Great points! It's simply just my, FWIW, humble opinion that the Colts would have had that, as said, 'Devil may care' stance going into Tempe. Yes, Steelers' D stepped up by then, but Big D's offense did seem to start faltering after that Irvin TD was called back in the 2nd Q. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not, but I think the Colts would have offered up some nice challenge to that end-of-Dynasty Dallas in the desert. IMHO they don't allow 13-0, Harbaugh no two throws to Larry Brown, so it would have made things tough for Big D!Ten Minute Ticker wrote: ↑Sun Jun 29, 2025 12:58 pm A lot of wishful thinking in this thread.
By score differential, the Colts were barely above .500 in expected win total. Their 9-7 out-performs their expected record.
Harbaugh was a solid game manager, but nothing more. Marshall Faulk was good, but not spectacular at the time. Defense was decent, but not elite.
They surprised an equally good, but just OK Chargers team in the first round. They then needed a Lin Elliott meltdown to slip past the Chiefs. The Steelers? Decent, but hardly a juggernaut. (Expected record 10-6.)
AFC was really weak at the time. Ripe for a team like the Colts to get hot (as the Jags did a year later), but not a reflection of quality.
Cowboys were plus-144 in score differential and had championship pedigree. They ranked top five in offense and defense.
And to those who think Colts mo would have mattered? The Cowboys also put down my Packers, who were rolling on momentum much as the Colts were (Packers were 5-4, only to win eight of nine games entering the NFC Championship Game) only with a much-better team than Indy had.
Cowboys beat the Colts comfortably in that hypothetical Super Bowl. Very likely would have been a 49ers-Chargers style blowout.
Green Bay? Yeah, despite Dallas pushing them aside yet again, had the Pack somehow got by them in Texas Stadium, I think the Colts would have had a quite harder time! Packers likely by 10 or maybe more! But only on the theory that GB were on the rise and Big D were just about to tumble.
Dallas SO still had Green Bay's # as exemplified in that NFCCG. So getting to Tempe instead is just the way it had to go!