The 1970 Dallas Cowboys season was a mess that somehow turned into a masterpiece. If you look at the history books, it’s easy to see a team that went to its first Super Bowl. But if you were there—or if you’ve spent any time digging through the grainy film of the late Tom Landry era—you know it was actually a year defined by quarterback controversies, a mid-season identity crisis, and a championship game that people still call the "Blunder Bowl."
Most people think the Cowboys were always "America’s Team," a polished machine of efficiency. That wasn't the case in 1970. They were actually underachievers. They were the team that couldn't win the big one. After heart-breaking losses to the Packers in the '66 and '67 Ice Bowls and a stagnant 1969, the 1970 squad felt like it was teetering on the edge of a total collapse.
The Quarterback Seesaw Nobody Wanted
Imagine having two Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacks and not knowing which one to play. That was Landry's nightmare. He had Craig Morton and Roger Staubach. Morton was the veteran presence, the guy who'd been around. Staubach was the Navy hero, the "scrambler" who drove Landry’s rigid, system-oriented mind absolutely crazy.
Throughout the 1970 Dallas Cowboys season, Landry actually rotated them. Not just game to game. Sometimes play to play. It was maddening. Honestly, it’s a miracle the locker room didn't revolt. The offense felt disjointed because nobody could get into a rhythm. Morton ended up taking the bulk of the snaps, but the shadow of Staubach was always there, lurking on the sidelines with his helmet on, ready to inject a chaos that Landry both feared and eventually needed.
The 54-13 Disaster That Changed Everything
November 15, 1970. Mark that date. The Cowboys went into Minnesota to play the Vikings and got absolutely humiliated. 54-13. It wasn't just a loss; it was a funeral. At 5-4, the season looked dead. The Dallas media was sharpening its knives. Fans were tired of the "Next Year’s Champions" label.
But something clicked after that blowout.
The defense—the legendary Doomsday Defense—decided they weren't going to let anyone score ever again. They went on a tear. They shut out the Giants. They stifled the Browns. They beat the Lions 5-0 in a playoff game that was as ugly as it sounds. Bob Lilly was a mountain in the middle. Chuck Howley was playing linebacker like a man possessed. Herb Adderley, the veteran corner they brought in from Green Bay, finally stopped complaining about Landry’s rules and started locking down receivers. They didn't win with flair. They won with grit and a defense that refused to break even when the offense was stagnant.
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That Bizarre 5-0 Playoff Game
You don't see 5-0 scores in the NFL anymore. It feels like a baseball score or a weird soccer result. But the 1970 divisional round against the Detroit Lions was a slugfest in the truest, dirtiest sense of the word. The Cowboys offense was stuck in the mud. Morton was struggling. But the defense? They allowed Detroit into Dallas territory almost never.
A field goal and a safety. That was it.
That game is the perfect microcosm of the 1970 Dallas Cowboys season. It was about survival. It was about a team that had lost its confidence finding a way to win when things were at their absolute worst. It propelled them to the NFC Championship against San Francisco, where they finally looked like the powerhouse everyone expected, winning 17-10 to punch their first-ever ticket to the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl V: The Comedy of Errors
Now we have to talk about the elephant in the room. Super Bowl V. The "Blunder Bowl."
If you like "clean" football, don't watch the highlights of this game. It was the first Super Bowl after the AFL-NFL merger, and it was a disaster. Eleven turnovers. Let that sink in. The Cowboys and the Baltimore Colts spent sixty minutes trying to hand the game to each other.
The Cowboys had it. They really did. But penalties and mistakes kept dragging them back. Duane Thomas fumbled at the goal line (though many Cowboys swear to this day he recovered it). Mike Clark missed an extra point. Then came the play that lives in infamy: Craig Morton threw an interception to Mike Curtis late in the fourth quarter, setting up Jim O'Brien’s winning field goal for the Colts.
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Dallas lost 16-13.
The most surreal part? Chuck Howley, the Cowboys linebacker, was named Super Bowl MVP. He is still the only player in NFL history to win the award from the losing team. He didn't even want it. He famously said it was meaningless because they didn't win the game. That's the 1970 season in a nutshell: brilliance in the face of heartbreak.
Why 1970 Was Actually the Foundation
You might think a season ending in a "Blunder Bowl" loss would be a failure. It wasn't.
The 1970 Dallas Cowboys season was the forge. It’s where the "Next Year’s Champions" tag was finally ripped off. They proved they could get there. The late-season defensive dominance became the blueprint for the 1971 championship run. Herb Adderley brought the "Packer Way" to Dallas, teaching a young locker room how to handle the pressure of the postseason.
Without the pain of 1970, the 1971 Super Bowl victory doesn't happen. Roger Staubach learned what he needed to do to take the job permanently from Morton. Tom Landry realized that while his system was great, he needed to trust his players' instincts more in tight spots.
Key Facts and Figures from the 1970 Run
The statistics from this era look strange compared to today's pass-heavy league. The Cowboys relied heavily on the ground game and a defense that punished opponents physically.
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- Regular Season Record: 10-4 (1st in NFC East)
- The Defense: They allowed just 2 points per game over the final three weeks of the regular season.
- Rushing Attack: Duane Thomas and Walt Garrison were a brutal 1-2 punch. Thomas, a rookie, finished with 803 yards and was arguably the most talented back in the league at the time.
- The Turnover Margin: In the Super Bowl alone, Dallas had 10 penalties for 133 yards and 4 turnovers.
Lessons from the 1970 Cowboys
What can we actually learn from this specific year in sports history?
First, momentum is real but it's often built on the back of a catastrophic failure. The 54-13 loss to Minnesota was the best thing that happened to them. It forced a "come to Jesus" moment in the locker room.
Second, talent without a clear leader at quarterback is a recipe for stress. The Morton-Staubach shuffle nearly derailed everything. It wasn't until Landry picked a lane (eventually favoring Staubach the following year) that the dynasty truly began.
Lastly, defense wins games, but mistakes lose championships. You can have the best defense in the world—and the 1970 Cowboys arguably did—but if you turn the ball over in your own territory during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, you're going to lose.
If you want to truly understand the Dallas Cowboys DNA, you have to look past the "Triplets" of the 90s and the glitz of the modern era. You have to look at 1970. It was the year they stopped being a "soft" expansion team and became the gritty, defensive powerhouse that defined a decade.
To dig deeper into this era, look for the original broadcast footage of the 1970 NFC Championship. It shows a version of the Cowboys—led by Bob Lilly’s relentless pursuit—that remains the gold standard for defensive line play. Study how they shifted from a complex "Flex" defense into a simplified, aggressive unit during the final stretch of the season. That tactical shift is a masterclass in coaching adjustment that still applies to any leadership scenario today.