Tex Schramm prepared for a player strike in 1987, and when the time came, the Cowboys fielded a very good team of replacements. Former seventh-round pick Kevin Sweeney served as quarterback, and the team had good (um…comparatively speaking) skills players in Kelvin Edwards, Cornell Burbage, and Alvin Blount. In fact, Edwards stayed on the team after the strike, and both Sweeney and Burbage made the team in 1988.

For the second time in five years, the players went on strike in 1987. Owners responded by fielding teams of replacement players.

Dallas ran its record to 3-1 with a 38-24 win over the Jets and a 41-22 win over the Eagles. A total of 40,622 fans showed up for the Philadelphia game at Texas Stadium. The following week, a total of 60,612 attended the team’s game against the Redskins.

QB Danny White, RB Tony Dorsett, and DT Randy White broke the picket line because none could afford to miss games. Danny White (sacked six times) and Dorsett (two fumbles) both played poorly against the Redskins, who did not field a single regular player. The result was a 13-7 loss that left the Cowboys with a 3-2 record overall.

Several players experienced their entire careers as replacement players. Those players who only saw action during this three-game stretch include the following:

RB David Adams (Arizona)
RB Alvin Blount (Maryland)
TE Rich Borreson (Northwestern)
T Dave Burnette (Central Arkansas)
G Sal Cesario (Cal. Poly-SLO)
DT Steve Cisowski (Santa Clara)
DB Anthony Coleman (Baylor)
WR Vince Courville (Rice)
LB Chris Duliban (Texas)
DT Mike Dwyer (Massachusetts)
LB Harry Flaherty (Holy Cross)
CB Alex Green (Indiana)
S Tommy Haynes (Southern California)
TE Tim Hendrix (Tennessee)
CB Bill Hill (Rutgers)
DT Walter Johnson (Pittsburgh)
LB Dale Jones (Tennesee State)
RB E.J. Jones (Kansas)
C George Lilja (Michigan)
DB Bruce Livingston (Arkansas Tech)
DE Ray Perkins (Virginia)
P Buzz Sawyer (Baylor)
WR Chuck Scott (Vanderbilt)
C Joe Shearin (Texas)
OL Joe Shields (Portland State)
LB Victor Simmons (Central State-Ohio)
QB Loren Snyder (Northern Colorado)
WR Sebron Spivey (Southern Illinois)
LB Russ Swan (Virginia)
LB Kirk Timmer (Montana State)
OL Gary Walker (Boston University)
DE Randy Watts (Catawba)
C Gary Westberry (Hampton)
FB Gerald White (Michigan)
C Mike Zentic (Oklahoma State)

In July 1987, the Cowboys decided that Tony Hill showing up to camp out of shape was enough of a reason to cut the team’s all-time leader in receiving yards. The team was rather confident in veteran Mike Renfro and a slew of younger receivers, including second-year pro Mike Sherrard.

Lawrence Taylor stops Herschel Walker on a fourth-down play late in the week 2 matchup between the Giants and Cowboys.

In the first week of August, the team lost Sherrard for the season with a broken leg. Coach Tom Landry had said prior to the injury that the team had redesigned the offense to take advantage of Sherrard’s skills.

Without Sherrard and Hill, the team’s receiving corps consisted of Renfro, Kelvin Edwards, Rod Barksdale, Kelvin Martin, and Gordon Banks. Quarterback Danny White was expected to return, but the team was unsure about how well he might perform.

The team fortunately had the duo of Herschel Walker and Tony Dorsett, but most commentators expected nothing better than an 8-8 record.

Week 1: St. Louis 24, Dallas 13

When White hit Banks on a 20-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys held a 13-3 lead. The Cardinals had difficulty moving the ball all game, but in the final four minutes, the Cowboys gave up three touchdowns. Walker and Dorsett combined for 261 of the team’s 322 total yards.

Week 2: Dallas 16, N.Y. Giants 14

To avoid an 0-2 start, the Cowboys had to travel to the Meadowlands and beat the Giants. This was, of course, the same place where Danny White was lost for the season with a broken wrist, leading to the team’s 1-7 finish in 1986.

After the Cowboys took a 10-7 halftime lead, the Giants stormed ahead. The Cowboys made two field goals to take a 16-14 lead, and late in the game, the team moved inside the Giant 1 with less than two minutes left. On a fourth-and-goal play, Walker attempted to leap over the pile, but he was met by Lawrence Taylor and knocked backwards. The Giants drove into Dallas territory, and a 46-yard Raul Allegre field goal would have won it for the Giants. The kick, though, hooked just left, and the Cowboys pulled out the win.

Here’s a clip showing the missed kick:

Coming up… the Cowboys field a pretty good team of replacements.

After the Cowboys’ collapse of 1986, the team had the #12 overall pick in the 1987 draft. The team had a number of needs, with the most glaring holes to fill on the defense.

The Cowboys in 1987 drafted the Danny Noonan on top, not the bottom.

The Cowboys set their sights on Nebraska nose tackle Danny Noonan, who impressed defensive coordinator Ernie Stautner before the draft. Noonan was called “powerful” in the reviews, and many expected him to provide immediate help on the line. However, he held out for several months after the draft and did not start a single game in 1987.

(The Danny Noonan that the Cowboys drafted is not the one upon which the term Noonan is based in the Urban Dictionary. That would be the Danny Noonan from Caddyshack– as in Noonan! Miss it, Noonan! NNNNNNooooonan!).

Anyway, some of the other picks in the ‘87 draft turned out to be good role players, so the whole draft was not a complete bust. Here is a look:

1. Danny Noonan, DT, Nebraska
2. Ron Francis, DB, Baylor
3. Jeff Zimmerman, G, Florida
4. Kelvin Martin, WR, Boston College
5. Everett Gay, WR, Texas
6. Joe Onosai, G, Hawaii
7. Kevin Sweeney, QB, Fresno State
8. Kevin Gogan, G, Washington
9. Alvin Blount, RB, Maryland
10. Dale Jones, LB, Tennesseee
11. Jeff Ward, K, Texas
12. Scott Armstrong, LB, Florida

Martin spent a total of seven seasons with the Cowboys and became a solid third receiver as well as a very good punt returner. Gogan likewise played in Dallas for seven years before moving on to play for several other teams.

Most of the others were disappointments. Francis was a starter as a rookie, but his career never really took off. Zimmerman and Gay never developed into starters. Blount and Jones only appeared as replacement players later in 1987. Onosai suffered an injury in training camp and had to retire.

Sweeney was an interesting pick. He was the NCAA career passing leader in yards at the time he was drafted, but he failed to make the squad. Dallas brought him back during the replacement games of 1987, and in 1988, the team gave him a shot as a starter in two “real” games. He bombed.

Most presumed that the 1986 Dallas Cowboys would at least make the playoffs, even if they did not look like Super Bowl contenders in early November. By December, the question was whether the 7-6 Cowboys would even finish with a winning record. The answer turned out to be no.

The 1986 Cowboys had plenty of time to sing at Christmastime.

Week 10: L.A. Raiders 17, Dallas 13

Dallas led the Raiders 13-10 in the fourth quarter, but a 40-yard TD pass from Jim Plunkett to Dokie Williams put the game away for Los Angeles. In his first game as a full-time starter, Steve Pelluer threw five interceptions.

Week 11: Dallas 24, San Diego 21

Two touchdown passes from Dan Fouts to Kellen Winslow gave San Diego a 21-10 lead in the fourth quarter. Touchdowns by Herschel Walker and Pelluer, though, were enough to give the Cowboys a three-point lead. Charger kicker Rolf Benirschke just missed a 55-yarder to tie the game at the end of regulation. The Cowboys won despite giving up 11 sacks.

Tom Landry’s comment: “We were born again today.”

Um, nope.

Week 12: Washington 41, Dallas 14

The score was 34-0 at halftime. The Cowboys did not manage to convert a third down until there was about four minutes left in the game. The highlight of the game may have been Reggie Collier’s only touchdown pass as a member of the Cowboys.

Week 13: Seattle 31, Dallas 14

The Cowboys celebrated Thanksgiving by falling behind 24-7 to the Seahawks. Walker and Tony Dorsett both scored in the game, but it was never a contest.

Week 14: L.A. Rams 29, Dallas 10

The Cowboys fell to the .500 mark when they were demolished by the Rams. Tom Landry received death threats at some point and had to be escorted off the field to be fitted with a bullet-proof vest.

Week 15: Philadelphia 23, Dallas 21

It looked like the Cowboys would at least ensure a .500 record when they led 21-16 against the Eagles in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia took the win, though, when Matt Cavanaugh hit Kenny Jackson on a 31-yard touchdown. The loss ruined a great game by Walker, who gained a total of 292 yards (122 rushing, 170 receiving).

Week 16: Chicago 24, Dallas 10

The Cowboys predictably failed to show up in the season finale, falling behind 24-0 to the Bears in a 24-10 loss.

Landry’s summary of the season: “We’re not a 7-9 team, and again we’re not as good as people thought early. We are somewhere in between.”

Not really.

The Dallas Cowboys won their final three games of the 1965 season to finish at 7-7, thus marking the first time that the team did not complete a season with a losing record. It became quite a habit. Starting in 1966, Dallas finished the next 20 seasons with winning records.

The Cowboys lost Danny White for the season in week 9 of the 1986 season.

The winning streak in 1965 began in week 12 of that season. Between that week (December 5, 1965) and week 8 of the 1986 season (October 26, 1986), the Cowboys played 300 regular season games. The team’s record during that span: 217-81-2, for a 72.3% winning percentage.

On November 2, 1986, Dallas traveled to the Meadowlands to face the Giants. Late in the first quarter, New York linebacker Carl Banks came in untouched and blasted quarterback Danny White, breaking White’s wrist in the process. White was gone for the season, and even though he played in 1987 and part of 1988, he was never the same.

The Dallas defense held Phil Simms to just 67 passing yards (46 net passing yards when taking sacks into account), but the Cowboys could not stop running back Joe Morris. The Giants gained 199 yards on the ground, and Morris’ two touchdowns gave the Giants a 17-7 lead.

Tony Dorsett gave the Cowboys hope when he scored from 23 yards out in the fourth quarter. Backup QB Steve Pelluer completed 28 of 38 passes for 339 yards against the feared Giant defense, and late in the game, Dallas had a chance to kick a game-tying field goal.

The problem became right tackle Phil Pozderac, who committed penalties that wiped out big plays to Dorsett and Timmy Newsome. The Cowboys were left to try a 63-yard field goal with seconds left, but it fell well short.

With the loss, the Cowboys were 6-3 and trailed the Giants and Redskins by a game. It got much worse.

Between week 9 of the 1986 season and the end of the 1988 season, the Cowboys played 36 regular season games with regular starters (excluding the three replacement games in 1987). The team that won 72.3% of its games over more than 21 seasons went 9-27, for a winning percentage of 25%.

Box Score

DMN: Cowboys pay stiff penalty, 17-14

After opening the season with a 31-28 win over the Giants, the ‘86 Cowboys were on a roll. For the first time in franchise history, the team scored 30 or more points in its first four consecutive games, resulting in a 3-1 record. Tony Dorsett suffered through an injury, but newcomer Herschel Walker looked like the steal of the decade (that, of course, came later).

Tom Landry's squad raced out to a 6-2 start in 1986.

Week 2: Dallas 31, Detroit 7

Dorsett was supposed to miss the week 2 matchup at Detroit, but when he made the trip, he made it count. He gained 117 yards on 23 carries and scored a touchdown to lead the Cowboys to a 31-7 win. The victory avenged a loss at the Silverdome one year before.

Week 3: Atlanta 37, Dallas 35

In a back-and-forth game where the teams combined for 435 yards, the Cowboys fell short in a comeback attempt against the Falcons. After Atlanta scored with less than a minute to play, the Cowboys nearly moved into position to kick the game-winning field goal. However, when Danny White hit Tony Hill with seconds remaining, Hill was unable to get out of bounds. He was finally pushed out of bounds at the Atlanta 9 after time expired, giving the Falcons the win.

Week 4: Dallas 31, St. Louis 7

With Walker leading the way, the Cowboys jumped out to a 10-0 halftime lead, then pulled away from the Cardinals in a 31-7 win. Walker finished with 139 yards in total offense.

Week 5: Denver 29, Dallas 14

Playing without an injured Danny White, the Cowboys struggled at Mile High Stadium. Gerald Willhite scored three first-half touchdowns to give the Broncos a 22-0 lead, which the Cowboys never overcame.

Week 6: Dallas 30, Washington 6

Backup Steve Pelluer had the first 300-yard game of his career (out of a total of two) in a 30-6 rout of the Redskins. Dallas held Washington to just 185 total yards and forced three Redskins turnovers. Dorsett returned to action but was hardly impressive– 18 carries, 22 yards.

Week 7: Dallas 17, Philadelphia 14

Rafael Septien’s 38-yard field goal with two seconds left provided the margin of victory in a 17-14 Dallas win at Philadelphia. The Dallas defense amazingly had 10 sacks in the game and held Randall Cunningham to just eight completions for 127 yards.

Week 8: Dallas 37, St. Louis 6

White returned to action and led the Cowboys to a 37-6 rout of the Cardinals. Rookie Mike Sherrard had the first 100-yard game of his career by catching five passes for 111 yards in a touchdown.

With the win, the Cowboys stood at 6-2 and were tied with the Giants for the lead in the NFC East. A win over New York at the Meadowlands would put the Cowboys in position to take home another division title. Tom Landry said at the time, “If we’re 6-2 at the turn, I’m always satisfied with that. You’re in good position, it’s just that New York and Washington are better this year and are playing better. You’ll have to play better than they play down the stretch to win the East.”

It wasn’t to be.

One interesting part of the 1986 season was that backup Steve Pelluer generally looked good in relief of Danny White. Once White was lost for the season with a wrist injury, though, Pelluer’s play fell off considerably.

Resources:

Pro-Football-Reference: 1986 Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Morning News Archive

The Cowboys’ acquisition of Herschel Walker looked like a move that could save the franchise, especially in a season-opening win over the New York Giants. With 1:16 remaining in a back-and-forth game against the Cowboys’ division rivals, Walker took a draw from Danny White and ran in from ten yards out to give the Cowboys a 31-28 win.

Herschel Walker replaced an injured Tony Dorsett in a season-opening win over the Giants.

The victory marked the 21st opening-game win in 22 seasons, dating back to 1965. Gone were the doubts raised by the Cowboys’ 0-5 performance during the preseason, when Dallas was plagued with turnovers.

As it turned out, Tom Landry never won another season opener.

Dallas jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Dorsett had the first score, taking a screen pass 36 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. He later sprained his ankle, giving Walker a chance to show his stuff. Walker came through with a one-yard touchdown, giving Dallas a 14-0 lead.

New York stormed back to tie the game, as the Dallas defense had trouble stopping Phil Simms, who threw for 300 yards and 3 TDs. Dallas held a 17-14 lead at the half thanks to a Rafael Septien field goal.

The game went back-and-forth in the second half. The Giants took a 28-24 lead in the fourth when Simms hit Bobby Johnson on a 44-yard touchdown.

Dallas responded with its final drive. Just before the two-minute warning, Walker gained 23 yards on a pass. Tony Hill then came through on a 35-yarder, which set up Walker’s touchdown. The Cowboys went 72 yards in just 54 seconds on the game-winning drive.

The Giants moved to the Dallas 45 with four seconds remaining, but a last-second pass fell incomplete.

Rookie Mike Sherrard was held to one reception for 16 yards. Hill, though, still looked like a star, as he caught five passes for 105 yards.

The win sparked  a strong start to the 1986 season, as the Cowboys scored 30 or more points in six of their first eight games and had a 6-2 record.

DMN: Walker Runs Down Giants, 31-28

P-F-R: Box Score

* * *

Interestingly, Monday Night Football was the subject of discussion after the Cowboys-Giants game. ABC was losing money on its franchise, and veteran director Chet Forte said that he thought the odds of the series surviving until 1987 was 20 to 40 percent. ABC lost an estimated $50 million in 1985.

Of course, MNF survived on ABC for 20 more years until the series moved to ESPN.

The new tandom of Al Michaels and Frank Gifford also drew criticism. A columnist in the Dallas Morning News noted:

The trouble . . . was not newcomer Al Michaels, the replacement for Frank Gifford on play-by-play. The problem was Monday Night Football 16-year-man Gifford, the replacement on commentary for O.J. Simpson and Joe Namath. Gifford frequently talked without analyzing and offerred commentary that was no more stylish than a chatty play-by-play.

My take: Michaels got much better and became the NFL’s best play-by-play guy. Gifford never got much better as a color commentator, often proving weak commentary that was overshadowed by Michaels and Dan Dierdorf, the latter of whom joined the network in 1987.

Once again, the 1986 Dallas Cowboys needed help in the draft. After losing out in their bid for receiver Eddie Brown in the 1985 draft, the Cowboys moved up in 1986 to take UCLA’s Mike Sherrard. In the second round, Dallas used a pick acquired from Indianapolis to take Arizona State running back Darryl Clack.

Dallas took UCLA WR Mike Sherrard with the team's first pick in the 1986 draft.

The potential: Two explosive rookies who could provide immediate help for the offense.

What happened: Sherrard had a very promising rookie season in 1986, but he suffered two horrible injuries in 1987 and 1988 and missed both seasons. Clack played behind Herschel Walker and Tony Dorsett and contributed very little except on kickoff returns.

Here’ s the draft list:

1(18): Mike Sherrard, WR, UCLA
2(33): Darryl Clack, RB, Arizona State
3(74): Mark Walen, DT, UCLA
4(100): Max Zendejas, K, Arizona
6(140): Thornton Chandler, TE, Alabama
6(150): Stan Gelbaugh, QB, Maryland
6(158): Lloyd Yancey, G, Temple
7(185): Johnny Holloway, DB, Kansas
8(212): Topper Clemons, RB, Wake Forest
9(242): John Ionata, G, Florida State
10(269): Bryan Chester, G, Texas
11(296): Garth Jax, LB, Florida State
12(307): Chris Duliban, LB, Texas
12(322): Tony Flack, DB, Georgia

Two months after the draft, none of the picks had signed with the team. Most either never played or did very little in the NFL.

• Walen had five career sacks, including four in 1988. However, he spent his rookie season on injured reserve, and an injury in 1989 ended his career.
• Max Zendejas was not the Zendejas who was the focus of the Philadelphia Eagles (that was Luis). Max kicked for the Redskins and Packers in his brief career.
• Johnny Holloway at one time posted a comment on this site. He had one career interception, which you can watch on a post from 2008.
• Jax played in Dallas until 1989. From 1989 through 1995, he was a backup linebacker with the Cardinals.
• Four of Thornton Chandler’s 29 career receptions were touchdowns. That was his claim to fame as a backup TE with Dallas.
• Clemons and Duliban saw action during the scab games of 1987.

The Dallas Cowboys clearly needed help in terms of personnel to improve from their 10-6 record and one-and-done playoff performance. The franchise responded, and though some of the moves worked out, others had a direct or indirect effect on the rest of Tom Landry’s career as the team’s head coach.

The addition of Herschel Walker in 1986 had Cowboys' fans hoping for the best.

By 1986, the Texas economy was starting to collapse thanks to falling prices of real estate and oil. This had a disastrous effect on owner Bum Bright’s savings and loan business, which eventually led his sale of the team to Jerry Jones.

Before Bright would do so, though, he became more influential in team affairs. Based on the suggestion of Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, Bright insisted that the team hire Paul Hackett as an offensive coach. Landry brought Hackett in and tried to integrate Hackett’s philosophy (mostly West Coast offense) with Landry’s multiple offense. Although it worked for a short time, Landry rejected Hackett’s influence, which infuriated Bright. Bright progressively became more critical of Landry from 1986 through 1988.

In the spring of 1986, the Cowboys tried to shop backup quarterback Gary Hogeboom, but there were few takers. Dallas finally traded Hogeboom to Indianapolis, and as a result of the trade the teams shopped second-round picks. The result was that Dallas lost its backup QB and moved up from #47 to #33. Dallas got running back Darryl Clack with the pick at #33, and the team never exercised its option on a fifth-round pick in 1987 from the Hogeboom trade.

When Danny White went down with an injury at midseason in ‘86, the team was left with Steve Pelluer. The result was, of course, the first losing season for the team since 1964.

Gil Brandt’s job responsibilities were cut in half in 1986 when the team hired Bobby Ackles to serve as lead scout. This left Brandt to focus on personnel, but his genius in that area was no longer a given. The Cowboys had been plagued by bad drafts for nearly a decade and could not afford another bad one in 1986 (we’ll get to the draft shortly).

Meanwhile, Tony Dorsett was having serious financial difficulties, and the team helped him out. But when Tex Schramm gave Herschel Walker a $5 million signing bonus to join the team from the USFL, Dorsett became infuriated.

The 1986 offseason also saw the end of Thurman’s Thieves when Landry released Dennis Thurman and Dexter Clinkscale. The two had posed for a picture with machine guns, which Landry apparently did not appreciate. The move to cut the two angered black players on the team, and the secondary in 1986 was far less imposing. The Cowboys had 33 interceptions in 1985 but only 17 in 1986.

Tom Landry’s first playoff game in 1966 came down to the final seconds and did not end until Don Meredith’s last second pass ended up in the arms of Green Bay’s Tom Brown.

The '85 Cowboys had no answer for Eric Dickerson in the playoffs, as he rushed for 248 yards in a 20-0 L.A. win.

Nineteen years later, Landry coached his final playoff game, and it was never a contest.  Eric Dickerson carried the ball 34 times for 248 yards with two second-half touchdowns in a 20-0 win for the L.A. Rams.

Playing in his final playoff game, Danny White threw three interceptions, and the team as a whole committed six turnovers.

There were few positives at all. The Rams’ Dieter Brock only completed six of 22 passes for 50 yards, but he didn’t need to complete any more of that. For the Cowboys, here’s the DMN summary:

The Cowboys had the ball 15 times and the possessions ended with seven punts, three interceptions, three fumbles (two on special teams), an unsuccessful fourth down and mercifully, the end of the game. The offense did not make a big play the entire game.

And despite the Rams playing a three-man front with not much blitzing by the linebackers, White was sacked five times, three by right end Gary Jeter, who caused Landry to rotate left tackles Chris Schultz and Howard Richards trying to find somebody who could block him.

As disappointing as the loss was, there was no reason at the time to think that Dallas could compete with the Bears in the NFC Championship Game, which was played at Soldier Field. The Rams only managed 130 total yards and nine first downs against Chicago.

The Cowboys had many holes to fill heading into the 1986 season, and this game (among others) demonstrated how far the team’s talent level had fallen. It wasn’t going to get better anytime soon.

Box Score (P-F-R)