The game in the Cotton Bowl Saturday afternoon meant nothing to the NFL standings as we know them, but the Dallas Cowboys did get in the last lick on the Baltimore Colts who have beaten them heretofore in every way money can buy.
With the NFL playoffs a game away, you still do not know exactly where the Cowboys are but you do know they are different this season. This club beat Green Bay, though it was preseason, and now has disposed of Baltimore. Those two clubs epitomized the power of the NFL for the past decade and a half and Dallas just hasn't been able to cope with either. It did this season.
Now there is new blood dominating the NFL but at least the Cowboys got rid of the a old blood. The final score was 27-10 going away over the defrocked Colts, the defending champions of everything pro football holds holy except the New York Jets.
Dallas looked far better than it has in weeks, and this game no doubt makes Tom Landry rest a little easier anyway because everybody seemed to have a hand in the victory. The Cowboy defense (and Landry feels defense will control the playoffs) had been shaky for a while but it was a united front on this day.
Baltimore got 10 first-half points but Doomsday Defense – yes, including the pass defense which stole four passes – completely controlled the Colts in the second half. Baltimore was blunted to such an extent after intermission that the most the Colts could make on any one of eight second-half possessions was 25 yards. And on seven possessions, Baltimore failed to net more than 10 yards.
Offensively, Dallas rolled up 408 yards and things that had not been clicking, clicked. Bobby Hayes, who has been doing all right, but not the Bobby Hayes of old, found himself. And, for critics, it came against a good club. Hayes caught five passes for 181 yards and Lance Rentzel added three catches for 68 yards, including a beautiful leaping catch for a TD.
So, as both Hayes and Rentzel might say, the Pepper and Salt Act "let it all hang out" against the Baltimore zone defense.
Hayes set up two touchdowns and a field goal with his catches, which came in odd and unusual ways. On the second Cowboy possession of the game Craig Morton threw too high to Walt Garrison on third-and-9 at the Baltimore 44. Garrison leaped, tipped the ball off Baltimore linebacker Bob Grant. Hayes dove into the crowd and somehow got the ball for a 27-yard gain. Subsequently Mike Clark kicked a 13-yard field goal.
In the second half, Morton and Hayes combined for a 58-yard pass to set up one score and on a 44-yard gain to set up the final TD. On the last one, Morton called an audible and threw long for Bobby just as he was hit. The ball was short but defender Tommy Maxwell fell and Hayes came back and made the catch. Then Bobby fell, got up and pushed for a few more yards.
Morton, at times, looked very good. Craig has been able to work during the week for the past two weeks now and it has started to pay dividends. He finished with 12 of 23 passes for an excellent 289 yards and two touchdowns. And unlike in recent weeks, he suffered no interceptions. In this particular game, Craig just decided he would play his keys and stop second-guessing: He just set up and threw the ball.
The Cowboy rushing attack netted 133 yards and Landry used four backs. This breaks the all-time Cowboy season record of 2,122 yards set in 1966. Dallas now has 2,138 with a game left. Walt Garrison played the most and made the most gaining 66 yards on 15 carries to lead all the runners. Another encouraging note was Calvin Hill - he of the sore toe. Hill played only the first half but was performing with his old recklessness. He made 41 yards the first half on 12 carries and his timing seemed much better.
The changes Landry made in the secondary looked good. And Mel Renfro, as usual, was excellent. Mel made two interceptions to break a Cowboy team record and move into the NFL lead with nine. In the first half, he stole a Johnny Unitas pass while playing free safety and picked off one from Earl Morrall in the second half while he was playing cornerback.
Rookie Otto Brown played the corner in the first half and made three plays and left unburned. Then Brown returned in the second half to replace a limping Mike Gaechter and intercepted a pass. Brown's interception came early in the fourth period with Dallas leading, 20-10, and Baltimore at the Cowboy 33. It stopped the Colts from getting back in the game. Cornell Green also played well and got the other Cowboy interception.
Unitas hit only 12 of 28 passes for 193 yards and Morrall was mopped up, finishing with none for- five. The Colts thus threw 33 times and ran the ball only 14 times all afternoon, netting 60 yards.
The cagey Unitas did pull one of his old tricks for the only Baltimore touchdown. Late in the third period Gaechter chased down a ball carrier to make the tackle and came up limping. But Mike stayed in the game. Unitas spotted the limp and dialed a bomb to tight end John Mackey. Gaechter, because of his leg, couldn't catch Mackey and the play carried 52 yards to tie the game at 10-10, which was the halftime score.
A little earlier Dallas had gone ahead 10-3 by marching and flying 78 yards in nine plays. Morton kept his club on the ground and, facing a second-and-11 at the Colt 19, he planned to throw to the short side to either a back or Rentzel. Rentzel ran a down-and-in but Morton was under pressure and had to duck out. Rentzel broke back outside and Morton let go just as Bubba Smith folded on him. Rentzel leaped, caught the ball, came down just inside the end zone line and fell for the TD.
The first time Dallas got the ball in the second half, it zipped for another tally, the big gainer going to Hayes for 58 yards before Ocie Austin tackled Bobby to stave off the TD, briefly. Morton called an X-corner route, the tight end going to the corner, from the 19-yard line. This play has worked over and over for Dallas. Tight end Pettis Norman goes down and fakes the strong safety back in, then cuts out for the comer. Rentzel goes down-and-in. clearing out the area. The strong safety, in this situation, must commit and Pettis easily beat Jerry Logan and took the pass.
This gave Dallas a 17-10 advantage and Baltimore was fortunate it wasn't more. The Cowboys had to settle for Clark's 27-yard field goal when it could have had more on its second possession of the second half. Dallas moved 65 yards to a third-and-5 to the Colt 5 but an illegal receiver downfield pushed the ball back to the 20, killing the TD threat, which was set up on a fine catch and move Rentzel made for 35 yards with a strong assist on a block by Danny Reeves.
Morton called a fine game and the audible, which ended up on a 44-yard gain to Hayes, put Baltimore away. This placed the ball at the 14 and Garrison drove the ball in, the TD carry coming from the 1.
Landry played everybody, subbing freely in both halves. Roger Staubach came in after the touchdown and got a little business going but could get no points. Cowboy All-Pro tackle Ralph Neely, who has a bad knee, was also encouraging. Neely played the first period and seemed to do an excellent job on giant Bubba Smith.
The day was perfect – 60ish and sunny – though the wind was about 17 m.p.h, Ron Widby did an excellent job punting, averaging 46.2 on seven kicks, which was just a hair better than Baltimore's David Lee, who averaged 46.1 on eight. Lee is the NFL's top punter.
A crowd of 63,191 came out to watch and saw something they had not seen – Dallas beat Baltimore. The Colts had won eight of nine previous meetings, with Dallas winning a preseason game in Norman, Oklahoma in 1961. Dallas had never beaten Baltimore at home. But this club is different ... just how different won't be known until the playoffs.