Full Game Video: Cowboys 17 @ Saints 20 MNF 10/3/88

YouTube

Just found a trove of full games on YouTube and stumbled across this gem

October 3, 1988... Monday Night Football on ABC (Al Michaels is off covering the MLB playoffs so it's just Frank Gifford & Dan Dierdorf)... and for some reason kickoff was at 8 PM central time... so a late night

The Saints are 3-1 entering this game, with the only loss back in week 1 by 1 point at home to the San Francisco 49ers before winning the next 3 over the Falcons and Lions on the road and Buccaneers at home

The Cowboys entered the game at 2-2 and were trying to keep pace in the jumbled mass that was the NFC East to start that season

The Saints jumped out to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter off of a Bobby Hebert to Lonzo Hill TD pass to open the scoring on the game's 1st possession and then another Hebert pass to Brett Perriman to give the Saints that edge

But Dallas came back and would eventually tie the score at 17-17 after hitting the tying field goal with 24 seconds left in regulation

After initially bobbling the ensuing kickoff, Mel Gray returned it to the Saints 42... giving the Saints hope of winning the game in regulation

That hope seemed to disappear after the 1st 2 pass attempts by Hebert went incomplete, leaving just 7 seconds to get about 20 yards to get in Morten Andersen's field goal range

But Hebert went down the sideline to the rookie Perriman, who again had burned a Dallas defender in man-to-man coverage... much like he did on the TD pass back in the 2nd quarter... and made an incredible diving catch and made sure to get out of bounds and call timeout (in case he had been touched in bounds) for a 26-yard gain... stopping the clock with 2 seconds left

this was the point ABC decided to show that Morten Andersen was pretty much as successful at field goal attempts from within 50 yards as Larry Bird was from the free throw line since 1985... 90.63% for Andersen on FGAs from 50 yards and in and 90.71% for Bird at the FT line

With punter Brian Hansen putting the ball down right between the 39 & 40 yard lines (on commentary they called it a 49-yard attempt)... Andersen did what Andersen does... drilling the field goal with no time left to win the game

That was th 4th straight of a 7-game win streak that propelled the Saints to a 7-1 start in 1988... unfortunately things fell apart in the back half of the season (3 of those 5 losses coming by 3 points or less) and the Saints missed the playoffs with a 10-6 record... dropping the tiebreaker to the LA Rams to be eliminated

The last second loss to the Saints sent the Cowboys into a tailspin from which Tom Landry would not recover as Dallas lost nine more in a row after the Saints game to finish that season at 3-13... that offseason Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and cleaned house... including the Hall of Fame coach