The Landry Code: You've got to have sacks

By RAY BUCK

rbuck@star-telegram.com

Tom Landry used to tell his players: “If you can’t rush the quarterback, you can’t play in the NFL.”

Bob Lilly listened. Harvey Martin took it to heart. Jethro Pugh never forgot.

It was considered a basic Landry recipe for Doomsday Defense, both I and II.

However, Cowboys’ sack history (and I’m not sure what this even means) suggests that bringing down the opposing QB doesn’t automatically translate into postseason success.

Quite the contrary.

Some of the Cowboys’ deepest runs in the playoffs have followed seasons with modest sack totals by the defense. And vice-versa.

The Cowboys’ five Super Bowl-winning teams averaged 42 sacks during the season. Not bad. Not great. This franchise has had 21 seasons of 42-plus sacks, including last year (46).

Of the Cowboys’ 10 seasons of 50-plus sacks, they won one Super Bowl (XII), lost one Super Bowl (XIII) and were eliminated in the playoffs five times without winning a game, including the 1966 NFL championship against Green Bay. They also missed the playoffs three times.

Total quirk? Probably.

If you believe Landry, and most of us still do.

Lilly sets single-game sack record

Date: Nov. 20, 1966

Site: University of Pittsburgh

Score: Cowboys 20, Steelers 7

Beat writer Frank Luksa wrote in the next day’s Star-Telegram: “A savage pass rush, headed by Bob Lilly, ground Pittsburgh’s attack into dust before a Pitt Stadium crowd of 42,185.”

Luksa used the phrase “sledge-hammer tactics” to describe the action.

Considering Lilly ... that’s about right.

“Mr. Cowboy” missed getting a sixth sack when young Pittsburgh QB Ron Smith intentionally grounded the ball rather than go down again. Seldom-used Steelers backup Ron Meyer endured some of Lilly’s abuse as well.

There were a total of 17 sacks in this game — 12 by the winners, five by the losers.

The 12 sacks by Dallas (later matched by the ’85 Cowboys vs. Oilers) and 17 sacks by both teams remain team records.

The ’66 Cowboys finished with a 60-sack season, which is still second-best in team history.

Jeffcoat ties Lilly sack mark

Date: Nov. 10, 1985

Site: RFK Stadium

Score: Cowboys 13, Redskins 7

What do you think happens when a Pro Bowl LT (Joe Jacoby) is replaced by an untested rookie (Dan McQuaid)?

“Jeffcoat had feeling it was his day,” read the headline in the Nov 11, 1985, Star-Telegram.

Prophetic player. Proficient headhunter. Jeffcoat sacked Joe Theismann five times to tie Lilly’s 19-year-old team record.

Jeffcoat told reporters after the game: “I watched a lot of film this week. I figured [McQuaid] would try to sit right up on me and block me, but that I was just a little faster. In their scheme, I didn’t think there was any way they could double-team me.

“They were paying too much attention to Randy White and John Dutton and Don Smerek and Too Tall Jones.”

The ’85 team owns the Cowboys’ single-season sack record (62) ... but all it managed in the playoffs was a first-round exit (LA Rams).

The next season, Jeffcoat would get a career-high 14 sacks but never have a single sack-game quite like this one ... and with so many of his New Jersey family and friends in the RFK stands.

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