up and retired, but Newhouse had been around...

Mostly the difference between 1974 and 1975 was some tweaking, and some of their younger players of the more recent season seeing an increase in PT. The 1975 draftees mostly were confined to special teams.

[lastcat3]

wouldn't the biggest difference between the '74 team and '75 team had been that their young players were getting better? Too Tall was just a rookie in '74 and also Pearson and Golden Richards were really young players as well. Did Randy White not have a huge impact on the '75 team?

[nicefellow31]

wouldn't the biggest difference between the '74 team and '75 team had been that their young players were getting better? Too Tall was just a rookie in '74 and also Pearson and Golden Richards were really young players as well. Did Randy White not have a huge impact on the '75 team?

Randy White started out as a MLB and was mediocre player his 1st two seasons (1975 & 76). It wasn't until he was moved to DT in 1977 did he start to have an impact.