Reverend Conehead
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Yes, the Tom Brady signing helped the Buccaneers. Despite his age, he's still a great quarterback, and his winning mindset helped to transform his team. However, that would have been for naught of Tampa Bay hadn't given him a stellar defense. A defense like that can intimidate and render ineffective even a great quarterback like Patrick Mahommes, and he is truly great. KC could have had any great quarterback in his prime, Joe Montana, Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach, Payton Manning, really anyone, and would not have been able to win. When a D line overwhelms your protection like that, you just can't be an effective QB, no matter how good you are.
When you've got an amazing D like that, you can accomplish great things. That's exactly how Landry's Cowboys in the 70s and Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys in the 90s did it. In both eras, the Cowboys' defense was extraordinary. Everyone remembers the miracle comeback Roger Staubach and our offense did in the Hail Mary game of 1975. And, of course, Staubach, Pearson, and the offense deserve a tremendous credit for their miracle plays the accomplished on that last drive. There was the 4th and 16 pass to Pearson to move the chains, then there was the great Hail Mary play from about the 50 yard line. I don't want to downplay those achievements in any way. However, people forget there would have been no opportunity at all for those plays without great play by the defense. On the previous Vikings drive, the Vikings had 3rd and 2 and a chance to put the game away. One first down and they would have been able to kill the clock, game over, Vikings win. What happened instead was our defense sacked Tarkenton.
Back in the 70s, our defense knew if they could just keep it close and then get the ball into Staubach's hands, they could win. That 3rd and 2 stop wasn't a glamorous play, and was not the one remembered from that game, but it was every bit as important in that win. You should of course also credit the defense's great play for the entire game. They held the great Bud Grant Vikings to only 14 points. And one of those Vikings TDs was from a very short field due to a special teams flub. So that Doomsday Defense allowed a great team like the 70s Vikings to score only one TD off a full-length-field drive. They also stopped a promising Vikings drive, forcing a 40-something yard field goal attempt, one which ended up missing. Without great defensive play, the Hail Mary pass would either have never happened, or if it did, it would have been a meaningless academic score in a lost game.
It wasn't just the Hail Mary game. If you go over all of this team's greatest victories, all the Super Bowl wins, and all the great playoff wins, and all the end-of-season playoff wins, they all had great defense in common. In the Super Bowl 27 season, we had the number 1 defense in the league. Even in our most-famous loss, the Ice Bowl, if you re-watch that game, you'll see that the Cowboys were in that game to the end because of stellar defensive play. Doomsday man-handled Bart Starr. I remember seeing an interview with him and he mentioned how much they respected the Cowboys as the best team they faced that year. Great defensive play gives you a fighting chance against even a great team like the 60s Packers.
I want to see this team working on upgrading this defense, one which was, frankly, awful. When you have a great D, you don't have to ask as much of your offense. Your offense doesn't have to score on every drive in a back-and-forth scoring fest. Then if you have quality O-line play and a running game, you're sitting pretty.
What's frustrating is this team seemed to be on the right track starting in 2014 when the O-line and running game really came together. With that and a competent defense, we nearly got to the NFC championship game. At that time, I was like, okay, cool, now keep that and build a dominating defense and we'll have a crack at a championship.
None of this should be misconstrued as an attack on Dak. He's a talented athlete and a great guy with a positive attitude. But no team in history has ever won the Super Bowl simply by having a good quarterback. It's truly a team game. It why I hope they can sign Dak without paying so much that they don't have enough to build the kind of D that we need to win. I do think Dak could have won that Super Bowl as Tampa Bay's quarterback if he had that exact same defense, O-line, and running game that Brady had. You DO need a quality quarterback. I would never say as long as you have the elements I'm discussing that you can plug in any old scrub at quarterback. I'm saying Dak's not a scrub. He's very talented. He just needs these other elements to a team that any good quarterback would need. Staubach and Aikman needed them. Romo needed them, but never really fully got them.
So build a great D! It's all I want for Christmas.
When you've got an amazing D like that, you can accomplish great things. That's exactly how Landry's Cowboys in the 70s and Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys in the 90s did it. In both eras, the Cowboys' defense was extraordinary. Everyone remembers the miracle comeback Roger Staubach and our offense did in the Hail Mary game of 1975. And, of course, Staubach, Pearson, and the offense deserve a tremendous credit for their miracle plays the accomplished on that last drive. There was the 4th and 16 pass to Pearson to move the chains, then there was the great Hail Mary play from about the 50 yard line. I don't want to downplay those achievements in any way. However, people forget there would have been no opportunity at all for those plays without great play by the defense. On the previous Vikings drive, the Vikings had 3rd and 2 and a chance to put the game away. One first down and they would have been able to kill the clock, game over, Vikings win. What happened instead was our defense sacked Tarkenton.
Back in the 70s, our defense knew if they could just keep it close and then get the ball into Staubach's hands, they could win. That 3rd and 2 stop wasn't a glamorous play, and was not the one remembered from that game, but it was every bit as important in that win. You should of course also credit the defense's great play for the entire game. They held the great Bud Grant Vikings to only 14 points. And one of those Vikings TDs was from a very short field due to a special teams flub. So that Doomsday Defense allowed a great team like the 70s Vikings to score only one TD off a full-length-field drive. They also stopped a promising Vikings drive, forcing a 40-something yard field goal attempt, one which ended up missing. Without great defensive play, the Hail Mary pass would either have never happened, or if it did, it would have been a meaningless academic score in a lost game.
It wasn't just the Hail Mary game. If you go over all of this team's greatest victories, all the Super Bowl wins, and all the great playoff wins, and all the end-of-season playoff wins, they all had great defense in common. In the Super Bowl 27 season, we had the number 1 defense in the league. Even in our most-famous loss, the Ice Bowl, if you re-watch that game, you'll see that the Cowboys were in that game to the end because of stellar defensive play. Doomsday man-handled Bart Starr. I remember seeing an interview with him and he mentioned how much they respected the Cowboys as the best team they faced that year. Great defensive play gives you a fighting chance against even a great team like the 60s Packers.
I want to see this team working on upgrading this defense, one which was, frankly, awful. When you have a great D, you don't have to ask as much of your offense. Your offense doesn't have to score on every drive in a back-and-forth scoring fest. Then if you have quality O-line play and a running game, you're sitting pretty.
What's frustrating is this team seemed to be on the right track starting in 2014 when the O-line and running game really came together. With that and a competent defense, we nearly got to the NFC championship game. At that time, I was like, okay, cool, now keep that and build a dominating defense and we'll have a crack at a championship.
None of this should be misconstrued as an attack on Dak. He's a talented athlete and a great guy with a positive attitude. But no team in history has ever won the Super Bowl simply by having a good quarterback. It's truly a team game. It why I hope they can sign Dak without paying so much that they don't have enough to build the kind of D that we need to win. I do think Dak could have won that Super Bowl as Tampa Bay's quarterback if he had that exact same defense, O-line, and running game that Brady had. You DO need a quality quarterback. I would never say as long as you have the elements I'm discussing that you can plug in any old scrub at quarterback. I'm saying Dak's not a scrub. He's very talented. He just needs these other elements to a team that any good quarterback would need. Staubach and Aikman needed them. Romo needed them, but never really fully got them.
So build a great D! It's all I want for Christmas.
