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

[Cajuncowboy]

This may be sacrilege but.......

When you look at the Cowboys performance during that era, Irvin was the most integral part of the team.

Sure we were loaded with talent but we had real quality back ups that stepped in when someone got hurt. Aikman would go down for a game or two and we wouldn't miss a beat. Emmitt would go down for a few series or maybe a game and we would still keep on clicking. But when Mike went down, the O sputtered.

When he was out of the line up for the suspension, we struggled. We never could find a way to really pressure a defense.

This is not to take anything away from Troy or Emmitt, I love both of those players, but we just could never replace Mike.

And when he went down in Philly, I had a bad feeling about the rest of the year.

 

[Royal Laegotti]

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

Exactly!

 

[Doomsday101]

This may be sacrilege but.......

When you look at the Cowboys performance during that era, Irvin was the most integral part of the team.

Sure we were loaded with talent but we had real quality back ups that stepped in when someone got hurt. Aikman would go down for a game or two and we wouldn't miss a beat. Emmitt would go down for a few series or maybe a game and we would still keep on clicking. But when Mike went down, the O sputtered.

When he was out of the line up for the suspension, we struggled. We never could find a way to really pressure a defense.

This is not to take anything away from Troy or Emmitt, I love both of those players, but we just could never replace Mike.

And when he went down in Philly, I had a bad feeling about the rest of the year.

Dallas did not win without Smith. When ES held out the 1st 2 games of a season Dallas tanked to the point even Jimmy Johnson was starting to lose it. ES get signed and Dallas goes on to be the 1st team to lose their 1st 2 game and went on to win the SB. Dallas relied a lot of Smith and he has the over 300 carries a season to prove it.

 

[Royal Laegotti]

Dallas did not win without Smith. When ES held out the 1st 2 games of a season Dallas tanked to the point even Jimmy Johnson was starting to lose it. ES get signed and Dallas goes on to be the 1st team to lose their 1st 2 game and went on to win the SB. Dallas relied a lot of Smith and he has the over 300 carries a season to prove it.

You're on a roll.

 

[Doomsday101]

You're on a roll.

I loved Aikman and Irvin but Smith was the bread and butter of that offense. Teams knew what was coming and could not stop him and when you’re doing that you can demoralize you opponent quickly

 

[Cowboys&Caps]

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.

we must be about the same age......I feel the same way!