Who Would Win If the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty of the 90s faced the Colts Big Three of the 2000s in the Super Bowl? (1 Viewer)

[DerrickB]

In our second installment of the Dynasty/Great Teams Discussion Series, we feature two teams that achieved great success during there years of dominance in the National Football League. Those teams are the Dallas Cowboys of the early 1990s and an Indianapolis Colts team that featured Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, and Edgerrin James.


Who Would Come Out On Top In A Cowboys Dynasty of the 90s vs the Colts Big Three of the 2000s Super Bowl?

 

[Icon]

As someone who couldn't stand Dallas in the 90s.........

The answer is probably still Dallas.

Their defenses gave problems to those epic Bills and 49ers offensives of that era...............and Peyton Manning's playoff performances could be hit and miss.

 

[Saintsfan8989]

Dallas....AINEC

 

[ChaChingBaby]

Dallas without question.

That Colts team was built by GM Bill Polian who was responsible for putting together those very same Buffalo Bills teams that Dallas stomped all over in their back to back SB wins.

It must be noted that the Colts back in the day were never world beaters except on paper. Their playoff record speaks for itself. That team had one of the greatest quarterbacks in history and a juggernaut offense but had an average defense and were very beatable in the playoffs. All those early playoff exits say it all for the Colts. They should've become a dynasty and the Patriots are not to blame. The Chargers embarrassed them far worse than the Pats ever did and far more often. Both times the Colts reached the SB, they did not have to play the Chargers. This has to be stressed cause it was the Chargers who were their biggest issue, not the Pats.

Indy had a similar weakness to those old Buffalo teams that Polian built. Where the Bills had a mediocre secondary that was exploitable with elite wide receivers and QB's, the Colts problem was their run defense. Their 2006 team had the league worst rushing defense when they won the SB. Luckily in that playoff run, they didn't have to face any teams who had elite RBs that could've exploited them like how Pittsburgh did with Jerome Bettis in the 2005 playoff. They completely avoided the one team that probably would've thrashed them (Chargers) and definitely had the run game to do it.

If you go through all of the Colts playoff losses in those years, you'll see it was mostly against teams that gashed them on the run and could tear their defense up. They used to get owned by the Chargers who would utilize LD Tomlinson and Darren Sproles on them. We even did this to them to a degree in the SB with using Pierre Thomas on screens. The Steelers got on them with Jerome Bettis in the 2005 playoff game, etc etc. To beat the Colts back in the day, you had to run the ball on them and work a gameplan around shifting RBs to beat them.

Safe to say that Emmitt Smith would have a field day on their defense. The Colts were running the Tampa-2 scheme which is exploitable if a team knows how to approach them correctly. It's most likely that the Cowboys would use TE Jay Novacek to create big problems over the middle of the field. Novacek is probably the most underrated single player of those Cowboys teams. He was an elite TE in his day and one of Aikman's favorite targets. Watch some of their old games and they used to create match up problems with Novacek over middle routes.

The Cowboys dynasty defense is slightly underrated and overlooked by fans outside of stat nerds. Their 1992 team had a top 5 ranked defense that had no pro bowlers. Most of the talk is about the triplets on offense (Aikman, Smith and Irvin) but on defense, they had a pretty solid defensive line that had Charles Haley, Jim Jeffcoat and Tony Tolbert. Add in Ken Norton at LB, and they most likely end up getting pressure on Manning. Their secondary with Kevin Smith, Darren Woodson and Thomas Everett would give teams serious fits. Probably the most overlooked thing about those Dallas teams is how good their secondaries were. Go back to their NFC title games vs the 49ers and they shut Jerry Rice down in those games. They would let Steve Young gets his yards but they'd shut down Rice and limit them without their deep threat option. They did the same thing when they played Buffalo in those SB's (locking up Andre Reed and not allowing him to burn them). I don't doubt for a minute they'd find a way to lock down Marvin Harrison from going off on them.

 

[DerrickB]

Dallas without question.

That Colts team was built by GM Bill Polian who was responsible for putting together those very same Buffalo Bills teams that Dallas stomped all over in their back to back SB wins.

It must be noted that the Colts back in the day were never world beaters except on paper. Their playoff record speaks for itself. That team had one of the greatest quarterbacks in history and a juggernaut offense but had an average defense and were very beatable in the playoffs. All those early playoff exits say it all for the Colts. They should've become a dynasty and the Patriots are not to blame. The Chargers embarrassed them far worse than the Pats ever did and far more often. Both times the Colts reached the SB, they did not have to play the Chargers. This has to be stressed cause it was the Chargers who were their biggest issue, not the Pats.

Indy had a similar weakness to those old Buffalo teams that Polian built. Where the Bills had a mediocre secondary that was exploitable with elite wide receivers and QB's, the Colts problem was their run defense. Their 2006 team had the league worst rushing defense when they won the SB. Luckily in that playoff run, they didn't have to face any teams who had elite RBs that could've exploited them like how Pittsburgh did with Jerome Bettis in the 2005 playoff. They completely avoided the one team that probably would've thrashed them (Chargers) and definitely had the run game to do it.

If you go through all of the Colts playoff losses in those years, you'll see it was mostly against teams that gashed them on the run and could tear their defense up. They used to get owned by the Chargers who would utilize LD Tomlinson and Darren Sproles on them. We even did this to them to a degree in the SB with using Pierre Thomas on screens. The Steelers got on them with Jerome Bettis in the 2005 playoff game, etc etc. To beat the Colts back in the day, you had to run the ball on them and work a gameplan around shifting RBs to beat them.

Safe to say that Emmitt Smith would have a field day on their defense. The Colts were running the Tampa-2 scheme which is exploitable if a team knows how to approach them correctly. It's most likely that the Cowboys would use TE Jay Novacek to create big problems over the middle of the field. Novacek is probably the most underrated single player of those Cowboys teams. He was an elite TE in his day and one of Aikman's favorite targets. Watch some of their old games and they used to create match up problems with Novacek over middle routes.

The Cowboys dynasty defense is slightly underrated and overlooked by fans outside of stat nerds. Their 1992 team had a top 5 ranked defense that had no pro bowlers. Most of the talk is about the triplets on offense (Aikman, Smith and Irvin) but on defense, they had a pretty solid defensive line that had Charles Haley, Jim Jeffcoat and Tony Tolbert. Add in Ken Norton at LB, and they most likely end up getting pressure on Manning. Their secondary with Kevin Smith, Darren Woodson and Thomas Everett would give teams serious fits. Probably the most overlooked thing about those Dallas teams is how good their secondaries were. Go back to their NFC title games vs the 49ers and they shut Jerry Rice down in those games. They would let Steve Young gets his yards but they'd shut down Rice and limit them without their deep threat option. They did the same thing when they played Buffalo in those SB's (locking up Andre Reed and not allowing him to burn them). I don't doubt for a minute they'd find a way to lock down Marvin Harrison from going off on them.

Dungy being too conservative is the reason why they would lose a game like this. On top of that he was afraid to punt to Deion so he decided to throw for it on 3rd and 10 however, he paid the price. Don't worry I got the Saints version of this coming soon. They will be facing a really good team from the 80s.

 

[Twyst]

. Don't worry I got the Saints version of this coming soon. They will be facing a really good team from the 80s.

As long as you don't completely jump the shark and say the 2009 saints would blow the doors off the 84 bears defense Im looking forward to it!

 

[DerrickB]

As long as you don't completely jump the shark and say the 2009 saints would blow the doors off the 84 bears defense Im looking forward to it!

Nah man, not those guys.

 

[Treybad]

I cannot stand Dallas, kills me we are discussing them here ..... however Dallas would be the better Team here... They had Aikman who was a very accurate passer during those years if you check his stats.... Along with that defense and Emmitt Smith.... I mean its kinda a no brainer really.

 

[perret318]

Dallas, partially due to being a better team, and partially due to Jerrah's money in the pockets of the officiating crew.

 

[Saint Kamara]

Dallas easily because their vaunted defense would make playoff choke artist Peyton Manning a pitiful looking quarterback.

 

[BlackandGoldXLIV]

Dallas would kill them. In fact the Buffalo Bills had a more complete team than the 2000s Colts.

Emmitt Smith and that offensive line would have a field day with an average Colts defense.

 

[faceman]

Emmitt Smith and that offensive line would have a field day with an average Colts defense.

Pretty much this. The only chance the Colts would have would be for the game to turn into a shootout. I don't see that happening.
I see Dallas winning with time consuming drives and wearing that Colts defense down by the 3rd quarter.

 

[St.Dan]

An easy guess is to say the Cowgirls, as they had the better defense, by far....but comparing teams across eras gets dicey when you consider how the rulebook is interpreted just game to game here in the 21st century, much less era to era. How much PI could they get away with, for example.

 

[ChaChingBaby]

Dungy being too conservative is the reason why they would lose a game like this. On top of that he was afraid to punt to Deion so he decided to throw for it on 3rd and 10 however, he paid the price. Don't worry I got the Saints version of this coming soon. They will be facing a really good team from the 80s.

Yeah Dallas usually had an elite secondary all through the 90's. Their defense was their strength in the later years after Novacek retired and Troy Aikman's back injuries had declined his play. The Cowboys still owned Green Bay back then. When Brett Favre was the best QB in the league, Dallas was the one team that gave him the most problems. Favre never won in Texas Stadium in his entire career.

Dungy gets the blame for a lot of their playoff losses, but he made the best with what he had. The Colts never had the talent on defense that his Tampa Bay teams had and that falls under Polian.

The Colts under Polian ignored their problems and needs on defense, just like he did in Buffalo. After the Bills' secondary got exposed to Washington in the 1991 SB, Polian did nothing to fix the problem. Those Bills teams essentially had the same secondaries in all of their SB losses. When the Colts lost the SB to us, Polian famously blamed it on the o-line, ignoring the fact that Brees shredded their defense up in that game.

Those Colts teams essentially had just 3 elite players on defense (Robert Mathis, Dwight Freeney and Bob Sanders) and then a bunch of average to mediocre players. It really showed when they would get housed by the Chargers in the playoffs. San Diego had built a team that countered everything and could expose their weaknesses.

The Broncos teams that Manning was on were built so much better than those Colts teams. They focused on defense more and more every year. After getting embarrassed in the SB to Seattle, they changed their approach and went to stacking their defense. If Polian would've done that with the Colts, they'd probably be looking at a dynasty.

 

[bclemms]

Cowboys win it easily I'm afraid. That offensive line going against the Colts very undersized defensive front 7 playing a Tampa 2 would just be the recipe for disaster for the Colts. The Cowboys would be able to run it down the Colts throat while keeping Manning on the sidelines. Then the Colts would have to play catch up ball early and often and the Dallas defensive line would end up destroying Manning.

I think that 2009 Colts team would have done really well in most Super Bowl matchups but pitting them against Dallas just isn't very fair. Every one of Dallas' strengths run right into the Colts few but obvious weak spots. It's like pairing Superman vs kryptonite. Any other time Superman at least has a chance. (Not saying Manning was Superman).