Originally Posted by sandtrapjack
Thanks man, I have good reason to NOT get too cocky about my teams good start. It is a little thing I like to call "History" read on to some facts and numbers I found and I hope it helps motivate those of you who feel "not-so-confident" about Sundays game:
Let's start in 1989. That was Jerry Jones' and Jimmy Johnson’s first year. The Cowboys already had been creamed at home by the Redskins, just one of their eight losses in that winless start to the season. The Redskins were 4-4, playing at rickety RFK on a Sunday night, on their way to a 10-6 finish.
But wouldn't you know it, the 1989 Cowboys, Jones and Johnson earned their first victory that night, inexplicably, 13-3, interrupting what would have become complete imperfection, finishing 1-15 that season.
Or how about that 1991 Cowboys-Redskins game at RFK? The Redskins were 11-0. Perfection was within their grasp. The Cowboys were 6-5, and had lost three of their past four and two straight. Sound familiar? Well, the Cowboys won that game, 24-21, and as it turned out, was the only legitimate loss for the eventual Super Bowl XXVI champion Redskins who finished 14-2 since they basically punted the meaningless final regular-season game - their only other loss.
The roles reversed the following season. The Cowboys came into Washington D.C. with an 11-2 record and a victory over the 8-5 Redskins away from clinching their first NFC East title since 1985. But this weird late end-zone fumble recovered for a touchdown gave the Redskins a 20-17 victory over the eventual Super Bowl XXVII champion Cowboys. Johnson was so mad on the flight home, he suspended dinner service.
Come with me to the 1993 season opener, the defending Super Bowl champions opening up at RFK against the dreaded Redskins, but without Emmitt Smith, in a contract dispute with Jones. The Redskins pounded some reality into the Cowboys, beating them, 35-16. OK, that was only the opener, but look what we were dealing with: The Cowboys went on to win back-to-back Super Bowl titles and the Redskins would win only three more games that year, finishing 4-12, the consequences of both finishes siphoning off Cowboys offensive coordinator Norv Turner to become Washington's next head coach.
Want to try 1995, the year the Cowboys finished 12-4 and the Redskins 6-10? Why, the Redskins beat the Cowboys twice that season, beating the 4-0 Cowboys and then the 10-2 Cowboys.
Or 2000 and 2001? The Cowboys would finish 5-11 both of those seasons. The Redskins would finish 8-8 both seasons. But guess what, the Cowboys swept the season series from the Redskins both seasons, accounting for 40 percent of their eventual victory totals those years.
And just for good measure, although this might seem as if piling on since the majority of this Cowboys roster remembers last year when the 2-5 Redskins arose from the defeated to beat the 4-3 Cowboys at FedEx Field, 22-19, kicking the winning field goal even after the clock had totally expired, a new one for sure in this 94-game series.
Go figure. All of it. They threw sense out the window when it comes to Cowboys-Redskins. The only common thing about these occurrences is their spooky regularity.
So here we go for the 95th time, and me, I'd beware of the Cowboys heralded as 10- or 11-point favorites.
There you go, now you know why I do not talk so much smack during this week....any given Sunday gentlemen. There are no records, there are no debilitating injuries, there is just their team and ours and 100 yards a real-estate in the middle.
LETS PLAY SOME BALL!
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