• Some considered it an omen that, for the first time in the seven-year history of the Cowboys, Tom Landry's team won all five of their preseason games.
• The team and the quarterback who had been condemned for not being able to "win the big ones" finally did that, taking five of their last six, including a 26-14 thumping of the Cleveland Browns in the Cotton Bowl.
• Dallas finished 10-3-1, the franchise's first winning record, to the Browns' and Eagles' 9-5.
• QB Don Meredith won the Bert Bell Trophy as the league MVP as selected by the Maxwell Football Club after throwing 24 touchdown passes against only 12 interceptions. His 2805y passing were the most of his career by 390.
  In 1965, the Cowboys had stopped introducing the offense before home games because the fans booed Meredith mercilessly.
• The Cowboys' 445 points led the league by 42 over the Browns.
• The term "Doomsday Defense" was coined that season when Dallas set an all-time NFL record with 61 sacks, and they did it without a lot of blitzing.
• WR Bob Hayes. CB Cornell Green, LB Chuck Howley, and DT Bob Lilly made All-Pro.

In the West, the Packers won their third straight title.

• Still the measuring stick for NFL teams, Green Bay won 12 and lost only two—by a total of four points.
• The Pack yielded the fewest points in the NFL, 163—49 fewer than the next best, defensive guru George Allen's Los Angeles Rams.
• Despite Meredith's outstanding season, Bart Starr was voted first team All-Pro, the only member of the Green Bay offensive platoon so honored.
• On the other hand, six Packer defenders made first team All-Pro: CB Herb Adderley, S Willie Wood, LBs Lee Roy Caffey and Ray Nitschke, and DE Willie Davis.
  Many Packers felt that unsung DT Ron Kostelnik, reaching his peak in his fifth season, deserved All-Pro as well.

The championship game matched head coaches who had spent five years together (1954-58) on the New York Giants staff.

• Proud and competitive men, Lombardi and Landry, offensive and defensive coordinators to apply today's terminology to that bygone age, competed against each other as much as they did the opponents. Given complete autonomy in their respective spheres by figurehead coach Jim Lee Howell, they vied to gain an edge with Howell in strategy decisions that affected their realms (such as going for it on fourth down and possibly putting the defense in a hole).
• Lombardi left for Green Bay for the '59 season, and the following year Landry became the coach of the expansion Cowboys.
• Tom developed his "Flex" defense. Working within the 4-3 scheme, he moved one or more down lineman a yard behind the others based on what the offense was expected to run.
• His first few years in Big D, it wouldn't have made any difference what alignment he used. But as the Cowboys, aided by the first computerized scouting system, improved their personnel through the draft, the Flex got better and better.
• No coach in the NFL spent more time studying Lombardi's offensive system than Landry, who yearned to build a dynasty in Dallas like the one his former Giants colleague had developed in Wisconsin. And Lombardi kept tabs as best he could on what Landry was doing with his East Division club.
• Their teams had met three times with the Packers winning every time.
  1960: 41-7 over the first year Cowboys
  1964: 45-21 in Dallas
  1965: 13-3 in Green Bay
  The decreasing margin of victory—4, 24, and 10—bespoke the improvement in Landry's club.

With no tie in either division, the East and West champs enjoyed two weeks to prepare for the title clash. The game held added significance because the winner would play the AFL champions in the first Super Bowl.

• Lombardi and his alter ego, Starr, knew that the Flex would present a serious challenge.
• They pinpointed Lilly, as strong and quick a defensive tackle as you could find, as the key to making headway against the Cowboys.
• Knowing Tom would be studying his offense as much as he viewed films of Dallas's defense, Lombardi decided to prune his playbook, adding nothing new but running plays from different formations.
  Green Bay ran plays out of either the red formation (when the fullback lined up directly behind the quarterback) or the brown formation (when the halfback and fullback lined up split behind the quarterback). Normally, the Packers ran their patented end sweep exclusively to the right out of the red formation and to the weak side out of the brown formation. Vince/Bart decided to reverse that tendency. The move would pay off on the very first play from scrimmage.

The Cowboys also singled out a Packer defender for extra attention.

• MLB Ray Nitschke became the focal point of Landry's offensive game plan. T Ralph Neely: Any time we played the Packers, our number-one priority was blocking Ray Nitschke. We knew if we were going to be successful, we had to block Nitschke.
• Green Bay's front four tried to shield blockers from Nitschke to allow him to get to the football. Neely: He could make tackles from one side to the other. He was a great football player in a great scheme. You had to account for him, you had to have someone assigned to him. They had a lot of good football players, but he was the key to their defense; he was in control of everything. He was the guy who knew formations, he was the guy that got everybody in the right position ... He was not only a tough guy, he was an extremely bright football player. ... You weren't going to be successful against Green Bay if you didn't account for Ray.
• In sharp contrast to the Packers, the Cowboys implemented the most complex offense in the NFL. Neely: We had 18 to 20 formations and 18 to 20 plays out of each formation.
• Green Bay D-coordinator Phil Bengston dealt with Landry's multiple offense by staying as basic as possible. He kept his schemes simple to give his defenders freedom to make adjustments and play with confidence. We emphasized the basics, recalled Bengston. I always emphasized that it's not the plays, it's the players.
• He wanted his unit to hold their ground against the Cowboys' shifting formations and bracket Olympic sprinter Hayes short and long with Adderley and S Tom Brown.
• Landry didn't expect to beat a defense as good as Green Bay's with myriad formations, but he did want to create a moment of hesitation.
  Nitschke: It was a good test. That was a well-coached Landry team. They had it all. But we were prepared for anything they did. Bengston was a real perfectionist, just like Lombardi. He ran the defense, and Lombardi ran the offense, but Phil never got the credit he deserved. He kept it simple for us.

The specter hanging over the Cowboys offense was the disconnect between Meredith and Landry.

• If Dallas's scouting software had included a criterion for compatibility with the head coach, Meredith would never have become a Cowboy.
  Many consider Meredith to be the Original Cowboy, although he wasn't actually drafted by the club. The expansion franchise was admitted into the league too late to participate in the 1960 NFL Draft. However, Don signed a "personal services" contract with owner Clint Murchison in November 1959, one month prior to the draft. Bears owner George Halas, wanting to help the new club get off to a good start, chose Meredith in the third round (3second pick overall). The league honored Don's contract but made the Cowboys compensate the Bears with a third-round pick in the 1962 draft. So Landry had no say-so in the selection of Meredith but rather inherited him as his quarterback.
• As Skip Bayless put it, Dandy Don and Landry were as different as Saturday night and Sunday. Meredith was as country cool as Landry was country-church rigid. ... Meredith didn't take the game so seriously that he sacrificed his bourbon and smokes and many female admirers. ... Meredith probably took losing as hard as Landry did, but it wasn't his life. ... Meredith played more for his teammates than for credit. He played with cracked ribs and a collapsed lung mostly because his buddies needed him. Winning, as a team, satisfied him even more than anything he could touch or taste.
• Probably to Landry's chagrin, the Dallas players loved Don. WR Pete Gent: You can't imagine how much this team loves that guy. Hayes: We loved him because he had taken so much abuse. He would go out there and play for you when he should have been in a hospital.
• Like Paul Brown, Landry didn't want his quarterback to make his own decisions. Tom wanted his signal-caller to be a robot executing what the coach programmed him to do in each situation. If Meredith made a change at the line of scrimmage, the play had better work.
• Many times, Landry not-so-subtly made Meredith the scapegoat for defeats. In his post-game comments, Tom would make statements like, We had the right play called but we didn't make the right read or We had the guy open but we didn't make a good throw. While he said "we," it was obvious that what he meant was, I had the right play called but my quarterback didn't make the right read or a good throw.

Since the forecast for Green Bay called for extremely cold weather the week before the championship game, Lombardi took his team to Tulsa OK to complete preparations.

• The plan nearly backfired. Starr recalled: As luck would have it, we reached Oklahoma at the tail end of a snowstorm. When we went to the stadium of a local university to work out, the field was covered with snow and ice.
  More from Bart: "If we needed a light moment, we received it after discovering a unique approach to snow removal. As we headed out for our first practice, we witnessed a young man driving a Cadillac with a bench tied to the rear bumper.
• Fortunately, the weather improved dramatically during the week, and the Packers felt they were extremely well prepared for the Cowboys when they flew to Dallas the Friday before the game.
  Starr after his retirement from football: Coach Lombardi did a brilliant job of getting us ready for every game we played, but I don't think he ever did a better job than he did preparing us for .. Dallas in 1966. We had the luxury of two weeks to get ready for that game, and with that much time to study the movies, Coach Lombardi cut all the fat out of our offense. Our game plan against Dallas included eight or ten running plays and about eight passing plays, and that was all ... We had only the plays that Coach Lombardi was positive would work against the Dallas defense ...
• While in Tulsa, Lombardi had to deal with a story that appeared five days before the title game. Sportswriter Steve Perkins, covering the Packers in Tulsa for the Dallas Times Herald, reported that Vince told him, I might make this my last season because the work load was so great. The quote was circulated to newspapers across the nation by the Associated Press. I think he misunderstood me, Lombardi, whose contract had been extended through 1973 the year before, told a throng of newsmen the next day. I do believe the job has become more demanding, but I have no intention of quitting. I'll retire some day. Who is to say when that will be.
• The Packers, twelve of whom had played in the title game four previous times, claimed they had never been tenser. However, Lombardi, as he usually did during game weeks, became more relaxed on Friday. The hay is in the barn, he said upon arriving in Dallas. The team is ready. If they play as well as they know how to and lose, it will not be the end of the world. There is nothing I can do now to change anything. Losing might not have been the end of the world, but Vince would find losing to Landry would be quite painful.
  According to Dallas WR Buddy Dial, one offensive innovation Landry wanted to put in for the Packers didn't get off the drawing board. Coach Landry had our whole (offensive) team together. He was up at the blackboard, and Bobby Hayes and Meredith and I were sitting at the back of the room. ... Landry said, "All this year, Bobby, you have been going deep and Dial and Gent have been coming across the middle." And he said, "This week for Green Bay, Dial, you and Gent are going to do deep, and, Bobby, you're going to come across the middle," and from the back of the room we heard Bobby Hayes say, "Shiiiiiiiit." Hell, Landry nearly dropped the chalk. We all fell out of our chairs when Bobby said, "Shiiiiiiiit." And in that game he did not run across the middle.
• Meanwhile, the Cowboys, the youngest team in the NFL, assumed an air of casualness, perhaps to mask the anxiety they felt as they approached their first championship tilt. Meredith told reporters: Personally, I don't think our players feel nearly as much pressure as we felt before Cleveland on Thanksgiving Day. That was a game we had to win so we could win another game [St. Louis] so we could be in a position to be here in the first place. We've been thinking about this for a long time, challenging Green Bay for the title. Our workouts have been excellent. Our preparation has never been better. Pete Gent echoed Don's thoughts. Coach Landry has gone about this as if it were any other game. No trace at all of nerves or doubt. I think that is because he really believes in us and our ability; we believe in ourselves.
  Despite his air of confidence, Meredith had given his teammates a jolt early in the week when he was rushed to the hospital with severe stomach cramps. It turned out to be nothing more than nerves. The outwardly happy-go-luck quarterback's insides were tied in a knot.

• First Quarter
  The game couldn't have started more disastrously for the Cowboys. Green Bay took the kickoff and drove right down the field for a touchdown. Starr started with a play he helped design to sucker the Doomsday Defense. The Packers lined up in the red formation. So the defense expected a sweep to the right. Instead, Starr faked to Taylor going wide and handed to Elijah Pitts who burst through a big hole up the middle for 32y to the Dallas 44.
  Starr: We had a special play to open the game. We put the counter in to defeat the pursuit. I faked a handoff to Taylor going one way, and when the Cowboy defense reacted to his movement, I handed the ball to Elijah Pitts, cutting back in the other direction against the grain o the pursuit.
  T Bob Skoronski later explained, Actually, it was an old play, but the blocking was different. Vince was very good at watching film and designing a game plan. He had a great eye for that. He really could find things. It was completely backwards to what the Cowboys must have expected. They had no idea what we were doing to them. Vince was excited all week that it was going to work, and it did. No one ever noticed the flex defense like he did. That was his baby.
  After Starr hit WR Carroll Dale for nine, Taylor gained four to earn another series of downs. But the Flexers asserted themselves at that point. CB Cornell Green batted down a pass, and Bob Lilly chased down Taylor on a screen pass for a 4y loss. But no one was better than Starr on third down. He threw to Dale, who made a juggling catch to the 20 to move the chains. After Taylor gained three, Pitts circled out of the backfield and was wide open in the center of the defense. He took Starr's pass on the seven, bounced off CB Warren Livingston, and spun into the end zone. Packers 7 Cowboys 0 (10:51)
  Dallas MLB Leroy Jordan: We were trying to do too much defensively in the secondary. Under the game plan, we were trying to set up our defenses depending on how wide the split end was set. ... And the first time the Packers got the ball, Dowler moved from a wide position to a closer position, and I didn't see it, didn't hear the call, and so I played the defense for his original position, and in the spot where I was supposed to be, Elijah Pitts caught a pass for a 17-yard touchdown. If I'd have been playing the right defense, I'd have come his way, but because of my mistake it left a big hole in the area where the HB was running, and Bart Starr picked it up and hit the right guy, and boom, it was a touchdown.
  Then disaster struck the home team on the kickoff. Mel Renfro took the ball at the goal line and ran out to the 15 where rookie T Robert Brown reached out and dislodged the ball. It rolled toward the sideline until second-year FB Jim Grabowski, who had made his mark on special teams while backing up Taylor, picked up the pigskin and ran untouched to pay dirt. Packers 14 Cowboys 0 (10:40)
  Grabowski: My feet never touched the ground. I floated back to the sidelines.
  Could the young Cowboys keep their poise after falling behind two scores before they even ran a play? The answer was a resounding YES. Using the wrinkles they put in for the game, Dallas drove 65y to cut the deficit in half.
  Dallas adjusted its attack to take advantage of Green Bay's stunting, sliding defense. Instead of pulling their guards and trapping as was their style, the Cowboys would use zone blocks to allow RBs Dan Reeves and Don Perkins to run to daylight.
  This time Renfro got off a good return of 27y to the 35. HB Dan Reeves and small but quick FB Don Perkins gained 11 on successive runs. Two plays later, Dallas had another first down on a flat pass to Pete Gent to the Green Bay 43.
  Gent was one of those rare pros who did not play college football. Instead, he played basketball at Michigan State, leading the Spartans in scoring all three years. Impressed by his athleticism, the Cowboys offered him a tryout in 1964. At first, the coaches put him at defensive back but soon decided that, at 6'4" 210 lb, he was better suited for wide receiver. When he made the team, he turned down an offer from the Baltimore Bullets of the NBA.

Meredith calls signals.
Facing third-and-one, Meredith threw long for Hayes who was open behind S Tom Brown. But the pass hung up, and Brown was able to break it up. You don't call that play on third-and-one if you're not going for it on fourth down. With the crowd roaring its approval, Reeves knifed to the 29 to keep the drive alive. Two snaps later, Meredith again found Gent for a first down at the 18. The Packers defense made an uncharacteristic mistake two plays later to help the Cowboys. TE Pettis Norman took a flat pass and was pushed out of bounds at the six by Brown. But LB Dave Robinson hit Pettis a split-second too late to make it first-and-goal on the three. The Cowboys didn't give Packer fans a chance to think about a goal-line stand. Reeves took the ball on a crossbuck and followed Perkins' block through a gaping hole at right tackle into the end zone. Packers 14 Cowboys 7 (4:27)
During the touchdown drive, Hayes caught a pass for a 1y gain. It would be his only reception of the day.
Perkins was known as an exceptional blocker. He took on linebackers outweighing him by 30 pounds and rarely failed to move them out.
It was now Green Bay's turn to mess up a kickoff return. Donny Anderson tried to catch the ball near the sideline but fumbled out of bounds at the 13. The Dallas defense asserted itself and sacked Starr at the six on third-and-10.
Starting from their 41 after the punt, the Cowboys drove to the tying touchdown with Perkins leading the charge. On two successive runs, he gained a first down at the Green Bay 44. After Reeves took a pass to the 22, Don took a handout over right tackle, broke into the secondary, burst between two tacklers, and set sail for the goal line. LB Lee Roy Caffey and CB Herb Adderley tackled him from behind inside the five, but the ball carrier fell on the stripe. Packers 14 Cowboys 14 (0:36)
The touchdown play succeeded because MLB Nitschke followed Reeves, who ran right as if taking a pitchout on a sweep. Ray was caught flatfooted when Perkins took Meredith's handoff on a counter and exploded through a gaping hole much as Pitts had done on the first play of the game.
Fourteen NFL opponents had scored a total of 13 points against the Packers in the first quarter. Dallas got 14. Also Green Bay had not allowed 14 points in an entire championship or playoff game since the 1960 loss in Philadelphia.
The Cowboys were running traps and misdirection plays inside, confusing Nitschke with false keys and reads. CB Herb Adderley: When you get the middle linebacker confused and going the wrong way, that makes it real tough on the defensive backs to come up and make the play.
On the sideline, Lombardi told his D-coordinator: Hey, Phil! Shake up those linebackers!
When the defense came off the field angry and agitated, OG Fuzzy Thurston came over to calm them down. Hey, don't worry about it. We'll get it back. Don't worry about it.
The period ended with Green Bay facing second-and-two on their 44.


• Second Quarter
  After an offside gave the Packers a first down, Starr threw long to Dale streaking down the middle. Green came over and appeared to have a chance to intercept but seemed to misjudge the ball as it sailed over his grasp into Carroll's arms for a 56y touchdown. Packers 21 Cowboys 14 (14:49)
  LB Leroy Jordan was so sure Green was going to make the interception that he turned upfield to lead interference and didn't see the touchdown.
  Cornell: It was a good pass. I thought I could intercept. We needed an interception badly.
  Dallas came right back with a drive deep into Green Bay territory. The initial first down came on Meredith's 10y pass to Gent to the 39. Two plays later, Hayes, split wide, took two defenders with him over the middle as Reeves swung out of the backfield and was all alone to take Meredith's deft pass. RCB Bob Jeter pushed Dan out on the 21. Two Reeves runs moved the ball to the 14. Then Meredith rolled right and decided to keep it but was stopped 1y short of the first down by Davis and Lionel Aldridge. So for the second time in the half, Landry gambled on fourth down and won as Perkins smashed over the right side to the nine. But two Reeves runs gained only five and Meredith's pass to second TE Frank Clarke floated out of bounds. So Danny Villanueva came on and booted an 11y field goal. Packers 21 Cowboys 17 (8:37)
  Green Bay quickly moved across midfield on Pitts's 24y scamper to the Dallas 46. Then the Pack converted third-and-one on a short pass to Taylor to the 25. But on the next third down, Starr failed to connect with Pitts. So Don Chandler tried a 30y field goal that was partially blocked and rolled into the end zone.
  The defenses dominated the remaining minutes.
  HALFTIME SCORE: Packers 21 Cowboys 17
  Landry explained Green Bay's offensive success. The Packers were using a lot of counter moves out of the backfield. They were crossing their backs, and it seemed to confuse us in the first half. And Starr was throwing so well. That was the deciding factor. I was surprised there was this much scoring, but both offenses were executing very well.
  The Cowboys made adjustments for the second half and did an effective job shutting down the Packers' running attack.