"THROUGH THE EYES OF A FAN"
THE LONG ROAD BACK TO THE TOP
FOR THE DALLAS
In 1981, I became more involved as a Cowboys fan and I started learning more about the players and understanding the game. I understood what getting to the Super Bowl meant and I was having fun watching them play. The Cowboys opened the 1981 season with four straight wins against the Redskins, the Cardinals, the Patriots and the Giants. The sixth game of the season was really the Cowboys signature game of 1981 as they traveled to San Francisco to take on the young 49ers at Candlestick Park. As a fan I thought there was no way the experienced Cowboys would ever lose to these young 49ers that were coming off a 6-10 season in 1980. I guess the Cowboys thought that way as well. Before the Cowboys could even settle into the game, the 49ers had taken a 24-0 lead in the second quarter. I remember the reports coming in from THE NFL TODAY as San Francisco built their lead. They seemed to score every time they touched the ball and there was nothing the Cowboys could do to stop them. The 49ers dominated the Cowboys from start to finish and won the game 45-14. The 49ers had made a huge statement in the game and "America's Team" had been crushed.
The Cowboys pulled themselves together after the loss to the 49ers and won the next four games to improve to 8-2. The Cowboys traveled in week 11 to Detroit, which turned out to be a game that has bothered me to do this day. Both teams were tied at 24-24 with only a few seconds left to play. Lion’s kicker Eddie Murray lined up for the game-winning field goal and made it for a 27-24 Lions win. Some television cameras had pictures of the Lions formation before Murray's kick and it clearly showed that the Lions had 12 men on the field. How could the officials miss something as important as that? Even the local papers had an aerial view of the Lions showing the 12 men on the field. I knew nothing could be done about it, but it still bothered me that the Cowboys lost that way. They once again put the loss behind them and went on to win their next four games.
The Cowboys finished the 1981 season with a 12-4 record and won the NFC East Championship over the Eagles. It was Tom Landry's 12th division title in 22 years with the Cowboys. For the second straight year the Cowboys finished with a perfect 8-0 home record. Tony Dorsett finished the season with 1,646 yards rushing, but was beaten out for the NFL rushing title in the final week of season by rookie George Rogers of the New Orleans Saints.
The 1981 playoffs for the Cowboys started with a home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Dallas Doomsday defense showed up and crushed Tampa Bay. They sacked quarterback Doug Williams four times and intercepted him four times. It was one of those games that the Cowboys were playing so well that I didn't want to see it end. But in the end the Cowboys beat the Buccaneers 38-0. The win over Tampa Bay set up a rematch in San Francisco for the NFC Championship. The winner would go onto Super Bowl XVI. There was something about the 49ers that worried me. They just seemed to come out of nowhere in 1981 and beat up on many teams. They finished the season with a league best 13-3 record.
The Cowboys went into the NFC Championship game determined to play better than they did in the regular season game that they lost 45-14. The Cowboys took a 17-14 lead into halftime. The Cowboys defense controlled Joe Montana most of the afternoon. They sacked him four times and intercepted three passes. In all, the Cowboys forced six 49ers turnovers. But as Joe Montana did so many times in his career, he overcame all the turnovers and sacks and led the 49ers to what ended up a victory that would go down in history.
With the Cowboys leading 27-21, the 49ers had the ball at their own 11-yard line with a little over four minutes to play. They turned that into an incredible drive that all Cowboy fans hate to even think about. The Cowboys defense was defending against the pass and the 49ers knew it. They worked their way down the field and positioned themselves at the Cowboys six yard line with only 58 seconds left in the game. Montana rolled to his right and held the ball as long as he could as three Cowboys, Ed (Too Tall) Jones, D.D. Lewis and Larry Bethea were about to knock him down. He threw a pass high into the back of the end zone where 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark leaped and made an amazing catch, while Cowboys cornerback Everson Walls tried to cover him. The 49ers took a 28-27 lead on the Cowboys. It became known simply as "The Catch." Montana threw the ball so that if Clark couldn't catch it, then nobody would. That play haunts me to this very day as well as many other Cowboys fans. But the game didn't end there as many people think. These were the Dallas Cowboys who had time on the clock and timeouts in their back pocket. This was the kind of game that the Cowboys had made a habit of winning so many times in their history.
The Cowboys got the ball back with 47 seconds left in the game and two time-outs to play with. The first play for the Cowboys resulted in a 30-yard completion to from Danny White to Drew Pearson. White found Pearson streaking across midfield and could have gone the distance for the winning score, but was dragged down by the back of his jersey. Pearson was tackled at the 49ers 44 yard line with 38 seconds left. The Cowboys just needed to get close enough for kicker Rafael Septien to attempt the winning field goal that would send them into Super Bowl XVI against the Cincinnati Bengals. The second play for the Cowboys will always be my worst memory. Danny White dropped back to pass with a lot of pressure from the 49ers defense around him. He attempted to throw, but was hit. The ball dropped to the ground and the 49ers recovered. The officials had ruled that White fumbled the ball on the play. My opinion will always be that White's arm was going forward and the play should have been ruled incomplete. I’ve also heard comments from White himself over the years stating the same thing. Back in 2011 I had the pleasure of interviewing Danny White and one of my questions to him was if he thought his arm was going forward on that last play...
"It was. However under the rules at that time I think it was the right call. Today it would definitely be an incomplete pass"
In all my years of being a Cowboys fan that loss to the 49ers was the worst ever. San Francisco won the game 28-27 and sent them to their first ever Super Bowl appearance. Some people say that the 1981 NFC Championship game vaulted the 49ers to their four Super Bowl Championships in the 1980s, while sending the Cowboys into a tailspin that they would not recover from for 15 years.
To be continued...
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