Regular Season
The 1995 season, due to the NFL salary cap, once more saw a number of key veterans depart via free agency including wide receiver Alvin Harper to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, safety James Washington to the Washington Redskins, center Mark Stepnoski to the Houston Oilers and longtime Cowboys veteran defensive end Jim Jeffcoat to the Buffalo Bills. Starting cornerback Kevin Smith was out the remainder of the season after an injury in week one and perhaps the most prominent addition came on September 11, 1995, when Dallas signed All-Pro cornerback Deion Sanders away from the San Francisco 49ers. Running back Emmitt Smith would earn his fourth NFL rushing title and set a then-record 25 rushing touchdowns in a season against the Arizona Cardinals to secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The season began with 4 straight victories. In week five at Washington, Troy Aikman was injured early and Dallas suffered their first loss of the season. Aikman returned the next week and led Dallas to 4 more wins to move to 8–1. In week ten, the struggling 49ers (only 5–4) came to Texas Stadium and shocked the Cowboys, 38–20. Dallas rebounded with 2 wins to move to 10–2 but then were upset at home by the Washington Redskins (The Redskins, who finished only 6–10, swept the eventual world champions). The Cowboys would lose their second game in a row in a controversial loss at Philadelphia where with the game tied at 17 in the fourth quarter, Coach Barry Switzer elected to "go for it" on the 4th down at the Cowboys 29. The play failed and Philly kicked a field goal to provide the margin of victory. While the Cowboys in general and Switzer in particular were excoriated by fans and the media, the team became stronger and angrier after this game and eventually used those emotions to turn their season around.
The next week, Dallas appeared headed for a third straight defeat at home to the mediocre Giants (only 5-9 entering the game) but thanks to a clutch late reception by Kevin Williams and a last-second field goal by Chris Boniol, the Cowboys prevailed. Rejuvenated, the team defeated the Arizona Cardinals and (combined with a 49er loss the day before) secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The movie "Jerry Maguire" used film footage from the Arizona matchup.
The Cowboys defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Divisional game followed by a memorable NFC Championship game victory against the Green Bay Packers at Texas Stadium. The team would go on to face the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona for the right to tie the NFL record of a fifth Super Bowl title. Dallas dominated early, but as the Steelers gained momentum and threatened an upset over the heavily favored Cowboys, starting cornerback Larry Brown, after the tragic loss of his son Kristopher during the season, was named Super Bowl XXX Most Valuable Player when he intercepted his second pass from Steeler quarterback Neil O'Donnell to seal the game.
Read more about this topic: 1995 Dallas Cowboys Season
Famous quotes containing the words regular and/or season:
“My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all.... A message from the gods should be delivered at once. It is damnably blasphemous to talk about the autumn season and so on. How dare the author or publisher demand a price for doing his duty, the highest and most honourable to which a man can be called?”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)