In week three of the NFL Re-Watch series, the Dallas Cowboys is back in the winning column with possibly the franchises most iconic dominant team in their history.
The Cowboys won their second Super Bowl in 1978 with another dominating performance, this time against a not so iconic Denver Broncos team.
While the Broncos had a great nickname for its defense, The Orange Crush, no Denver players were future Hall of Fame players while Dallas had six on its roster, most of them in their prime.
The biggest difference between this team and the Cowboys team that lost two years previously in Super Bowl X was the acquisition of speedy HOF running back Tony Dorsett. Dallas also stopped trying to make Randy White a linebacker and put him in his rightful place at defensive tackle where he would carve out a HOF career.
Besides the other HOF players like quarterback Roger Staubach, Rayfield Wright, Cliff Harris and Mel Renfro, the Cowboys had Charlie Waters, Billy Joe DuPree, Drew Pearson, Harvey Martin and Efren Herrera named to the Pro Bowl. Martin was even named the defensive player of the year that year in the NFL.
The only issue during the regular season for the Cowboys was the controversy of when Coach Tom Landry would start the rookie Dorsett over the versatile veteran Preston Pearson at running back.
It did not come until week 11 after back-to-back losses to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It would be the team’s only losses all season. Even in spot duty Dorsett still rushed for 1,007 yards and led the team with 13 touchdowns on his way to being named rookie of the year.
With Dallas having a top 10 offense and defense and losing only two games all season, it’s in the conversation as the best Cowboys team ever, with the only competition being the 1992 team in terms of dominance.
It is easily the best team the franchise had in the decade. The NFL films highlight tape for this season would coin the phrase America’s Team the franchise has run with since then, but was first exemplified by this era of Dallas teams.
This was one of the lowest scoring seasons in the modern NFL history. The league wide average for offenses was just 17.2 points a game. For comparison sakes, the lowest scoring team in 2019, the Washington Redskins, averaged 16.6 points a game.
Most of the best teams that season were led by great defenses, but it was not enough if you did not have at least a competent offense. Denver was the best team that season fitting that prototype.
Its Orange Crush defense gave up the third least amount of points that season averaging a little more than 10 points a game. The team’s five Pro Bowlers were all from the defensive side.
The offense was led by former Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton, who had battled Staubach for the starting position in the early part of the decade and had even led them to a Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl V. Dallas had traded him to the New York Giants in 1974 for a first round pick that became Randy White.
The Broncos offense was just okay enough to be the 10th highest scoring team in the league. With one of the best defenses in a season filled with great defenses, Denver blew through the regular season with only two losses as well. One of those losses came against the Cowboys in the final week of the season, losing 14-6 at Texas Stadium.
In comparison, Dallas’ 24.6 points a game average was the second highest scoring offense in the league. The Doomsday defense ranked eighth in the league in points given up, but ranked first in the least amount of yards given up.
The game was on CBS and commentated again by the all-time play-by-play man Pat Summerall and color commentator Tom Brookshier. It was the first Super Bowl to played in prime time.
A quick summary overview about the game is the Cowboy’s dominated for the majority of the game as their defense forced a then Super Bowl record eight turnovers. Defensive lineman Martin and White were named co-most valuable players, the only time in Super Bowl history so far that the award has gone to two players.
Dallas led 13-0 at halftime, but it should have been much more. Pro Bowl kicker, who missed 11 filed goals and two extra points during the regular season, made only two of his five field goal attempts in the first half.
Denver’s offense could only play better in the second half and only scored when it replaced Morton with back-up quarterback Norris Weese, whose main strength was that he was more mobile than Morton.
The Cowboys were never threatened as they completed big scoring passing plays to a diving Butch Johnson and a halfback pass from Robert Newhouse to Golden Richards to keep them well in the lead as they won 27-10.
With the offenses playing so bad this season, the NFL would make drastic rule changes the next season to increase scoring.
The big ones were allowing only a certain amount of contact between receivers and defensive backs after five yards down field and the allowing of offensive lineman to extend their arms and use their hands when pass blocking. The season would also increase from 14 to 16 games.
I will watch the result of those rule changes next week when I check out Super Bowl XIII when the Cowboys would be back to defend their title in the first Super Bowl rematch against the Steelers.
Besides Staubach, which player was your favorite growing up?

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.