Love them or hate them, there's no getting around the fact that the Dallas Cowboys are one of the most successful franchises in NFL history.
Since joining the league in 1960, America's Team has made 36 trips to the postseason, good for the second-most all-time, trailing only the Green Bay Packers (37).
Of those 36 playoff appearances, eight have resulted in a trip to the Super Bowl, tying the Cowboys with the Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, and Denver Broncos for the second-most appearances in Big Game history. Only the New England Patriots have more with 11.
And of those eight trips to the title game, Dallas has won five of them, tying them for the third-most Super Bowl victories in history. The Steelers and Patriots are tied atop the list with six wins apiece.
So, again, nobody can deny the overall success of this historic franchise. That said, though, it's no secret that it's been quite some time since Dallas last hoisted the Lombardi Trophy — or even got close to doing so, for that matter.
Specifically, the Cowboys haven't won the Super Bowl, haven't made the Super Bowl, or even made the NFC Championship Game since accomplishing all three at the conclusion of the 1995 season.
The Cowboys won their third Super Bowl in four years at the end of the 1995 NFL season
Before the dynastic Dallas team of the early-to-mid 1990s came along, no team had won three Super Bowls in a four-season stretch.
In 1992, which marked just the fourth season of Jerry Jones' ownership tenure, the Cowboys captured their first Super Bowl victory in 15 years and third overall with a dominant 52-17 win over the Buffalo Bills.
A year later, Dallas added Lombardi Trophy number four, winning a rematch with Buffalo by a score of 30-13, not long after which head coach Jimmy Johnson parted ways with the franchise after five seasons.
In their first year with Barry Switzer on the sideline in 1994, the Cowboys returned to the NFC Championship for the third consecutive season, facing the rival Niners for the third year in a row. But a third straight trip to the Super Bowl wasn't in the cards, as San Francisco took a 38-28 win and went on to become the first franchise to notch five Super Bowl victories in an easy 49-26 victory over the then-San Diego Chargers.
Already armed with the famous "Triplets" trio of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin on the offensive side of the football, Dallas added to its already daunting defense ahead of the 1995 season with the signing of Deion Sanders, who'd won Defensive Player of the Year with the 49ers the year before.
With their new roster, the Cowboys went 12-4 during the '95 regular season, thus earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. And after a 30-11 victory over the rival Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round and a 38-27 win, Dallas took down the Packers, who'd knocked off the Niners, in the NFC Championship to set up a Super Bowl showdown with the Steelers, to whom they'd twice lost the title game in the 1970s.
But this third matchup would be different.
With Aikman throwing for 209 yards and a touchdown, Smith rushing for a pair of scores, and surprise Super Bowl MVP Larry Brown intercepting Steelers quarterback Neil O'Donnell twice, the Cowboys walked away with a 27-17 victory.
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