"THROUGH THE EYES OF A FAN"
THE LONG ROAD BACK TO THE TOP
FOR THE DALLAS
Changes started taking place even before the 1984 season started. Some of the more popular Cowboys started retiring. Tight end Billy Joe Dupree retired after 11 seasons. Fullback Robert Newhouse left after 12 seasons. Harvey Martin, who won the co-MVP in Super Bowl XII with Randy White, said goodbye after 11 years. Before the season started, wide receiver Drew Pearson, was involved in a car accident in which his brother was killed. Pearson suffered a lacerated kidney and his doctors advised him to retire, which he did after 11 great years with the Cowboys. To this day Drew Pearson has been left out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame even after everything he accomplished as an NFL wide receiver.
The Cowboys decided to trade wide receiver Butch Johnson to the Houston Oilers. Johnson will always be remembered for making one of the most famous touchdown receptions in Super Bowl XII, as he dove across the goal line while catching a long pass from Roger Staubach. In return for Johnson the Cowboys got wide receiver Mike Renfro to fill Drew Pearson’s spot, or at least try. Renfro quickly became one of my favorite players. He wasn't the fastest or the biggest, but he seemed to catch anything thrown in his direction.
The other major change in 1984 was at quarterback. Gary Hogeboom had been waiting for his chance to start ever since the 1982 Championship game against the Redskins. Tom Landry chose Hogeboom over Danny White to start the season. I wasn't sure how to feel about the move to Hogeboom. I didn't think it was fair to Danny White to sit him on the bench after everything he had done since becoming a starter. It was a tough decision for Landry to make, but I guess Hogeboom deserved a chance to show his abilities.
The 1984 season started with the bright lights of Monday Night Football shinning on new Cowboys quarterback Gary Hogeboom as he took on the Rams in LA. Hogeboom threw for 343 yards and one touchdown. The Cowboys beat the L.A. Rams 20-13, but things just didn't seem right without Danny White leading the Cowboys.
In the second week of the season, Hogeboom found himself in trouble early and often in Giants Stadium. The Giants defense pounded him all afternoon. As fast as Hogeboom got his first win as a starter, he also got his first loss. The Giants beat the Cowboys 28-7.
Even though the Cowboys were 4-1 going into Week 6 against the Cardinals, Gary Hogeboom wasn't playing great. It was against the Cardinals that Danny White saw his first action of the season. He played late in the game while the Cowboys were losing and quickly threw a touchdown, but it was too little too late as the Cowboys lost 31-20. The team seemed to play at another level with Danny White leading them. White would get more playing time in the coming weeks. He seemed to want to prove that the change at quarterback was a mistake and should have never happened.
After the loss to the Cardinals, the Cowboys lost to the Redskins, 34-14 the following week. Then the Cowboys returned home to face the Saints. Danny White ignited the Cowboys offense as he came off the bench again with the Saints winning 27-6 in the fourth quarter, White led the Cowboys to two scores to shrink the Saints lead to 27-20. Then the Cowboys tied the game at 27-27 when defensive end Jim Jeffcoat recovered a Saints fumble in the end zone. That sent the game into overtime where Rafael Septien kicked a field goal for a dramatic 30-27 win for the Cowboys.
The following week Danny White claimed his starting job back. He didn't disappoint as he led the Cowboys to a 22-3 win over the Indianapolis Colts. He threw for 262 yards and two touchdowns. The Cowboys improved to 6-3 with the victory over the Colts.
The Cowboys entered Week 15 with a 9-5 record and on the verge of the playoffs again. But it just wasn't meant to be in 1984 as once again the Cowboys lost the last two games of the season. They gave away a 21-6 half time lead to the Redskins and lost 30-28. Then the Cowboys traveled to Miami in the final week of the season to take on Dan Marino and the Dolphins. A Cowboys victory over the Dolphins meant that they would make the playoffs. A loss would send the Cowboys home early for the first time since 1974. The Cowboys defense could not stop the Dolphins offense. Marino picked the Cowboys defense apart with four touchdown passes as Miami eliminated the Cowboys from post-season action with a 28-21 victory.
It was the first time since 1974 that the Cowboys had missed the playoffs. They struggled to a 9-7 record in 1984 and ended up in fourth place in the NFC East. It was my first experience as a fan not seeing the Cowboys in the playoffs.
I wasn't sure what to expect for the 1985 season. Would the Cowboys be the team that started 7-0 in 1983 or the team that struggled to a 9-7 record in 1984? Everyone would soon find out which direction the Cowboys were going in.
It was head coach Tom Landry who got the 1985 season off to an unusual start. He predicted that the Cowboys would finish in fourth place in the NFC East again. Did he truly think he had a fourth place team?
A few other players retired before the 1985 season started. All-Pro middle linebacker Bob Breunig, left after ten seasons. Then often injured wide receiver Doug Donley retired at only 26 years old. The big news was that Danny White was named the starter again after another preseason battle with Gary Hogeboom. Danny White was the right man for the job. He proved that over the years. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disagree with that, but it didn’t matter because White was the team leader again.
For the fourth straight season opener the Cowboys would be playing on Monday Night Football. In 1985 the Redskins would be traveling to Texas Stadium. The "Doomsday Defense" was incredible as they harassed the Redskins all night long. They forced a total of seven turnovers, which included six interceptions. The Cowboys returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the fourth quarter. One each by Dennis Thurman and Victor Scott. Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann was finally benched by head coach Joe Gibbs after throwing five interceptions. It was also Theismann's birthday, so the Texas Stadium crowd of 62,292 decided to sing happy birthday to him as he sat on the sidelines. The Cowboys crushed the Redskins, 44-14.
With the Cowboys sitting at 3-1 after wins against the Browns and Oilers and a loss to the Lions, they traveled to Giants Stadium for a special edition of Sunday Night Football. As far as offense is concerned, this game did not lack any. Giants quarterback Phil Simms had an amazing game as he threw for 432 yards and three touchdowns. Danny White didn't have that bad of a game either, as he threw three touchdown passes and passed 342 yards. Tony Hill had a great game with 100 yards receiving and scored once. Mike Renfro seemed unstoppable all night. He caught ten passes for 141 yards with two touchdowns. Both teams slugged it out like a heavy weight fight. With just over two minutes left in the game and the Giants leading 29-27, Simms made one mistake that would cost his team a victory. From his own 22 yard line Simms fumbled the snap from center and Cowboys linebacker Eugene Lockhart recovered. That fumble recovery resulted in a 19 yard field goal by Rafael Septien that won the game for the Cowboys, 30-29.
The eleventh week of the 1985 season brought the undefeated Chicago Bears to Texas Stadium. I think the Cowboys would have been better off if the game had never been played. They suffered their worst defeat in team history. The Bears dominated the Cowboys in every way possible and won, 44-0. Danny White and Gary Hogeboom were knocked around all game by the Bears "46" defense. The rest of the team was not much better on this day. White and Hogeboom combined for four interceptions and were sacked six times. The game was even on Sports Illustrated cover the next week. All I remember was the final score in big bold red numbers, 44-0. Inside showed many pictures of Cowboys players on their backs and in pain. It actually looked like a war zone.
The Cowboys did bounce back after the loss to the Bears and won two out of the next three games before heading into their big re-match with the Giants. Both teams entered the game with 9-5 records and the winner would be crowned NFC East Champions.
The game didn't start out well for the Cowboys as Danny White was forced to leave the game early with an injury. Gary Hogeboom stepped in and connected with Mike Renfro for a 7-0 lead. The Cowboys then found themselves down 14-7 in the second quarter when Ed (Too Tall) Jones made the play of the game. He batted down a Phil Simms pass right into the arms of Jim Jeffcoat, who returned the interception 65 yards for the touchdown and tied the game 14-14. Danny White returned to the game in the second quarter after Hogeboom was injured. White threw a touchdown pass to Renfro and the Cowboys took a 21-14 halftime lead. The bad news for the Cowboys was on White's touchdown pass to Renfro, he was injured again and this time he would not return. The man who saved the day for the Cowboys was rookie quarterback Steve Pelluer. He led the Cowboys to a fourth quarter touchdown to increase the Cowboys lead to 28-14. From there the Cowboys held on for a 28-21 victory and won the NFC Eastern title for the 13th time in club history.
The Cowboys finished the 1985 season with a 10-6 record, which also put them back into the playoffs. The road to the Super Bowl would be short lived though. The Cowboys traveled to meet the Rams in LA and came back to Texas limping. The Rams took control early and dominated the Cowboys. They turned running back Eric Dickerson loose on the Cowboys and the result was an incredible 248 yards rushing performance. Dickerson also scored on a 55 yard run and a 40 yard run. The Rams ended the Cowboys 1985 season with a 20-0 victory.
Some of the positives that came out of the 1985 season were that Tony Dorsett became only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 10,000 yards. He finished 1985 with 1,306 yards and ten touchdowns. He did miss out on the rushing title again. It was the one thing in Dorsett's career that he would never win. Tony Hill and Mike Renfro had great seasons of their own. Hill had 1,113 yards receiving and scored seven touchdowns. Renfro had 950 yards receiving and scored eight touchdowns. The defense came up with 62 sacks with "Too Tall" leading the way with 13 of them. In week four the defense sacked Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon 12 times in a 17-10 win. Then in week ten Jim Jeffcoat recorded five of the Cowboys six sacks on Joe Theismann in a 13-7 win over the Redskins.
I was hoping that the 1985 season would be the start of something great in Dallas, but team was getting older and the younger players were not developing like they had hoped. The Cowboys needed some of the younger players to step up and produce. The Cowboys had a good team, but that would only go so far as other teams in the league would begin to catch up to them and then pass right by them.
To be continued...
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