Seven Teams The Dallas Cowboys Just Can’t Beat
Aug 24, 2013; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins helmets on the sidelines during a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Miami Dolphins (7) vs. Dallas Cowboys (5)
Postseason: Miami (0) vs. Dallas (1)
Last Meeting: September 7, 2014
Well, not too much in the way of history going on here.
Just a total of 12 regular season games have ever been played between these two teams, and really only a couple of those had much in the way of pizazz.
However, that first match up is the one that matters as much as any game Dallas has ever suited up for.
Super Bowl VI was played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 16, 1972 – the first Super Bowl played after my birth the previous September.
Whether or not I was any kind of good luck charm is certainly debatable, however a guy named Bob Lilly definitely was as he was among the difference makers on a defense that had lots of success coming in the future.
Unquestionably, rapidly emerging quarterback Roger Staubach would win MVP honors in a game that forever changed the “next year’s champion” identity of the Cowboys. While the game was certainly played long ago, Super Bowl VI set the stage for everything that all Dallas fans now associate with the Cowboys – five Lombardi Trophies, 14 players, coaches and executives in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and, of course, the unquestioned title of America’s Team.
Yes, it all happened with a little help from the Dolphins, who weren’t quite ready for their own March to back-to-back Super Bowl wins until the following season.
A series that was tied at two wins a piece heading into the 80s was suddenly tilted dramatically in the Dolphins favor with the emergence of Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, who led Miami to Super Bowl XIX against San Francisco in early 1985. The ‘Fins would take four games from 1984-1993, the last one coming on Thanksgiving during a rare freeze at Texas Stadium. Perhaps the name Leon Lett rings a bell here in a game that Dallas essentially had in the bag.
Things got very interesting in 1996 when former head coach and multiple Super Bowl architect Jimmy Johnson met up with his former team as head coach of the Dolphins. Dallas won going away by a score of 29-10. Johnson tried again at Texas Stadium in 1999 during his final season as an NFL coach, but to no avail as the Cowboys kept their undefeated record against Johnson intact following a 20-0 shutout.
These teams have played each other five times on Thanksgiving, the most recent meeting coming on that very day in 2011. Dallas has won four of it’s last five meetings against Miami, two of those victories coming in south Florida.
Dallas can move to within one game of it’s head-to-head deficit against the Dolphins this coming season when the two teams play on November 22 in Miami. This will be the Cowboys’ fifth regular season road game ever against the Dolphins.
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