CBS Sports: NFL 1985- NFC Divisional- Dallas Cowboys @ Los Angeles Rams: Tom Landry's Last Winning Season & Playoff Game

Source:NFL- Eric Dickerson runs all over the Cowboys.

"Eric Dickerson's 248-Yard Playoff Record! | Rams vs. Cowboys 1985 Divisional Round | NFL Full Game. The NFL Presents: The 1985 NFC Divisional Game. Eric Dickerson sets the postseason single-game rushing record with 248 yards." 

From the NFL

This post isn't so much about this actual game, then it really is about the last years of Tom Landry as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The Anaheim Rams (as I called the Los Angeles Rams back then, who played 36 miles south of Los Angeles, in a city of 300,000 people) absolutely dominated the Cowboys. The Cowboys offense accomplished almost nothing, got shut out, and their defense just played well enough to keep it a 20-0 loss, instead of losing 35 or 42-0. This is really about the 85 Cowboys being the last winning team that Tom Landry had. 

I think a lot of people, including professional NFL historians, when they're look at the 1980s Cowboys, say that the 80s was a bad decade for the Cowboys, when the NFL was prospering and really took off and became the number one pro sports league in America. But the Cowboys played in 3 NFC Championships, won 2 NFC East titles, made the NFC Playoffs 5 times, had 6 winning seasons. That's a very good decade for just about every other NFL franchise. But we're talking about Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys and simply winning, is not the standard that he and the Cowboys were judged by back then. 

Tom Landry set the standard for how judge the greatest NFL head coaches. It's not about winning, but winning championships and not division titles, which almost get taken for granted when you are the level of Tom Landry, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, and the other great coaches in the NFL in the 1970s and 80s. It's about winning Super Bowls and conference championships. 

When you don't win conference championships and Super Bowl for a few years and you start looking like a normal NFL franchise, people around the league and your own fans start asking questions like: "What's wrong with the Cowboys?" Because 9-7 or 10-6 and even winning making the playoffs and winning your division, is not good enough, when you reach the level of a Tom Landry and the other great coaches from his era. 

It's not like the Cowboys became the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Kansas City Chiefs or Buffalo Bills, or other franchises that struggled in the 80s, at least not right away. From 1980-83, the Cowboys played in 3 NFC Championships, lost all 3, but no one else made it to 3 straight from 1980-82, won the NFC East in 1981, a win away from winning the NFC East again in 1983. 

The 83 Cowboys were 12-4 and were considered 1 of the 3 best teams in the entire NFL for most of that season. 

The 84 Cowboys were 9-7 and had they beat the Miami Dolphins during week 16 and almost won that game, they're back in the NFC Playoffs and would've eliminated the New York Giants. 

The 85 Cowboys were 10-6 and won the NFC East, swept the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, who were also 10-6 that year.

I think the main difference between Tom Landry's `1970s Cowboys and the 80s Cowboys, has to do with depth. You look at the Cowboys starters from 83-85 and even 86 and perhaps 87, they match up very well as far as the talent that they had and what those players accomplished during those careers, both on offense and defense. But when QB Danny White goes down, or Landry decides simply not to play him, because he's anxious to get back to another Super Bowl and thinks Gary Hogeboom is his ticket back to the Super Bowl, or the Cowboys lose another key starter, they go from looking like a Super Bowl contender, to a very ordinary team. 

The other problem that the Cowboys of the 80s had, was consistency. They would sweep the Redskins and Giants, but get destroyed by a 7-9 Cincinnati Bengals team, or get hammered at home by the 85 Bears, one of the best teams in the history of the NFL. But when you win as long as Tom Landry did and won as many games and championships as Landry did, 9-7-10-6, is simply no good enough based on how you are judged by the rest of the league and your own fans.

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