By TJ Troup 
Going to begin with the dismissal of Chris Ballard of the Colts. Carlie Irsay-Gordon and her hands-on approach will eventually lead to the Colts being a consistently strong team again, but how long will it take. The Colts have two very talented players that just might be traded, Jonathan Taylor & DeForest Buckner. Buckner has been quoted stating "same old song and dance" ... not sure if I can picture Buckner on stage with Steven Tyler singing one of Aerosmith's signature songs?
Will go to my grave knowing how important the Defensive Passer rating is each year. At this point in the season, the top 4 teams in this category (Minnesota, Denver, Kansas City, Green Bay) have an overall record of 18-4.
Yes, will be updating all of you as the season progresses.
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| Art: AI |
The first half of last night's game was a surgical destruction of the Washington defense. The Niners offense gained 303 yards on 41 plays. Though Washington rallied, the Niners' first-half performance led to victory.
Over the years one of the league's best rivalries has been San Francisco vs. Dallas, which will take me to a question for all of you, when will Dallas actually hire a defensive coordinator who knows what he is doing.
Right now the Dallas defense is on pace to allow over 2,500 yards rushing. This will allow me to segue to my historical saga of the week. From October 3rd '88 through the '89 season, Dallas won two of twenty-eight games! October 25th, 1992, was a turning point for the Cowboys as they defeated the Raiders in the Coliseum 28-13 before 91,505 fans to improve their record to 6-1! Steve Sabol honored me by allowing me to serve on the "America's Game" committee.
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| Credit: Time-Life |
When you watch this chapter you hear Aikman, Irvin, and Norton discuss Jimmy Johnson, and how that magical season unfolded while also discussing the growing pains of the previous three years. The November 16th issue of Sports Illustrated has on the cover "THE D IS BACK IN DALLAS" and Dr. Z tells the tale of Dave Wannstedt and his "No Names for Now" since not one Dallas defensive player was chosen for the Pro Bowl! Cowboy opponents attempted only 345 running plays against them in '92 for a league-low 1,244 yards.
The real strengths of this Cowboy D was quickness, proper pursuit angles, and sure tackling thus only twice did an opponent runner gain more than 20 yards on a running play all year. Since opponents figured they could not run on Dallas, then lets throw the hell out of the ball against them, similar to Erik Kramer in the playoff loss to Detroit in '91.
Jimmy Johnson's secondary of Holt, Brown, Everett, Washington, Smith and Horton finished 10th in the defensive passer rating category with a mark of 69.9 (league average was 75.3)this is a far cry from '89 when Dallas was DEAD LAST in this category with a mark of 93.9 (league average 75.6).
When I met Paul Lionel Zimmerman for the first time face to face was in a hotel in Santa Monica and he did an interview with Ken Norton Jr. which I was allowed to attend. Dr. Z's insightful questions and Norton's candid answers was so unlike the crap you would read/hear from other writers doing interviews. Before I go to the other side of the ball let's end this part of the story with a quote from Wannstedt "The domination is coming, believe me, it's coming, but right now I'm thankful for what we've got."
Much of the film from "America's Game" of the '92 Cowboys shows Aikman delivering strikes to Irvin, Harper, and Novacek or Emmitt darting through a hole, careening off a tackler with surprising strength to keep the chains moving. Dr. Z shared his nickname for the Dallas o-line with me, as he called them "road graders," and boy oh boy were Newton, Tuinei, Stepnoski, Gesek and man mountain Erik Williams just that.
These five well-coached men were also superb pass blockers. Add to the mix a fullback who could knock the taste out of your mouth in Darryl Johnston and you have an offensive juggernaut. We all know the final result of the '92 Cowboys, and Jimmy Johnson's classic euphoric statement in the locker room at Candlestick, which is the title of this week's column.
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| Credit: Time-Life |
My question for all of you, is this the best Cowboy team of all-time or would you choose the '71 or '77 Cowboys and why?
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