The Cowboys have a history of offensive excellence.
They have produced a plethora of Hall of Fame quarterbacks, running backs, receivers and blockers. Those players have been a driving force in the Cowboys’ reaching eight Super Bowls in their history and claiming five Lombardi Trophies.
But the Cowboys have never sent an offense as explosive as their 2021 unit into a postseason. In fact, the 2021 Cowboys are one of the highest-scoring teams ever to enter an NFL postseason. The Cowboys set a franchise record with the first 500-point season in their history, scoring 530 points.
Only 11 teams in NFL history scored more. Now the bad news — none of those 11 went on to win an NFL championship. The 12 highest-scoring teams in NFL history all failed to win titles. Five lost in Super Bowls, three in conference championship games, three more in the conference semifinals and one even fell in the wild-card round.
The Cowboys may not have entered a postseason with a 500-point offense before, but their head coach has. Mike McCarthy coached Green Bay in 2011 when the Packers scored 560 points, the fourth-most in NFL history. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers was the NFL MVP, orchestrating an offense that scored 63 touchdowns. The Packers went 15-1 that year and entered the playoffs as the NFC’s top seed. But they lost in the NFC semifinals to the New York Giants.
The 2013 Denver Broncos stand as the only 600-point offense in NFL history. Peyton Manning was the league MVP that season when he set NFL records with his 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdowns. The Broncos scored 606 points with an NFL-record 71 offensive touchdowns. Denver posted a 13-3 mark and entered the postseason as the AFC’s top seed. The Broncos did reach the Super Bowl, but their offense disappeared that day in a 43-8 drubbing at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks.
The New England Patriots became the only 16-0 team in NFL history in 2007, scoring 589 points, second all-time. Tom Brady was the league MVP that season when he threw a career-best 50 touchdown passes. New England scored 67 offensive TDs in claiming the AFC’s top seed. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl where their offense also abandoned them in a 17-14 loss to the New York Giants.
There have been 26 teams in NFL history that have scored 500 points in a season. Only five went on to win championships — and one of them was the 1961 Houston Oilers playing under the AFL banner. Only nine others reached the championship game. Eleven of those 500-point teams led the league in yards as well as points. Only three went on to win championships — the 1961 Oilers, 1999 St. Louis Rams and 2009 New Orleans Saints.
There were two 500-point offenses in the 2020 playoffs, the Bills and Packers, and both lost in the conference championship games.
So here come the 2021 Cowboys, who led the NFL in yards and points. The Cowboys rang up 50 points in games against Philadelphia and Washington and slapped 40 more on the Eagles, Falcons and Giants. The Cowboys scored 55 offensive touchdowns by 16 players.
Quarterback Dak Prescott passed for 400 yards in games against New England and Tampa and 300 more against three other foes. He set a franchise season record with 37 touchdown passes, including five in one game against Philadelphia and four apiece against Carolina and Washington.
The Cowboys have four players with 100-yard receiving games and two backs with 100-yard rushing games. Ezekiel Elliott returned to the 1,000-yard rushing club after a year’s absence, and the two best blockers on the offensive line are going to the Pro Bowl, guard Zack Martin and tackle Tyron Smith.
If you like offense, you have to like the Cowboys in the playoffs this month. But history isn’t as fond of offense this time of year. Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history, with his six Super Bowl rings. He took a 500-point offense into an NFL postseason four times but didn’t win a Super Bowl with any of them.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the only other NFL team to score 500 points this season (511). Tom Brady is arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history with his seven Super Bowl rings. This will be the fifth time Brady has taken a 500-point offense into the postseason but, like Belichick, he is 0-4 in his previous visits.
Offense has always gone a long way in the NFL. It just doesn’t go as long in January and February as it does in October and November.
Former SportsDay columnist Rick Gosselin has covered the NFL for 50 years. He wrote this column exclusively for The Dallas Morning News.
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