Rare, Losing Times for Cowboys

Two decades of winning football are over for the Dallas Cowboys. The “Cow Bags” are out.

Professional sports’ longest active team winning streak ended last Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Cowboys, 23-21, eliminating Dallas from the NFL playoffs for the third time in 20 years.

A relatively small, hostile crowd of 46,177 fans heavily booed quarterback Steve Pelluer, punter Mike Saxon and the Dallas defense. Some of the fans slipped large grocery sacks over their heads so they wouldn’t be recognized. There were 17,172 no-shows who couldn’t care less.

Dallas has a 7-8 record. The last time the Cowboys had a losing season was 1964, when they finished 5-8-1. The Cowboys have to beat the Chicago Bears in Texas Stadium on Sunday to escape a losing season.

The Cowboys’ 20 consecutive winning seasons was the third-longest in professional sports history, behind the New York Yankees’ 39 straight winning seasons and the Montreal Canadiens’ 32 consecutive winning years.

“The Glory Days Are Officially Over,” headlined the Dallas Times Herald.

The Cowboys started the season as NFC Eastern Division champions and won six of their first eight games.

But injuries to quarterback Danny White and running backs Herschel Walker and Tony Dorsett helped contribute to a slide that has seen the Cowboys lose six of their last seven games. It’s their worst second-half of the season since 1962.

“We’re probably being laughed at around the NFL,” Dorsett said. “A lot of people are extremely happy things have worked out the way they have, but we’ll be back.

“We don’t have anything to be proud of this year. But we’ve had a great past, and I’m sure we’ll have a great future.

“It’s been a rough year for me physically,” Dorsett added. “I’ve been beat up all year. I’m looking forward to getting myself healthy and being ready next year.”

Close losses to the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Raiders with Pelluer at quarterback hurt the Cowboys.

“It tore the heart out of this team,” Coach Tom Landry said.

Defensive tackle Randy White said there should be no excuses.

“I’ve never been in this situation before,” White said. “What it boils down to is we just haven’t been getting the job done. We lost that little edge you need to win football games. We need to show some pride against Chicago.”

Walker said the Cowboys hadn’t quit on Landry.

“You’re not a loser until you give up, and this team works hard and plays hard,” Walker said.