Red Hot Cowboys On A Rampage

The biggest crowd in the history of Dallas' Cotton Bowl watched in post-Thanksgiving-dinner euphoria last week when the Cowboys ground down Cleveland 26-14 to take the Browns all but out of the Eastern Conference race in the National Football League and establish a winning momentum for themselves. The 80,000-odd fans doubtless will be back on New Year's Day to watch the Cowboys have at the Green Bay Packers for the NFL championship and a chance to play in the supergame.

Of course, the Cowboys have not yet won the Eastern title, but only an atrocious reversal of the form they displayed against Cleveland could thwart them. "I think we will be the most consistent winners in pro football for the next few years," said Quarterback Don Meredith after the game. "Right now we're something like 18, 5 and 1 since the middle of last season. I don't think the Packers or the Browns have won that consistently." Meredith was right: the Packers, in their last 24 games (including exhibitions), are 16, 7 and 1, and the Browns are 16 and 8.

The new-found consistency of the Cowboys is the result of a lucky injury—to Mel Renfro—and of Meredith's reluctant conversion to the Tom Landry philosophy of football. Meredith likes to throw the bomb; Landry is content with shorter gains on percentage plays. Oh, there have been other contributing factors. The club is mature, and both units are set at last, and the extra rapid development of a trio of young players—Dan Reeves, Willie Townes and Jethro Pugh—has helped. But Meredith has been the moving factor and Reeves, who would have played little had Renfro not been injured early in the season, has given the mopey Dallas ground attack the �lan it needed.

By the time Renfro recovered, Reeves had so firmly established himself in the offensive backfield that Landry could return Renfro to safety, where he is rated among the top three in the NFL.

The Cowboy victory over the Browns was a perfect demonstration of the multiple talents of the team. Under the noon-bright illumination of extra lights provided for the TV color cameras, Dallas seemed to be a younger, faster edition of the Packers.

It is not easy to puncture the sophisticated Cleveland defense. Against the Browns in Cleveland, on October 23, Meredith had been intercepted four times, trying to hit receivers in the seams in the Cleveland zone. He had been under heavy pressure from the Cleveland defensive line and from the Cleveland blitzes. Only late in the game, with the issue decided, did Meredith begin to hit; the 30-21 score did not truly measure the superiority of the Browns in that game.

The Brown offense moved the ball well; Ryan, given ample time to throw, had no difficulty finding free receivers. Cleveland double-teamed Bob Lilly, Dallas' fine tackle, taking away much of the Cowboys' pass rush and placing an impossible burden on the deep defenders. Ryan was never caught for a loss attempting to pass.

" Dallas makes it awful hard for you to get many things done," Ryan said charitably before the teams' return match. "This is the best defense in the league. You have to choose the right weapon at the right time."

This time Ryan faced a significantly different defense. Ernie Stautner, the old Pittsburgh tackle who now coaches the Dallas defensive line, had swapped the positions of Pugh and Townes, a pair of large, quick linemen. Pugh originally had been a defensive end and Townes a defensive tackle. Neither of them had been impressive enough to budge Jim Colvin or Larry Stephens out of the defensive line. Both Colvin and Stephens were good football players, but neither was adept at penetrating deep enough to frighten a quarterback. Stautner moved Townes out to end, brought Pugh in to defensive tackle, and, presto! the Cowboys suddenly had a pass rush from the left side.

Landry wanted more—some relief for Lilly, who was so good that he was getting the attention of two blockers. Against Pittsburgh the week before, Landry tried a center blitz. Corner Linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, assisted by another linebacker looping into the middle, fired in on Pittsburgh's rookie quarterback time and again. With two linebackers slamming into the center, the Steelers could not spare a blocker to double-team Lilly. The result: Dallas trapped the Steeler quarterback 12 times attempting to pass, nearly trapped him twice more, and when the Steelers tried to use a halfback option pass Lilly dragged Dick Hoak down from behind.