We all know about the long 27 year streak of no divisional playoff wins or NFC championship games or Super Bowls. Obviously those streaks need to end asap.
But before we change that long frustrating history, we need two big streaks to also end that could lead to the end of the 27 yr streak:
- Making the playoffs in back to back seasons. It’s been 15 years since the last time this team made the playoffs in back to back seasons- 2006-07 to be exact. Looking very much like that streak will finally be broken this year.
- Winning a road playoff game for the first time in 30 years. I still can’t believe we haven’t won a road playoff game since the 1992 NFC championship game in SF nearly 30 years ago. We are 0-8 on the road in the playoffs since the day Jimmy Johnson screamed, “How about them Cowboys!”
It’s pretty simple- if this year is going to be a success the two streaks above must end. Winning a road playoff game is THE test for a true SB contender. It looks increasingly like the Cowboys will have to win some road playoff games to make the last 27 yr streak end.
Here’s to making the playoffs and winning some road playoff games.
I'm still not giving up on the idea of NO road games in the postseason. It's a reach but I think it is still a possibility.
What would it take?
Well, the Eagles would have to lose to the Cowboys and then the Cowboys would have to match the Eagles the rest of the way without losing a division game.
That would give the Cowboys the 2nd tiebreaker, division record.
Then again, the Cowboys have never really had a homefield advantage since they moved into AT&T Stadium.
Several years ago, I did some research on the concept of homefield advantage in the NFL. I reasoned that it could best be measured by the difference in winning percentage between home and away games. The team with the largest difference in won/lost percentage would have the greatest homefield advantage based on results. Again this was several years ago.
Well, it turned out that the Cowboys ranked dead last. They had no homefield advantage. In fact, at that point in time, their margin of winning percentage between home and away games was a negative number. That is, they won more away games than home games.
Case in point, last postseason was the first time they used the new playoff system with three wildcard teams from each conference. there were six wildcard games where the division winners who were not the top seed hosted a wildcard team. The Cowboys were the only division winner to lose in the wildcard round. Five out of six wildcard games were won by the home team. That's a very low probability for wildcard teams to win a road game in the first round.
Meanwhile, did you know?
The Dallas Cowboys have won back to back playoff road games only once in their history. The year was 1975, when they had the "Dirty Dozen" rookies. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year. The Cowboy had missed the playoffs in 1974 for the first time in 9 years and they were being written off.
The first victory was the "Hail Mary" game against the Vikings, clearly the best team coming out of the regular season. It shocked the NFL world. Of course, the Cowboys had just been lucky, they claimed. The star studded 13-3 Rams would make short work of them.
The Rams had a stable of star RB's, led by Pro Bowler Lawrence McCutcheon with Cullen Bryant and John Capelletti. Their WR's were Ron Jessie and Pro Bowler Harold Jackson. Their quarterback was James Harris backed up by a young Ron Jaworski.
On defense their front seven was manned by five Pro Bowlers including Jack Youngblood, Merlin Olsen, Fred Dryer Isiah Robertson and Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds. They were ranked #1 in points allowed and #2 in yards allowed
The Rams were heavily favored in their home game, the NFC Championship.
The Cowboys traveled to Los Angelos and utterly destroyed them 37-7.
During the entire season no other team had scored more than 24 points against that defense. Their 7 offensive points were also the season low.
McCutcheon was held to 10 yards on 11 carries. Harold Jackson didn't have a single reception.
Roger Staubach threw for four TD's in the first half, three of them to RB Preston Pearson and a 42 yarder to Golden Richards. The Cowboys offense put 441 yards on the #1 defense in the league. The Rams had 118 total yards from scrimmage.
The Dallas Cowboys, a wildcard team with no home playoff games went to the Super Bowl that season.
That would be extremely difficult to repeat.