One of the most successful franchises in NFL history, the Dallas Cowboys are no strangers to starting the season off hot. That hasn't necessarily been the case lately, going 1-4 in Week 1 over the last five seasons, but starting things off against the New York Giants on Sunday Night is the perfect chance to turn that around.
With fans craving a blowout win to embarrass the Giants on their home turf, now's a perfect time to look back at some of the other humiliating beatdowns we've laid on teams in Week 1 in the past.
Here are the Cowboys' five biggest Week 1 blowout wins in franchise history.
Cowboys Biggest Week 1 Blowout Wins
T4. 1985: Cowboys 44, Washington 14 (+30)
The first game of the season was easily the best for the 1985 Cowboys, who ended up finishing 10-6 and ended up being one-and-done in the playoffs. That disappointing end to the season doesn't make a an absolute thrashing of a division rival any less satisfying though.
This game was full of well-rounded contributions from Cowboys players.
Rafael Septien hit three field goals, including one that opened the scoring and gave the Cowboys a 3-0 lead that they carried not the second quarter. Then we started pouring it on.
The first touchdown of the game was a 1-yard plunge from Timmy Newsome, who ended up with 33 rushing plus 51 receiving yards.
John Riggins briefly kept things close with a 1-yard TD of his own but then Danny White and Mike Renfro turned on the jets and we didn’t look back. The Cowboys scored 20 consecutive points in the second and third quarters.
After that things got really ridiculous. Joe Theismann was forcing the ball to try and stage a comeback, and he threw two pick-sixes in the fourth – one to Victor Scott and one to Dennis Thurman.
T4. 1997: Cowboys 37, Steelers 7 (+30)
An even more disappointing season, the 1997 campaign saw the Cowboys finish just 6-10. Again, that didn’t make a Week 1 win any less exciting at the time.
Troy Aikman had one of the best games of his career, racking up 295 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions on 19-of-30 passing.
That included 2 touchdowns and 153 yards coming from Michael Irvin, while Daryl Johnston (65 yards, 1 TD) and Anthony Miller (43 yards, 1 TD) did the rest of the heavy lifting through the air.
Emmitt Smith didn’t find much success, tallying 69 yards, but he was tough as ever with his 26 carries.
Maybe most impressive about that scoring onslaught? It was really a three-quarter performance, as the Dallas O struggled to get much of anything going in the first. The game was 0-0 after one and the Dallas offense hadn't even crossed midfield until the second-last play of the quarter. And then the floodgates opened.
The defense was also stellar, holding Kordell Stewart to 104 yards with 1 TD and 1 pick on 13-of-28 passing, and limiting Jerome Bettis to just 63 yards on the ground.
The game wasn’t even as close as that 30-point margin of victory might suggest either, as it was well into garbage time when Stewart finally hit Mark Bruener in the end zone to get the Steelers on the board for the final score of the game with just over 3 minutes remaining.
Next up is the performance we'll really be trying to replicate on Sunday night.
3. 1995: Cowboys 35, Giants 0 (+35)
Can I interest you in an absolute slaughter of the Giants? How about the second-biggest blowout win the Cowboys have ever had against the G-Men? Because both of those are rolled into one here.
It's only fitting that the Cowboys' last Super Bowl win came in a year that opened with a game like this.
Unlike the Steelers game in ’97, this blowout was absolutely on Emmitt Smith’s shoulders. Smith tallied 163 yards and 4 touchdowns, which at the time was just 1 shy of the record held by Cookie Gilchrist and Jim Brown.
Aikman and Irvin got in on the fun too, hooking up for 109 yards and a touchdown, but it was really Emmitt’s day in the spotlight.
The defense was lights-out too, but that’s kind of what you’d expect against a Dave Brown and Rodney Hampton led offense.
It was also nice to stick it to Herschel Walker, who was playing his first game in what turned out to be the lone season he spent on the Giants roster.
You hated seeing him in a Giants uniform, but we did hold Walker to just 2 yards on 2 carries and 30 total yards from scrimmage on 6 touches.
The Giants actually ended up forcing a close one (21-20 win for the ‘Boys) in our second meeting of the season, but this Week 1 beatdown set the stage for the Cowboys to open the year with 8 straight wins, solidifying themselves as the rightful Super Bowl favorites.
2. 1978: Cowboys 38, Colts 0 (+38)
Throwing it back a little further now, the Cowboys ended up losing the Super Bowl in 1978, but this was another season where it was clear from Week 1 that Dallas wasn’t playing around.
Coming off a Super Bowl win, Tom Landry’s team was ready to prove that they weren’t going to rest on their laurels, and the Colts were the whipping boy that let them prove that.
This was another game that started a little slow, with a 0-0 score after one quarter, and then the Cowboys completely ended the game in the second.
Doug Dennis pounded in a 1-yard touchdown to open the scoring, then Roger Staubach hit Tony Dorsett for a 91-yard score and Billy Joe DuPree for an 8-yard score. There was absolutely nobody who thought the Colts had any shot at coming back from that 21-0 halftime deficit, but the Cowboys really cranked up the heat just to be sure.
Staubach threw another two scores in the third quarter (38-yarder to Drew Pearson and 1-yarder to Jay Saldi) before Landry decided to show some mercy and get a few backups into the game.
You almost feel bad for Baltimore QB Mike Kirkland, who had sacks and interceptions (5 and 2) on almost as many of his 27 dropbacks as he had completions (9).
1. 1968: Cowboys 59, Lions 13 (+46)
The Cowboys set their biggest ever margin of victory in 1966 with a 49-point win, and it wasn't long before they came close to matching that in 1968. And to this day, over 50 years later, this win over the Lions remains the second-biggest blowout in franchise history.
The 1968 season proved to be the final one of Dandy Don Meredith's career, and he started it off with a bang.
Meredith didn't even get to play out a full three quarters because it was such a blowout, but he led the Cowboys to a 38-6 lead.
A 50-yard bomb to Bob Hayes opened the scoring for Dallas, and Meredith also hit Craig Baynham for a first-half touchdown.
The rushing attack did the bulk of the scoring though, as Dan Reeves and Walt Garrison each had 2 touchdowns. Four different Cowboys (Reeves, Garrison, Don Perkins and Baynham) all had 20-plus yards on the ground.
Craig Morton ended up getting plenty of run in the blowout ,adding another touchdown and setting up Garrison’s pair of 1-yard TD runs to really make this a bloodbath.
Honestly this game was kind of two blowouts in one. The 38-6 beating Meredith laid out, followed by the sound 21-7 win Morton led.
And of course because watching 60's highlights is always a blast, check out the recap of the game: