ravidubey
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 20,237
It was obvious.
When Mark Stepnoski was out during the 1993-1994 Superbowl push, the offense didn't miss a beat. In 1994 after Big E's injury, Dallas's pass protection faded-- especially in the NFC Championship game when Larry Allen's ankle was injured on top of it. When he came back Big E was a fraction of what he had been. Ray Donaldson erased all that and took the OL to new heights.
Emmitt took his very first run of the 1995 season for a 60 yard TD behind Donaldson who blew his guy off the line. Whatever Mark Stepnoski was, he never, ever blew anyone off the line. In fact I remember watching him get bullrushed backwards, if anything (1992 game in Washington, Jason Buck, I was at the game-- horrible).
In 1995 until the moment Ray Donaldson went down on Thanksgiving, the OL had been utterly dominant, even with Big E nowhere near as good as he had been pre-accident. Behind that line, only stupid coaching moves had kept Dallas from being unbeaten-- and I'm including the 49ers game in that statement.
Once Donaldson left, the whole offense came crashing back to Earth. Kansas City suddenly looked like it might beat Dallas until Tony Tolbert created a sack-fumble. Dallas lost back-to-back games vs Washington and Philadelphia and almost a third to the Giants. The OL hasn't returned to that pre-Donaldson injury dominance all the way to present day, even when Stepnoski returned in 1999.
Stepnoski was a technician but in the end he was physically limited. Ray Donaldson and Dwight Stephenson were the two best centers of the 80's. Donaldson was a mean converted LB who rebuilt himself into a 310 pound center-- big even by today's standards. Unfortunately, Donaldson was too old for a long run by the time he got to Dallas.