1995 NFC championship game

Reid1boys · Jun 24, 2019

Red Dragon said:
Aikman said that he was never happier for a season to be over. Mickey Spagnola wrote that after the game was over, some Cowboys coaches or assistants were just lying down in the locker room (or some room,) absolutely collapsed from relief, exhaustion rather than from happiness.

The Cowboys had Jimmy Smith on their roster - who later on went to become the greatest WR in Jaguars history after he left Dallas - but failed to recognize him as the gem he was.

I never coached in the NFL, but I have coached some of the best girls fastpitch teams to ever come out of Northern Ca. We lost 2 games in my kids Jr. season and we allowed 5 or 6 runs in 31 games winning the first section title in schools history. We returned 8 starters the next season, and we once again won another league and section championship. The 2nd year was not nearly as fun, and I was relieved after we won it. Why? Because we were clearly the best team and we were supposed to win it. Anything less and I was a failure. We win it, who cares, we were supposed to.

BigD_95 · Jun 24, 2019

I will not jump on the Switzer hate. He was a great college coach and never had a chance in the NFL.

mrmojo · Jun 24, 2019

Like someone said you could tell this was the beginning of the end for the dynasty. Defense was giving up big plays in this game and offense wasn't as in sync as they usually were. I think they tried to force feed Deon into the offense a little bit too much but he did have the one big play on the obvious pick by Novacek. The Packers were up and coming and it would show the next year with their SB championship. Just a weird season for the Cowboys, getting blown out by the Niners at home, losing to the Skins twice, 4th and 1 in Philadelphia (twice!). I'm glad they won the SB but as a fan it was more a relief than elation like it was in 92. A totally different team in 95, more style than substance, but enough talent and the core was still there to will them to a championship.

rynochop · Jun 24, 2019

BigD_95 said:
I will not jump on the Switzer hate. He was a great college coach and never had a chance in the NFL.

Switzer may have been the best guy to bring into that situation..just let the coaches do what they do. Without a couple bone headed early plays, that you can't 'coach', including Aikman, he'd have two SB rings

JD_KaPow · Jun 24, 2019

PAPPYDOG said:
1995 season proved its the Players that win the GAMES as we had no to little coaching.....

It proves nothing of the sort. It demonstrates that you CAN win with overwhelming talent and poor coaching. You can also win with pretty good talent and great coaching. It's true that you can't win without talent, no matter how good your coaching is.

PA Cowboy Fan · Jun 24, 2019

I knew it was the end. Even watching the SB you could tell. Didn't even enjoy watching the game and it was more of a relief when it was over. But I never thought that 23 years later we wouldn't have gotten close to it again.

ryanbabs · Jun 24, 2019

Red Dragon said:
Probably another game. In this divisional playoff game (1995 Green Bay at San Francisco), the Pack more or less dominated the Niners from start to finish.

Yes, I used to have a good friend that was a Packers fan and we often joked at that time, it was like rock, paper, scissors with the Cowboys, Packers, and 49ers. Cowboys had the Packers number, Packers had the 49ers number, and the 49ers had the Cowboys number. This was after Mr. Switzer became our coach.

dckid · Jun 24, 2019

Reid1boys said:
Thw Cowboys were the Blueprint? What about the Cowboys and Steelers of the 70s? or the niners of the 80s? They werent a blueprint?

The Cowboys talent went away quickly due to the single biggest change ever made to pro football...... the salary cap. Teams like the niners and cowboys suffered the most. Why? because they were so talented and were at the peak of thegame, so they had the hardest and quickest to fall.

There is a reason that a WC team now has a legit shot at winning a SB... just as much as a 1 seed.... and it isnt because the coaching is now so dep that they bring their teams up. Salary Cap people, it works wonderfully.

I think we are just arguing semantics. The Cowboys from 89 to 92 was one of the greatest turnarounds in NFL history to that point. The turnaround was because of our savy drafting, amazing coaching and our culture.
All the NFL teams were impacted by the salary cap, it wasn't just the Cowboys. After Jimmy Johnson the teams coaching, culture, accountability, draft all went to &&*T. Just look at our 94,95.96,97,98,99,00,01 drafts
94- Shante Carver-- remember him?
Larry Allen- We got one... whohooo
95- Eric Bjornson
96- Kavika Pittman- how can we ever forget you? Randall Godfrey was good
97-David LaFleur-- Need i say more?, But we did get Coakley
98-Greg Ellis, Flozell the Hotel, Michael Myers was ok
99- Ekuban- Wow
00- Nothing
01- Quincy Carter

So in 8 years of drafting we got maybe 1 great and 5 good players.
The above is why our team collapsed, no the salary cap. Correlation does not equal causation.

It wasn' until 2002 that the Cowboys actually started drafting better.

BigD_95 · Jun 24, 2019

rynochop said:
Switzer may have been the best guy to bring into that situation..just let the coaches do what they do. Without a couple bone headed early plays, that you can't 'coach', including Aikman, he'd have two SB rings

yes, it was 3 turnovers in the first 3 mins of the game and gave 49ers a 21-0 lead 5 mins into the game.

cheftjpeck · Jun 24, 2019

Red Dragon said:
Yes. It was the biggest and worst upset in the NFL that year. The 5-4 Niners limped into Dallas with Elvis Grbac as their QB, facing the heavily favored 8-1 Cowboys...... and absolutely blasted Dallas without mercy in front of a stunned national audience. The score was 24-0 in favor of San Francisco at one point. Possibly the most embarassing Cowboys loss of that otherwise golden decade.

Yeah I still think the 3-6 last place Rams coming into the 8-1 Dallas Cowboys house and beating us was as bad if not worse ... Cleveland Gary getting over 100 yards against our defense that was flat that day ...in addition Dallas had two chances at the end of the game to pull it out and didn’t and the second chance was controversial since they stopped the clock prematurely giving Aikman another chance .. unfortunately he was pressured and two hopped a pass at K-Mart
That game made me sick

lwehlers · Jun 24, 2019

Reid1boys said:
WOW!!!! That is some deep ****. I alwasy liked Switzer. He came into an impossible situation.The 94 season we would have won another SB if it wasnt for 3 turnovers in the first quarter against the 49ers. The following year we did win the SB, and switzer was quite possible the most scrutinized coach in the history of the NFL. He dealt with the media, the owner, and coaching the Dallas Cowboys who were attheir peak intheir history as far as EVERYTHING. The league was being watched and scrutinized more than at any time in the 70s, just due to the changing landscape of sports. SWitzer didnt luck out into coaching an absolute college powerhouse at Oklahoma.

You cant have it both ways. You cant say today that you need good coached to win a SB, but than discredit what Switzer did. Its one or the other.

I also believe that switzer got a bad rep for his coaching. he was a great hall of fame coach I do not believe that dave campo would have won a superbowl if he was the head coach in 95. switzer had a lot of egos to keep in line for that team to win. a lesser headcoach might have lost the team.

lwehlers · Jun 24, 2019

mrmojo said:
Like someone said you could tell this was the beginning of the end for the dynasty. Defense was giving up big plays in this game and offense wasn't as in sync as they usually were. I think they tried to force feed Deon into the offense a little bit too much but he did have the one big play on the obvious pick by Novacek. The Packers were up and coming and it would show the next year with their SB championship. Just a weird season for the Cowboys, getting blown out by the Niners at home, losing to the Skins twice, 4th and 1 in Philadelphia (twice!). I'm glad they won the SB but as a fan it was more a relief than elation like it was in 92. A totally different team in 95, more style than substance, but enough talent and the core was still there to will them to a championship.

well said I felt the same way when they won a superbowl.

TheSkaven · Jun 24, 2019

rynochop said:
Wasn't there some terrible call that cost the game for SF? I may be thinking of another game

Yep. Deion Sanders had Michael Irvin's arm hooked on a Go route that would have probably been a touchdown and no call. Then, Barry Switzer the idiot ran onto the field and bumped into the referee, resulting in a 15 yard penalty. We went from being down by 3 to 3rd and 26 and the game was lost right there.

Reid1boys · Jun 24, 2019

TheSkaven said:
Yep. Deion Sanders had Michael Irvin's arm hooked on a Go route that would have probably been a touchdown and no call. Then, Barry Switzer the idiot ran onto the field and bumped into the referee, resulting in a 15 yard penalty. We went from being down by 3 to 3rd and 26 and the game was lost right there.

that call was almost as bad as what happened to New Orleans this year.

Carl23 · Jun 24, 2019

jazzcat22 said:
Didn't know it was on. But I have it on VHS from recording it back then. As I do with a lot of games from the 90's. Stopped recording them around 2000.
I have all the playoff games, and SB's, as well as most regular season wins. I think the only loss I have is when Emmitt got the rushing title over Payton again Seattle.

I have one of those cube boxes like a foot locker full of VHS tapes of games.

Me too.

I have 94-1998 on VHS. I wrote over a few to record 9/11 live footage (which I will never watch). Mine sit in a drawer. I really need to convert them before the tape starts to decompose.

Flamma · Jun 24, 2019

cheftjpeck said:
Yeah I still think the 3-6 last place Rams coming into the 8-1 Dallas Cowboys house and beating us was as bad if not worse ... Cleveland Gary getting over 100 yards against our defense that was flat that day ...in addition Dallas had two chances at the end of the game to pull it out and didn’t and the second chance was controversial since they stopped the clock prematurely giving Aikman another chance .. unfortunately he was pressured and two hopped a pass at K-Mart
That game made me sick

That was the abomination of the '92 season. I remember it well. Who can forget the Miami game in '93? In '94 Dallas lost in OT to the Lions. Barry freaking Sanders had almost 200 yards on 40 carries. That game had me climbing the walls pissed off. Then later that season we lost to the Browns. The game ended with Novacek at the Browns 1 yard line if I remember correctly.

Alexander · Jun 24, 2019

BigD_95 said:
yes, it was 3 turnovers in the first 3 mins of the game and gave 49ers a 21-0 lead 5 mins into the game.

It still didn't matter.

Oud D back then was built to hold leads.

Plankton · Jun 25, 2019

TheSkaven said:
Yep. Deion Sanders had Michael Irvin's arm hooked on a Go route that would have probably been a touchdown and no call. Then, Barry Switzer the idiot ran onto the field and bumped into the referee, resulting in a 15 yard penalty. We went from being down by 3 to 3rd and 26 and the game was lost right there.

What isn't spoken about with that play that is amazing is that Sanders slipped and fell down at the LOS. It shows his incredible speed that he was able to get to his feet and get close enough to Irvin to interfere on the play.

Red Dragon · Jun 25, 2019

Flamma said:
That was the abomination of the '92 season. I remember it well. Who can forget the Miami game in '93? In '94 Dallas lost in OT to the Lions. Barry freaking Sanders had almost 200 yards on 40 carries. That game had me climbing the walls pissed off. Then later that season we lost to the Browns. The game ended with Novacek at the Browns 1 yard line if I remember correctly.

Those two losses were frustrating because if the Cowboys had won them, they would have been 14-2 and the Niners would have been 13-3. Then the Cowboys would have had the top conference seed and the Niners' earlier victory over Dallas wouldn't have mattered. I don't think the Boys lose to the Niners in the NFC title game if it were at home.

408Cowboy · Jun 25, 2019

big dog cowboy said:
Not exactly. Good coaches can win with lesser talent. It happens at every level from pee wee to the NFL.

I heard here that is impossible.

1995 NFC championship game

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What's it going to be then, eh?

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