How did the Cowboys fall in the 80s?

[joseephuss]

Bum Bright lost his a** in the S&L crash. Thus, what was once a cheap owner became a dirt cheap owner. Remember the QBs we had back in the mid-80's? Clint Stoerner? Gary Hogeboom? Where was the talent on those teams? .

Clint Stoerner was born in 1977. No wonder he sucked as a QB in the mid-80s.

 

[mrmojo]

Clint Stoerner was born in 1977. No wonder he sucked as a QB in the mid-80s.

LOL! Good Catch!

 

[rpntex]

Clint Stoerner was born in 1977. No wonder he sucked as a QB in the mid-80s.

My bad. I was thinking of Glen Carano.

 

[joseephuss]

My bad. I was thinking of Glen Carano.

That is the thing with crappy QBs, as time goes by their names all start running together. They really aren't worth remembering. I wish I could purge all the Quincy Hensons, Chad Sweeneys and Anthony Peullers from my memory.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Simply stated, the rest of the league caught up to us.

Back in the 1970s and very early 1980s, we were the smartest team in the NFL.

We routinely swindled other teams for draft picks because they were not valued. And since we were winning, we traded a lot of backups for high draft choices. And most of these trades were one-sided with Dallas laughing every April.

Had one of the best coaches too.

Where we fell off was in the draft and how most teams approached it.

Contrary to popular belief, Brandt did not hit homeruns every draft. He had some home runs like the Dirty Dozen draft, but he blew a lot of high round picks. And I mean a lot. Enough that if people cared enough about it back then they would be enraged.

Teams caught up to how we scouted, what we did and we fell to the middle of the pack and then finally off the cliff.

Brandt seemed more intent on taking projects than productive football players. We also stopped being aggressive.

We used to trade up for players like Dorsett. We loved Rice, but never thought for a second someone else would.

Bum Bright was a cheap owner who really did not care about football. He hated Landry and basically made his firing a condition of the sale.

Very interesting. Didn't know any if that. So the atmosphere wasn't conducive tie inning. Hmmm...
Also, with that said, "the catch" game was just a little bad luck.


Question? Danny led Dallas to 3 NFC title games... IYO - Was it bad luck and what you explained above as why we didn't win or were we just the broncos and bills of that time?

 

[cwbyfn1957]

I forgot that because Dallas wasn't 8-0 at the time Danny broke his wrist. They were 6-2. People like to say that White wasn't the same after breaking his wrist, but they seem to forget he was 34 years old at the time and had played 12 seasons with Dallas along with 2 years in the old WFL. Most QBs aren't the same at that point in their careers no matter if they are recovering from an injury or not.

You are correct about the 6-2 mark. But it is a fact that Danny just was not the same, and yes, age had a lot to do with it. There was no one to replace him, and no one came close until Aikman.

 

[mmillman]

I thought Dallas always got too cute in games in the 70's and 80's. Super Bowl 13 was an example. Dorsett should have been given the ball more but Landry always wanted to fool the other team instead of just beating on them.

Flex defense, all the motion, the hitch in the offensive line ( I always thought it was a waste of energy) constant trick plays etc.....

Brandt kept trying to draft athletes instead of football players.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

I thought Dallas always got too cute in games in the 70's and 80's. Super Bowl 13 was an example. Dorsett should have been given the ball more but Landry always wanted to fool the other team instead of just beating on them.

Flex defense, all the motion, the hitch in the offensive line ( I always thought it was a waste of energy) constant trick plays etc.....

Brandt kept trying to draft athletes instead of football players.

In the Landry special on NFL Channel they talked about the OL guys standing up,before settling into their stance. He did that so the RB's could move in the backfield & throw off the defenses. It was considered one of the many things Landry did that was innovative & game changing. To each his own but just something they did that made them unique.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

LOL!!!!!!!!!


That was great.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I forgot that because Dallas wasn't 8-0 at the time Danny broke his wrist. They were 6-2. People like to say that White wasn't the same after breaking his wrist, but they seem to forget he was 34 years old at the time and had played 12 seasons with Dallas along with 2 years in the old WFL. Most QBs aren't the same at that point in their careers no matter if they are recovering from an injury or not.

All of that is true but I do believe it was the wrist, more then anything. That injury prevented White from snapping off his wrist and really getting the kind of velocity on the ball he was accustomed to throwing with. He literally had to relearn how to throw. He adopted more of a push release rather then snapping that wrist off hard and getting a lot of spin on the ball. Lots of patterns White could simply not throw any longer and defenses quickly learned it. That was really a bad break for White and the Cowboys. He was at a point in his career where he could have really put up some big numbers in that offense.

What could have been I suppose.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

In the Landry special on NFL Channel they talked about the OL guys standing up,before settling into their stance. He did that so the RB's could move in the backfield & throw off the defenses. It was considered one of the many things Landry did that was innovative & game changing. To each his own but just something they did that made them unique.

That's exactly why they did it. Once the OL got set, the defense had to find there assignments and then make adjustments. Defense had less time to make corrections which allowed the Offense to take advantage of the situation. Same basic concept as hurry up Offense but implemented differently.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

That's exactly why they did it. Once the OL got set, the defense had to find there assignments and then make adjustments. Defense had less time to make corrections which allowed the Offense to take advantage of the situation. Same basic concept as hurry up Offense but implemented differently.

I am too young for the Landry years but I try to watch & read as much as I can about those teams. Coach Landry was a football genius.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Mindless adhearance to gimmicks such as the flex, the hitch and then the overreach to a "Star Wars" offense.
Dumb years of drafting. Landry's hardheadedness: "We've always done it this way." But that way was the 60s and 70s.
A coaching staff that may half been too static and permanent.
The thot that one player, a Herschell or a Randy could alone get us success.
It was a mess.
Jerra came along and did us a favor. He injected energy and vision for a while with Jimma as a coach that was feared AND respected by playeers.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I am too young for the Landry years but I try to watch & read as much as I can about those teams. Coach Landry was a football genius.

but not a genius in the mid to late 80s. More like a bus driver.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

but not a genius in the mid to late 80s. More like a bus driver.

If you say so.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

If you say so.

But, of course, if you half something to mitigate, with which to mitigate, something not vague . . . feel free to elaboratinate.

 

[joseephuss]

Landry did adjust. In the mid-80s Dallas was no longer having the offensive line do their little hitch before getting set. They also were no longer running the flex defense. Look at what he did with Herschel Walker. He didn't just throw him in the I-formation and feed him the ball. Landry spread Herschel around and split him out wide. Walker had 76 receptions his first year in Dallas and many of those came with him split out.