One of the biggest beatdowns in Monday Night Football.
The biggest comeback in franchise history.
A brutal initiation.
An NFL-record for offensive production.
Student schooling teacher.
Perfection, terminated.
The Cowboys and Saints have never played for a championship. But when they meet, they always produce something.
Something historical. Something statistical. Something magical. And, above all, something memorable.
Don’t look now, but the hype is firmly in place ahead of Thursday night’s showdown at AT&T Stadium.
Deja voodoo?
The Saints are convinced they are a legit Super Bowl contender. They come to Arlington boasting the NFL’s best record and a 10-game winning streak.
The Cowboys believe their turnaround is now more expectation than aberration. With a three-game winning streak, they lead their division and are realistically eyeing the playoffs.
But if history has taught us anything about the rivalry between “Who Dat?!” and “America’s Team,” it’s that the teams – and their sometimes annoyingly arrogant fan bases – love nothing more than ruining each other’s party by peeing in the punch bowl.
The franchises have both been coached by the Phillips family (Bum in New Orleans; Wade in Dallas), and they share a flair for the dramatic when proving a point to their southerly NFC neighbors. Following that trend, this year serves notice to the seemingly superior Saints.
Quarterback Drew Brees is the leading candidate for MVP, completing an astonishing 76 percent of his passes with 29 touchdowns, two interceptions and only 10 sacks. The Saints, long known for porous defenses that forced them to win high-scoring games, also enter as the NFL’s No. 1 run stoppers. Powered by Brees’ accuracy and an arsenal of weapons led by receiver Michael Thomas and running back Alvin Kamara, their offense leads the league scoring 37 points per game.
Considering the way New Orleans has devoured the NFC East, the Cowboys appear nothing more than traffic cones to accentuate the vroom of the planet’s most potent offense. The Saints have already whipped the Giants (by 15 points), Redskins (24) and Eagles (41).
Sure, the Cowboys have a pass rush that could cause Brees discomfort in the pocket. Dallas is also 4-1 at home and brings in the league’s hottest running back with Ezekiel Elliott and new, shiny-toy receiver Amari Cooper. But quarterback Dak Prescott has been sacked a league-high 38 times and Dallas’ offense has topped New Orleans’ average of 37 only once in 11 games.
In these matchups – which usually take place late in the season with one team confidently eyeing the bigger picture – the best bet is to expect wonky, defining moments. Even though the Saints haven’t allowed a running back over 70 yards this season, Elliott might run wild. And even though Brees has thrown for 350 yards per game, 20 touchdowns and only five interceptions in eight starts against Dallas, he could have the high-turnover game that derails his MVP season.
You want unpredictable?
On Thanksgiving 2010 the Cowboys led 27-24 at the 2-minute warning when Roy Williams fumbled inside New Orleans’ 10 after a 47-yard catch-and-run, setting up a last-second loss. In 2012, Brees and Tony Romo combined for 862 passing yards and seven touchdowns in a Saints’ 34-31 victory. In 2013 the Saints set an NFL-record with 40 first downs in a 32-point cakewalk. And in 2015 – the most recent matchup – Brees hit running back C.J. Spiller with an 80-yard touchdown on the second play of overtime.
We can land a spaceship on Mars, but we can’t explain what happens when the Cowboys play the Saints.
1973 at Cowboys 40, Saints 3
Two years earlier an upstart Saints team upset the eventual Super Bowl champion Cowboys before a raucous 83,000 at old Tulane Stadium. Uncharacteristically irked by what he perceived as a crowd that lacked class and decorum, head coach Tom Landry subtly said, “Who knows, maybe we’ll get a chance to get ’em back somewhere down the road.”
That opportunity arrived on a September Monday night and resulted in the fourth-largest blowout in MNF’s 49-year history.
Landry cannot, however, be charged with running up the score. In a different era of offensive football in the NFL, the Cowboys scored 40 points without a defensive or special teams touchdown, and with quarterback Roger Staubach completing only 10 passes.
1984 at Cowboys 30, Saints 27
Momentous on two fronts, the Cowboys produced their largest comeback (21 points) victory in a game – pushed back by the Ronald Reagan-Walter Mondale Presidential debate – with the latest local kickoff in NFL history (8:51 p.m.).
Shocked by touchdowns from Saints’ players named Hokie Gajan and Dirt Winston, Dallas trailed, 27-6, entering the fourth quarter. Landry, coaching against Bum Phillips, replaced starting quarterback Gary Hogeboom with Danny White.
Touchdowns by Tony Dorsett and Mike Renfro got the Cowboys close, and an interaction of future Hall of Famers forced overtime. Randy White sacked and stripped Saints’ quarterback Ken Stabler, and Jim Jeffcoat pounced on the fumble in the end zone with 2:53 remaining. Rafael Septien’s 41-yard field goal won it on Dallas’ opening OT drive.
1989 at Saints 28, Cowboys 0
After their team kicked a last-second field goal to beat the Houston Oilers and end their exhibition schedule at 3-1, new owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jimmy Johnson ran giddily off the field at Texas Stadium.
It would be more than a year before they were happy again. The misery started in the regular-season opener at the Superdome.
Rookie quarterback Troy Aikman threw two interceptions. Herschel Walker gained only 10 yards on eight carries. The cocky Cowboys were humbled to the tune of producing as many penalties as first downs (10).
It was a bad start to a horrible season that ended 1-15.
2006 Saints 42, at Cowboys 17
Both teams were 8-4 entering a Sunday night showdown hyped for Cowboys’ coach Bill Parcells facing his former assistant, the Saints’ Sean Payton. It didn’t go well for the professor.
Brees threw for 384 yards and five touchdowns. New Orleans’ secret weapon? Fullback Mike Karney, who played seven seasons in the NFL and scored three of his seven career touchdowns that night.
The Saints went on to lose the NFC Championship. A month later the Cowboys lost the Wild Card game at Seattle when Romo fumbled the hold on a potential game-winning field goal, forcing Parcells into retirement.
2009 Cowboys 24, at Saints 17
The Cowboys entered this late-December Saturday night showcase as a physically wounded, emotionally gutted team. A week earlier their playoff hopes were dented in a home loss to the Chargers in which power back Marion Barber was stuffed on four consecutive carries inside the 5-yard line and defensive captain DeMarcus Ware was carried off the field on a stretcher. The Saints, meanwhile, entered the game undefeated at 13-0.
Dallas dominated early, with first-quarter touchdowns by Miles Austin and Barber helping it build a 24-3 lead. Thanks to a shanked short field goal by Nick Folk, Brees got the ball with 2:16 remaining and a chance to tie.
But from Dallas’ 42 he was sacked and stripped by – you guessed it – Ware.
The Cowboys went on to win the NFC East and a playoff game. Six weeks later the Saints won their only championship in Super Bowl 44.
