NFL.com: 1972: Redskins end Cowboys' reign

[spanishomelette]

1972: Redskins end Cowboys' reign

http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/WAS/4403843

(Editor's Note: The Cowboys-Redskins rivalry dates to 1960, but things didn't heat up until 1971, when Washington hired George Allen as head coach. This excerpt from "HAIL REDSKINS" by Richard Whittingham [$27.95, Triumph Books] looks at that hiring and the 1972 season, during which Allen's Redskins met Dallas three times en route to a date with Miami in Super Bowl VII.)

After a losing season in 1970, the Redskins' chief of staff, Edward Bennett Williams, and other powers of note in the organization decided on still another coaching change. Available was just the kind of leader they wanted, a coach with a history of single-handedly turning a poor team into a consistent winner.

George Allen had that reputation; controversy, however, was also part of his portfolio.

In Chicago, where he had served as defensive coordinator for the Bears under George Halas, he had been given the game ball when the team's tough defense had systematically thwarted the Giants' offense in the 1963 NFL title game. The Bears won it, 14-10. But he was known around town as a "contract breacher" because he broke his contract with Halas and the Bears in order to take the head coaching job for the Los Angeles Rams. Halas sued Allen and won the suit. Then, with his point made, he released Allen from the contract.

As the 1972 football season approached, there was more excitement wafting about Washington and the surrounding environs than at perhaps any time since Sammy Baugh had gone back to Texas.

Preseason predictors, however, were touting the Cowboys, who had defeated the Miami Dolphins, 24-3, in Super Bowl VI the preceding January to again capture the NFC East crown.

The Cowboys were an awesome force led by Roger Staubach at quarterback (although a shoulder injury would keep him on the bench most of the year), ably backed up by Craig Morton. They also had running back Calvin Hill, wide receiver Bob Hayes, tight end Mike Ditka, defensive tackle Bob Lilly, defensive backs Herb Adderley and Cliff Harris, and linebackers Lee Roy Jordan and Chuck Howley, to name just a few who often appeared on the All-Pro listings.

Allen was undismayed, however, and announced before the season, "This is the year Dallas falls from grace, and the Redskins are going to be the ones doing the pushing."

As it turned out, he was correct ...

The sixth game of the season brought the Cowboys to Washington. Dallas, like the Redskins, came into the game with a 4-1-0 record. Sonny Jurgensen was Washington's starting quarterback now, with Billy Kilmer benched after a 24-23 loss to New England. And Morton was the Cowboys' full-time quarterback while the injured Staubach watched from the sideline. Morton, though, appeared to be on the way to one of his best seasons ever. Despite Washington's home-field advantage, the oddsmakers favored Dallas by a touchdown.

It looked as if they were correct, at least through the first half. A field goal and a Morton touchdown pass gave Dallas a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, which was extended to 13-0 in the second period. Jurgensen led a Washington drive that climaxed with a pass to Larry Brown for a touchdown, but at the half the Redskins trailed by the oddsmakers' six points.

Another seven points were added to the lead in the third quarter when true-life cowboy and Dallas Cowboy Walt Garrison burst in for a touchdown. But then, true to Allen's preseason prediction, the Cowboys began their fall from grace, and the Redskins were doing the pushing.

Larry Brown broke one for 34 yards and a touchdown to bring the score to 20-14. Curt Knight kicked a 42-yard field goal to make it 20-17. Charley Harraway barreled 13 yards to make the score 24-20 Redskins. And during all this offensive derring-do, the Over-the-Hill Gang defense totally shut down the Cowboys. At the final gun, Washington had defeated the despised Texans and was in sole possession of first place in the NFC East.

The Skins continued their winning ways, taking the next six games in a row. With two games remaining, Washington was 11-1-0, and more importantly had clinched the NFC East title. Ensuing losses to the Cowboys (34-24) and the Buffalo Bills were meaningless. It was the first time since the NFL went to a divisional format in 1967 that the Dallas Cowboys had not triumphed in their division ...

The playoff alignment for 1972 pitted Washington against the Green Bay Packers, who had won the NFC Central Division with relative ease and a 10-4-0 record ...

George Allen's game plan focused first on stopping the Green Bay running game. He had great faith in his defense, but he added nose guard Manny Sistrunk to help stifle the Packers' rushing attack ...

The plan worked perfectly ... and the final score was Washington 16, Green Bay 3. The defense had done just what Allen had asked of it. The Packers rushed for only two first downs and a meager 78 yards all day.

The victory, of course, sent the Redskins to the NFC Championship Game ... The opponent was none other than the Dallas Cowboys, a wild-card entry, the most veteran of veterans in terms of the NFL playoffs during the late sixties and early seventies.

The Cowboys, who had been runner-up to the Redskins in the regular season, put on their postseason game face and defeated the NFC West champs, the 49ers, 30-28, when a recovered Staubach came off the bench to throw two touchdown passes in the waning minutes of the game.

The title tilt took place on New Year's afternoon, a chilly, damp, overcast day in D.C. Staubach was in the saddle, so to speak, for the Cowboys, and Dallas fans were thrilled to have him back, especially after he'd plucked victory from the claws of defeat the week before.

But it was not Staubach's star that would shine in the darkened sky above RFK Stadium. It was the quarterback on the Redskins' side of the line of scrimmage, Billy Kilmer.

After a Knight field goal got the scoring started, Kilmer connected with the ever-reliable Charley Taylor on a 15-yard touchdown pass and Washington took a 10-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the fourth quarter, Kilmer again went to Taylor, this time for a 45-yard touchdown. Knight added three more field goals that period and the Over-the-Hill Gang defense was as stingy as it had been the week before, allowing only a second-quarter field goal. The final score was Washington 26, Dallas 3.

Next stop: that most glittering of sports events, the Super Bowl.

[iheartskins]

Thanks snanishomelette for posting this as well as acting as a substitute for bubba since he's been out on IR.