Lets look forward to the Dallas game, by looking back at two Cowboys game; The last one played in 2008, and a classic one from 1990, in which two organizations crossed paths and started heading in different directions.
Its all continued....
Last year The Bucs played their last game in the old Tampa Stadium. Luckily the 2001 squad got a win there, because otherwise, the Bucs would have NEVER won in Texas Stadium! ..and even that was barely a win; 10-6 over a very bad Dallas team that was a little better defensively than anyone knew.
Jeff Garcia continued to have problems in the Red Zone, and in the 4th Qtr. Despite so many trips into Dallas territory, we only came away with 3 Field Goals.
So now, lets go back to a classic matchup in Cowboys/ Bucs history, of which there is a lot of! The Bucs played the Cowboys for the first time in 1977, the year the Dallas Cowboys won the SuperBowl! Meanwhile we hadnt won a game yet.....at all! Roger Staughbach, Tony Dorsett, Ed Too Tall Jones, Hollywood Henderson, no match for us!! LOL.
Only a few years later however, things were more equal....or at least a little closer to being equal. In 1980 The Bucs played a close game in Texas but lost. In the 1981 playoffs, the Cowboys were beating us up by halftime and were up 10-0. The Bucs came out and gave up a TD drive for a 0-17 disadvantage and ended up losing 38-0, far worse that that 2006 Thanksgiving disaster!
Coming back from the 82 strike, the Bucs played in Texas stadium just like they did last year, getting inside the cowboys 20 yard like 5 times, but came out with only 9 points. Xerox copy for last year actually! They had a chance to play one more time that year, and had the lead at halftime, but ended up losing 30-17 with a couple of 4th qtr scores, in what would be Doug Williams last game as a Buccaneer.
Believe it or not, one of the best chances to beat the 'Boys was during the Bucs 2-14 1983 season! The Bucs had the lead and with Dallas driving with only a few mintues left, Cedrick Brown intercepted the ball in the end zone and secured the win.....or so we thought. Somehow, the Bucs offense was more conservative than under Tony Dungy, and the Cowboys got the ball back and scored taking it into overtime, and won it there.
It would be a long time until we played the Boys again, which leads us up to our video. Back then, you could find yourself playing two games in one season against a non division opponent if you were in 5th place , and the other 5th place team too, would play a home and home schedule. In the 70s youll see a lot of Bucs/Giants games like this, in the 80s, Bucs/Cardinals games. In 1990, The Bucs played the Cowboys twice, because the Cowboys were coming off a 1-15 season, and last place, just like the Bucs.
In 1990, Ray Perkins was in his 4th year, and it was looking like he finally had the Bucs becoming a playoff team.
The schedule was wierd enough that year, as Week one and week three were vs Detroit, and the Bucs won both of them. Added to a win at MInnesota, the Bucs were 3-1 and traveled to Dallas, looking to go 4-1 over a bad Cowboys team.
Ray Perkins game plan had 6 total passing plays for Vinny Testeverde. The Bucs had the lead but a 4th Qtr TD by a Dallas Cowboy named Emmitt Smith. The 3-2 Bucs beat the Packers, and then, freak schedule, hosted the Cowboys.
CLASSIC FLASHBACK- 1990 Dallas at Tampa Bay-
The Bucs had command of the game, more so than they did over Dallas two weeks before, but a Vinny Testeverde pick 6 INT for a TD tied the game at 10. The Bucs drove down and got a FG, leaving under two minutes left for a team that won only one game the year before.
Problem is, The Cowboys used that time to score a TD, from QB Troy Aikman to WR Michael Irvin. With that score, two franchises went different directions. The Bucs who were supposedly turning things around, lost another 5 games in a row. The Dallas Cowboys would take those three young players, and win 3 SuperBowls in the early 90s.
Enjoy this week's Classic Flashback...the entire final 2 minutes of the game are included, unedited.
These two teams would not play again until franchises were ready to change places in the grand scheme of things. The Cowboys were falling back to earth with their aging players, and Tony Dungy transformed the Bucs into a perennial playoff team. The 2000 Cowboys at Bucs game finally brought the Bucs a win over the Cowboys, when Warrick Dunn ran wild over the Dallas D. Opening up the next year, the Bucs got their first and so far only win ever in Dallas!
Modern History shows the Bucs getting killed on their first ever Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas, and then last years frustrating loss, leads us up to this 2009 season opening showdown!
Got a favorite Dallas Cowboy/ Tampa Bay Memory? Love to hear it for this weekend!
See you next week when we talk about all the Tampa Bay Buffalo Games. Did you know we have NEVER played in Buffalo? Did you know that our best Won/Lost record has always been against the Bills? We beat them when they were a great team, it was just one of those things...we always owned the Bills.
See you then....GO BUCS!