Still stinging from letting a three-peat slip away the Cowboys went to work on getting back to the Super Bowl in 1995.
If owner Jerry Jones was hoping to show the world the General Manager Jones had been the genius behind building the team, he fell well short.
In what would become a troubling pattern in drafts to come, Jones traded out of the first round in exchange for two second-round picks.
Tampa Bay would select future Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks with the Cowboys’ first-round pick.
Dallas would take running back Sherman Williams, tight end Kendall Watkins, and guard Shane Hannah with their three second round picks.
The rest of the draft fared little better as Dallas focused on drafting backups instead of players who could challenge for starting jobs.
Free Agency saw the departure of Alvin Harper, James Washington, Mark Stepnoski, and Jim Jeffcoat. Dallas did score a coup by luring Deion Sanders away from San Francisco.
Is This A Re-Run?
Despite the personnel issues, the Cowboys still had a solid core of players that Jimmy Johnson had put together. The team jumped out to a 4-0 start in 1995.
They blanked the Giants 35-0 to open the year and downed Denver 31-21 in the home opener.
Dallas needed overtime for a 23-17 win over the Vikings. Then the Cowboys easily dispatched the Cardinals 31-20 – the third straight win over Buddy Ryan as Arizona’s head coach.
Troy Aikman again failed to survive to the end of a matchup with the Redskins in a 27-23 loss. Aikman returned the following week to lead the Cowboys to a 34-24 win over the Packers.
Dallas defeated the Chargers 23-9, then after a bye week, downed the Falcons (28-13) and Eagles (34-12) to get to 8-1.
But as they had in 1994, the 8-1 Cowboys met the 49ers in Week 11 and lost. Aikman would get knocked out early, the 49ers would score the first 24 points and go on to win 38-20.
Just like the previous year, Dallas was 8-2. Just like 1994, they would go 4-2 the rest of the way.
streaky end
The Cowboys would beat the Raiders 34-21, then down the Chiefs 24-12 on Thanksgiving Day. But losses to the Redskins (24-17) and Eagles (20-17) had Dallas clinging to the No. 1 seed.
The loss to Philadelphia saw Barry Switzer go for a first down on 4th-and-1 from Dallas’ own 29 yard line in a 17-17 tie in the 4th quarter.
The first attempt was ruled dead as the two minute warning hit. Instead of punting and likely heading to overtime, Switzer rolled the dice anyway.
Emmitt Smith, who would win his fourth rushing title in 1995, got stuffed at the line and the Eagles would kick the game-winning field goal.
The next week, the Cowboys trailed the Giants 14-6 at halftime, but rallied for a 21-20 win. Needing a win at Arizona to secure home-field, Aikman threw for 350 yards and two scores in a 37-13 win over the Cardinals.
Making the victory that much sweeter, it would be Ryan’s last game as an NFL head coach.
The Run Begins
Dallas would not let the Eagles get close after an early 3-3 tie in the Divisional round playoff game. The Cowboys scored 27 unanswered points and rolled to a 30-11 victory.
For the first time in four years, Dallas advanced to the NFC title game and did not face off against the 49ers.
Brett Favre and the Packers had gone to San Francisco and upended the defending champions the week before.
The two teams put on a show at Texas Stadium. Aikman hit Michael Irvin for two touchdowns and an early 14-3 lead.
The Packers rallied back on two Favre scoring passes for a 17-14 lead. But Dallas got a Chris Boniol field goal and scoring run by Smith for a 24-17 halftime lead.
The Packers again responded with 10 unanswered points to lead 27-24 going into the final quarter.
Smith would score his second and third touchdowns of the game to send Dallas back to the Super Bowl with a 38-27 victory.
Smith would finish with 35 carries for 150 yards in addition to his three second-half touchdowns.
Super Bowl XXX
For the second time that season, the Cowboys would play at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. For the third time they would face the Pittsburgh Steelers in a Super Bowl.
For the first time, they would beat the Steelers in a Super Bowl. But it was far from easy.
Dallas jumped out to an early 13-0 lead and took a 13-7 lead into halftime. A Smith touchdown made it 20-7 after three quarters.
The Steelers rallied to get back to 20-17 with seven minutes left in the game. After a Cowboys punt Pittsburgh took over with a chance to gain the lead.
But Neil O’Donnell’s third interception of the game – and the second one thrown to Larry Brown – gave Dallas the ball at the Steelers’ six.
Two Smith runs later Dallas was up 27-17 and Pittsburgh had no answer. The Cowboys had won their fifth Super Bowl, third in the last four years, and their first under Switzer.
But there would always be an asterisk beside Switzer’s name in the record book. Yes, he was the head coach. But he’d won it with Jimmy’s players.
For Jones and the Cowboys they would spend every year since trying to get back to the Super Bowl and finally prove Jones’ could build a championship team without Johnson.
They have yet to do so. They haven’t even made it back to a conference championship game since the 1995 season – 27 years ago.