I've had this in the back of my mind for a lot of years now ...
The Cowboys may well have cost us the ultimate undefeated season and uncontested title of Greatest Team Ever. I know that young Cowboys team was coming on, and yes I remember Aikman missed the last quarter with an ouchie, but had we not been 12-0 at that point and getting all the attention that brought, no way we lose that game. Mostly because Dallas played that game with a gambler's flair--a broke one down to his last chip. They gambled like crazy--first-half on-sides kick, going for it on 4th down several times--and on every key sequence seemingly got the lucky bounce--see first-half-ending Hail Mary TD. All that and they won by three.
Almost any one or two of all those plays go our way and we win--maybe not impressively, but we win.
And had THAT happened, no way Gibbs sits half the team in the regular-season finale in Philly, nor do we surrender a 12-point 4th quarter lead and lose on a last-second FG. Nope, we run through them in routine fashion and finish 16-0.
Think Atlanta or Detroit were going to beat us at home in the playoffs after that?
Jimmy Johnson gets credit for going balls-out, yeah, but Lady Luck and Fate played a big hand in keeping that '91 Redskins team from joining the '72 Dolphins as the only perfect teams in NFL history, and supplanting them atop the mountain. 19-0 trumps 17-0, and the comparative season stats and margin of victory stuff make it an easy call.
Friggin' Cowboys.