Had Michael Irvin not had his career ended in 1999...

[The30YardSlant]

Would Dallas have seriously contended for the title that year? When he went down, we were 3-0 including blowouts of Arizona and defending NFC champ Atlanta. Had he not gone down, we almost surely would have won the Philly game to improve to 4-0. We went on to lose 6 games that year by 7 points or less and our offense dropped from #2 in the NFL to #11 in the NFL after Michael went down. Irvin was on pace for over 60 catches and 12 Tds.

I've just always thought that had we had Rocket and Michael together for a whole year, we would have seriously challenged the Rams in the NFC

 

[CrazyCowboy]

Would Dallas have seriously contended for the title that year? When he went down, we were 3-0 including blowouts of Arizona and defending NFC champ Atlanta. Had he not gone down, we almost surely would have won the Philly game to improve to 4-0. We went on to lose 6 games that year by 7 points or less and our offense dropped from #2 in the NFL to #11 in the NFL after Michael went down. Irvin was on pace for over 60 catches and 12 Tds.

I've just always thought that had we had Rocket and Michael together for a whole year, we would have seriously challenged the Rams in the NFC

I really do not believe we would.

The team was like the stock market that year--rock bottom! :bang2:

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

I remember the ranking back in 99 before Irvin's devastating injury, several people had Dallas as Superbowl favorites... Remember he was the team's emotional leader.

 

[Eddie]

I remember that season. We started 3-0 and pretty much on fire. Once we lost Irvin, Troy had no targets.

I think we would finished between 10-6 and 12-4, and gone deeper into the playoffs than a 1 and out.

 

[cowboyeric8]

Yeah I believe we would have been definate contenders, but stuff happens sometimes. Freaking Philly

 

[rojan]

Ya I definitely think we would have be serious contenders that year..

Wasn't that the same year Deion had that turf toe that side lined him for a bunch of games.

 

[burmafrd]

We were seriously on the Downslide by then. The O line was not even close to where it had been, and Novacek was no longer there for Troy. So offensively we did not have the juice, and our D was sliding as well.

 

[windward]

I think we probably could have won the division. Whether that would have been enough to get past Tampa or St. Louis that year is debatable (I think we could at least get past the Bucs) This was intended as the last great hurrah of the Cowboys of the 90s (pretty apropros considering it was the end of the decade.) More importantly, I don't think our rebuilding might have been as painful as the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons were, considering we probably hold on to our two number ones we gave up for Galloway.

That being said, I like where this team is headed and who knows where we might be had things not gone so disastrously wrong in the Campo era.

 

[DragonCowboy]

it's so depressing looking upon that time period...and yet, that was the time period in which I became a fan.

gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i've never "consciously" seen dallas win a playoff game (i'm sure i saw them do so when i was 5, but yeah, I cared more about what type of mud tasted the best more than anything else.

it really does hurt to look upon the past 8 or so years. However, Dallas is on the upswing, and hopefully you/we/dallas can relive those glory years.

 

[superpunk]

Maybe if we could have had another top receiver...say...Joey Galloway?

 

[THUMPER]

I do not believe that we would have gone to the SB that year even with Irvin. Maybe 10-6 and a 2nd round loss or even to the NFC Championship game but there is no way we would have beaten the Rams that year.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Again, you never know.. I think St. Louis was a one shot wonder.

 

[LatinMind]

if he wouldnt have had his career ended. irvin most likely would have been traded. if you remember the guy was starting to get unhappy. and even a "ellis" like temper tantrum when dallas signed mcknight from seattle.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

if he wouldnt have had his career ended. irvin most likely would have been traded. if you remember the guy was starting to get unhappy. and even a "ellis" like temper tantrum when dallas signed mcknight from seattle.

Traded? Yeah right, Michael Irvin was the man.... Jerry Jones wouldn't have traded him..

 

[Doomsday101]

if he wouldnt have had his career ended. irvin most likely would have been traded. if you remember the guy was starting to get unhappy. and even a "ellis" like temper tantrum when dallas signed mcknight from seattle.

He was unhappy because Gailey was trying to limit Irvin snaps, Jerry would have fired Gaily and did before he would have let Irvin go.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

He was unhappy because Gailey was trying to limit Irvin snaps, Jerry would have fired Gaily and did before he would have let Irvin go.

EXACTLY! :clap2:

 

[jem88]

I really do not believe we would.

The team was like the stock market that year--rock bottom! :bang2:

You must not have been watching then, because we were a definate contender before Irvin got hurt.

 

[cowboyeric8]

it's so depressing looking upon that time period...and yet, that was the time period in which I became a fan.

gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i've never "consciously" seen dallas win a playoff game (i'm sure i saw them do so when i was 5, but yeah, I cared more about what type of mud tasted the best more than anything else.

it really does hurt to look upon the past 8 or so years. However, Dallas is on the upswing, and hopefully you/we/dallas can relive those glory years.

I feel your pain. I'm in the same boat. You know ever since I started paying attention they haven't been very good, maybe its my fault? ha

 

[Royal Laegotti]

That team in the late 90s had already begun a trend of folding after Thanksgiving (sounds familiar) due to whatever, lack of strong coaching/motivation for one thing and their defense was becoming torch material, so I don't think they would've gotten far in the '99 playoffs with Irvin, they probably wouldn't have got past the Viqueens had they played them from a different seed, they didn't get past them that year anyway.

 

[Doomsday101]

That team in the late 90s had already begun a trend of folding after Thanksgiving (sounds familiar) due to whatever, lack of strong coaching/motivation for one thing and their defense was becoming torch material, so I don't think they would've gotten far in the '99 playoffs with Irvin, they probably wouldn't have got past the Viqueens had they played them from a different seed, they didn't get past them that year anyway.

I think a lot of it had to do more with the loss of talent on the team. Haley was having back problems as was Novacheck and Aikman. You had Moose with a neck injury that forced him to hang them up. In the meantime Dallas was not hitting on draft picks and were too cap strapped to bring in any decent FA