The Day it All Started

[chagus]

There were many great Cowboy vs Skins game. I can not name just one. I remember "Touchdown Tony Hill" Staubach's last win in Texas Stadium to win the NFC East. I remember Clint sucker punch Longley great comeback. I remember the Monday night comeback of Danny White, Dorsett, and Tony Hill multiple long TDs. I remember Thurman's thieves thuggery of Joe Theisman on a Monday night. I remember Michael Irvin 100 yd day as a rookie and Jim Jeffcoat's 5 sacks vs. the Skins. I remember Jimmy Johnson's first NFL win and the Cowboys only win of the 1989 season. I could live with 1-15 when the 1 was the skins. I remember Emmitt Smith running wild on the skins as the tripplets arrived in 1990. I remember Jimmy Johnson's 1991 "big gorilla" game..."when you go up against a big gorilla, you don't hit him lightly, you hit him with everything you got". Troy Aikman and Irvin's last Skins comeback with Aikman having his best passing day as a pro and 5 TDs. Dez has thrown up the X many times vs. the Skins. But I also remember Dak leading the comeback sealed by ex skins Alfred Morris to beat the Skins.

The Cowboys have been pretty dominant in the rivalry lately. I strongly hope that continues tomorrow.

I really enjoyed reading this... thanks! GO COWBOYS!!!

 

[Texasfootball21]

I was just a 10 year old youngster at the 1974 Cowboys vs. Commanders game in Texas Stadium when Clint Longley came in for injured Roger, and threw the game winning last second bomb to Drew Pearson. I will never forget that day...

 

[jobberone]

Fond memories

 

[Jipper]

Wow...i feel old typically and I was born in 82...this makes me feel young!

Glad some of you guys got to enjoy the older teams, the love for the original teams is a key part of this fanbase....i was 10 in 92 so the older half of my generation is fine but I truly worry about young melinneals falling away and have almost no hope for gen z

 

[superonyx]

On October 3, 1971 I was a 16 years old and my football team was the Dallas Cowboys. They had lost the Super Bowl the previous season in a heart breaker,a last seconds field goal. I was sure they would win it this year.

The Cowboys absolutely dominated their first two games. First was an impressive 49-37 victory over O.J.Simpson's Bills,then a mauling of the Eagles 42-7. That's right, they scored over 40 points in their first two games and next up was the Commanders,a teams against whom they had a six game winning streak.

However, this Commander team was different because the they also had a two game winning streak to open their season and there was a lot of talk about their new Head Coach and how he made a lot of trades for a lot of old guys.

After two games the Cowboys had the leading scoring RB, Calvin Hill who had 5 TD's. The quarterback was Craig Morton and he was the 2nd leading passer in the league with a 121.4 rating. Needless to say,they were the #1 offense in the league.

Craig Morton was that QB landry had been dreaming for ever since the Cowboys drafted Bob Hayes, the Olympic Gold medalist and record holder.....literally the fastest man in the world.

For years Landry had sought a quarterback with enough arm strength that he could throw the ball long enough to where Hayes didn't have to turn around and go back for it. I'm serious. He and Schram even once drafted 3 quarterbacks in the same year, the draft was 17 rounds back then.

Anyway, without looking at a stat sheet for a reference, I remember the shock of watching the Cowboy lose. I remember Craig Morton, with the golden arm, making awful throws. He had three INT's. I remember his backup coming in and playing extremely well. He was different. Instead of staying in the pocket he would run around, sometimes getting yardage like a RB.

However,the game was pretty much out of reach by then. The Cowboys scored a late TD, finally after three field goals, and made the score look close. The Commanders won on defense and some big plays and they celebrated like they won the Super Bowl.

What got me angry the most about the game was the way the Commanders players acted during the 4th quarter and after the game.It was the first time that I could recall a player talking smack about another team after a victory. They were easy to hate.

Many will say the rivalry started way back and reference the Commanders fight song. However,that was a rivalry between franchises that fans never really got involved in. However, the fans really got into it during the George Allen era and Oct 3, 1971 was the day a true rivalry was created.

Later that season, with Roger Staubach now the QB, the Cowboys defeated the Commanders in the capital 13-0 enroute to their first Super Bowl title. The following year it was the Commanders in the Super Bowl.

You type well for an old head.

 

[Maxmadden]

Hail Mary pass. I was in 2nd ir 3rd grade.

It's called Salutatorian. You should be proud.

 

[eromeopolk]

Jesus Christ, you guys are old as dirt.

I heard of good dirt and bad dirt. But the one thing God does not do...make new dirt. Take off your shoes your standing on holy ground.

 

[Floatyworm]

The 79 game against the Commander for the NFC East had the Commanders acting like idiots being up by 13 in the fourth. Riggins went 63 yards on a counter trey and the entire offense was going berserk.

I think that was when Roger said, enough. Dallas put up 14 to win the game on a lob pass to Tony Hill. I loved that ending.

Best game ever...I don't care what anyone says. Made me a Cowboy fan for life until Garrett's idiocy...

 

[Melonfeud]

Hail Mary pass. I was in 2nd ir 3rd grade.

Ha,if thats that game winner against the Vikings that happened after C.B.S. had already rolled the credits for their broadcasted production, I'm pretty sure I was a freshman in high school, cuz' there was a set of twin brothers who were Northern transplants & huge Minnesota fans& I recall grinding sparks off of them, cuz' the build up jive B.S. talk the week before that game was slowly building in intensity,,, And I was not wanting to face those two matched set of cackling magpies on Monday with what was looking like a solid loss

 

[plasticman]

There were great victories, there were agonizing defeats.

There was the 4th and goal in the 1978 game where the Cowboys had 4 chances to score a TD at the end of the gametraining 9-3.On their last effortit lookedlike Dorsettwouldscorebut ProBowlsafety Ken Houston held him back from the goal line. It was Monday night football and the president was there, Jimmy Carter.What made it worse was that after the failed attempt, Theisman ran it out of he endzone for a Cowboy safety while taunting them every step of the way.

There was the Santanna Moss game.Cowboys up 13-0 with less than four minutes left and my wife begins to congratulate me.My family thought I was nuts when I objected and tried to tell them this is a Commanders game. It's not over.....sure enough.

The Sean Taylor penalty game in which the Cowboy's winning fieldgoal was blocked and returned by Taylor but not fat enough to kick a winning field goal....until the penalty.

No lie, I know of two people that died of heart attacks after a Cowboy Commander game. If you take heart medication then don't forget to take it before the game today.