FRISCO, Texas – The week of the Super Bowl is upon us, as the 2024 NFL season will come to a close on Sunday in New Orleans with the Philadelphia Eagles facing the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
While the Cowboys won’t be participating, they’re tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the third-most Super Bowls in NFL history with five, having won their first in Super Bowl VI with a 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane, dive into what made each of Dallas’ five Super Bowl teams unique and examine some aspects of each team that the Cowboys need now in order to return to their championship ways.
Today’s let’s begin the series with the Cowboys’ first-ever Super Bowl title.
Super Bowl VI:
With nine future Pro Football Hall of Famers, the talent on this team was an embarrassment of football riches. Quarterback Roger Staubach proved to be the catalyst on offense as the Cowboys would finish the regular season with an 11-3 record and win the NFC East. He would eventually garner MVP honors in Super Bowl VI as well.
However, the Doomsday Defense is what really led the charge, especially in the title showdown against the Dolphins. Dallas held Miami to only 185 yards of offense and just a lone field goal in the Cowboys’ 24-3 victory. In fact, the Dolphins didn’t commit a penalty and only allowed one sack, and yet they still never had a chance.
After coming so close in previous seasons, including losing the year before in Super Bowl V, the Cowboys had finally won their first Lombardi Trophy. They were no longer “Next Year’s Champions.”
3 things from 1971 team the current Cowboys need:
1. An offensive line that helped set up the run game – The 1971 Cowboys offensive line featured Hall of Famer Rayfield Wright and two Pro Bowlers in John Niland and Ralph Neely. Those three helped pave the way on the ground for the Cowboys, who scored 25 rushing touchdowns that season. The Cowboys only had six in 2024, and will need some help up front to get that number higher. A second-year jump from Tyler Guyton would be ideal, and a big decision looms on Zack Martin in terms of whether or not he’ll return for his 12th NFL season. The good news is Dallas has young pieces like Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe and Brock Hoffman that it can build on.
2. Strong linebacker unit – This isn’t to say the Cowboys had a weakness at linebacker in 2024 with Eric Kendricks, DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau, but at times they were inconsistent against the run. In 1971, the Cowboys had future Hall of Famer Chuck Howley, Dave Edwards and Ring of Honor member Lee Roy Jordan who combined for nine interceptions and were a crucial part of the league’s second-best run defense. With Kendricks becoming a free agent and Overshown potentially missing part of the 2025 season, the Cowboys will need to find some depth at the position in either the draft, free agency or a mixture of both in the hopes of seeing more improvement in the middle of the defense.
3. MVP level play from the quarterback position – Roger Staubach was the MVP runner-up in 1971 and the Cowboys won their last 10 games of the season after Tom Landry stuck with Staubach as the starter. He’d go on to finish the year with 1,882 passing yards and 15 touchdowns with just four interceptions, adding 343 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns. Dak Prescott was the MVP runner-up in 2023 with 4,516 passing yards and 36 touchdowns, and playing at a similar level again would be a big step in the right direction for Dallas.
