It lasted a whole season, which sometimes seemed more like two, but the pieces finally fell together in a complete picture and the Dallas Cowboys emerged as the Eastern Division champions, which is their habit.
There is just no similarity to that team which had slumped to a 5-4 record some five weeks ago and the one which finished the season with five straight victories, keeping its head while partisans and critics all around were losing theirs.
What happened, then, was that the Cowboys did their job Sunday, crushing the injury-ridden Houston Oilers, 52-10, and meanwhile getting a life-saving, or rather life-giving assist from the Los Angeles Rams
who jerked an already tight collar around the New York Giants, 31-3. This splattered any hopes the New Yorkers had to tie for the East crown, which apparently would not have fit anyway.
So for most of us of little faith, the Cowboys will now host the NFL's wild card team, Detroit, in the Cotton Bowl Saturday at 3 p.m. in the first round of the NFL playoffs. Detroit and Dallas were the league's hottest teams as the season ended.
Considering the depths to which the Cowboys sank in the 38-0 loss to St. Louis last month, you have to say the Cowboys and their coaches probably have done their best job ever this season. This has been a season of problems — the strike and contract troubles, injuries to key linemen and Craig Morton's long delay in regaining his form after off-season shoulder operation ... Calvin Hill, upon whom the offense depended most, having an undependable season due to injuries and such ... Cliff Harris getting called to Army duty. . And Lance Rentzel, one of the team's biggest stars, being lost after the Green Bay game.
Despite it all, the Cowboys came back. They took the Houston Oilers in stride, and Tom Landry substituted in the true Christmas spirit with over four minutes left in the third period until the final gun.
Perhaps the true spirit of this game came during the final period when tri-captain and center Dave Manders came off the field. Manders was saying, "Remember the Astrodome!" The Astrodome was the place where Houston waxed the Cowboys in preseason.
This game was just like Craig Morton, really. He was coming off a bad game passing in Cleveland and nursing a deep cut on the palm of his right hand, which required four stitches to close. The stitches were taken out just before the game started and Morton had his finest day of the season, hitting 13 of 17 passes for an immense 349 yards and a club- record-tying total of five touchdowns. Morton usually does things like this when least expected.
His biggest partner in wrecking the Oilers was old favorite Bobby Hayes, who picked a fine way to celebrate his 28th birthday. Bobby, who has come on the second half of this season to play better than he ever has for Dallas, set a club record by pulling down four touchdown passes and his six catches for 187 yards also made him the Cowboys' all-timeleading receiver as he passed Frank Clarke.
Houston's defensive secondary of cornerbacks Leroy Mitchell and Zeke Moore and safeties Ken Houston and Johnny Peacock are among the best in all of football. Thus the Oilers are very confident in man-to-man coverage and you can't do this with Hayes. The Cowboys tried to come up with formations in certain situations that would clinch man-to-man coverage and Hayes was open all afternoon.
Bobby scored on touchdown passes of 38, 38, 15 and 59 yards from Morton and all weren't perfect. The first TD throw was right on the beam, but on the second one Bobby made a diving catch about the Houston 4-yard-line, and then just rolled into the end zone as Moore watched too long before he realized what was happening. On the 15-yard scoring throw, which came with 6:25 left in the third period and upped the tab to 31-3, Hayes caught the ball at the 5 and was quickly hit by Peacock and Houston. But he squirted loose and scampered into the end zone. The 59-yarder came off the drawing board.
Rookie Duane Thomas, who left the game with almost five minutes left in the third period, solidified his bid for "Rookie of the Year" by rushing for 115 yards on just 17 carries to finish the season with 803 yards rushing and a league-leading 5.3 average. Had he not left the game, Thomas would have still been making yardage out there somewhere.
Houston quarterback Jerry Rhome, the former Cowboy, joined a long list of Oilers in the severely injured category. Rhome was crunched to the ground by Jethro Pugh and suffered a shoulder separation with the score 10-3 -in favor of Dallas late in the first period. He was replaced by Bob Naponic, a rookie without experience. This showed the rest of the afternoon, though it is doubtful it would have made all that much difference. Dallas just had everything going for it.
If as Landry says — and more people are now listening — defense controls the playoffs the Cowboys are in fine shape. The Cowboy defense has now gone 17 quarters without giving up a touchdown, by far the club's best effort in history.
As last week when Hayes was trapped by Cleveland for a safety in the 6-2 victory, the offense was solely responsible for the score. Hill, who replaced Thomas, was completing a good gain when the ball slipped out of his hands as he fell and Houston's Peacock picked it up and took off untouched for a 41-yard touchdown. This added the Roy Gerela's 37-yard field goal after the Oilers first possession of the day brought the score in 38-10 in the fourth period.
But the Cowboy defense was under control with Charlie Waters, rookie free safety, and Pugh standing out.
Waters got two of the Cowboys' four interceptions, (one off Rhome, one off Jerry Levies on an end-around), and almost made two others. Pugh slammed into Rhome to cause Jerry to throw wildly into Waters' arms. Charlie ran it back 17 yards to send the Cowboys on the way to their second TD late in the first period. Jethro also batted up a pass by Naponic, which Lee Roy Jordan intercepted, knocked down another pass and was credited with two of the Cowboys' seven quarterback traps.
Rookie Steve Kiner got the other interception, which he returned 28 yards to the Houston 21 to put the Cowboys in position for a final TD, which came with 2:49 left to play.
There was one very bright spot for Dallas that may have gone unnoticed. Reggie Rucker, who placed Rentzel at flanker, showed he could not only play but also play well. Reggie, caught, three passes for 77 yards and scored the Cowboys' first TD, which came after Mike Clark tied the game, 3-3, with a 35-yard field goal, on a 52-yard touchdown pass. Ruker caught the ball about the 30 and showed outstanding maneuvering ability, which was remindful of Rentzel, as he threaded his way toward the end zone. Rucker's play brightens up the playoff picture considerably.
Only 50,504 fans turned out for this one and it was the smallest crowd for Dallas since 1965. The ones who did not come better stand guard over their Cowboy antennas.
However, two super fans didn't see the game because they think young – very young. Despite the fog and rain and strong probability that Dallas would not win the East, two fans showed at the Women's Building near the Cotton Bowl at 7 a.m. where playoff tickets wore to be sold if events worked out where Dallas became champion. They had to wait until the game was over, about nine hours, before getting their tickets.
Along those same lines, those two ticket buyers are probably already planning for the following week. Should Dallas top Detroit and Minnesota win its playoff game, the Cowboys would host the Vikings here in two weeks. You can't rule out anything.
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