1981 Dallas Cowboys Statistics
Team Record: 12-4
Finishing 1st in the NFL's East Division of the National Football Conference
Postseason: 1-1 Lost Conference Championship
Coach: Tom Landry (12-4)
Location: Dallas, Texas
1981 Dallas Cowboys Results
The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League ended the 1981 season with a record of 12 wins and 4 losses, finishing first in the NFL's East Division of the National Football Conference. The team compiled a postseason mark of 1-1.
Dallas piled up points with 367 points, while the defense conceded 277. Tony Dorsett powered the ground game, running for a 1,646 yards for the Cowboys.
Danny White threw for 3,098 yards. Tony Hill hauled in 46 passes for 953 yards. Drew Pearson was targeted regularly, too.
The opportunistic defense pounced on 53 turnovers. Everson Walls intercepted 11 errant tosses from the opposition.
Tom Landry coached the team. The 1981 Dallas Cowboys lost in the Conference Championship.
Click on column headings to sort.
Passing:
Player | Att | Comp | Comp % | Yds | Yds/Att | TDs | TD % | Ints | Int % | Long | Sacked | Yds Lost | Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Danny White | 391 | 223 | 57.0 | 3098 | 7.9 | 22 | 5.6 | 13 | 3.3 | 73 | 30 | 234 | 87.5 |
Glenn Carano | 45 | 16 | 35.6 | 235 | 5.2 | 1 | 2.2 | 1 | 2.2 | 55 | 1 | 11 | 51.6 |
Drew Pearson | 2 | 2 | 100.0 | 81 | 40.5 | 1 | 50.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 158.3 |
Ron Springs | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
Totals | 439 | 241 | 54.9 | 3414 | 7.8 | 24 | 5.5 | 15 | 3.4 | 73 | 31 | 245 |
Rushing:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tony Dorsett | 342 | 1646 | 4.8 | 75 | 4 |
Ron Springs | 172 | 625 | 3.6 | 16 | 10 |
James Jones | 34 | 183 | 5.4 | 59 | 1 |
Danny White | 38 | 104 | 2.7 | 17 | 0 |
Timmy Newsome | 13 | 38 | 2.9 | 7 | 0 |
Doug Cosbie | 4 | 33 | 8.2 | 15 | 0 |
Robert Newhouse | 14 | 33 | 2.4 | 6 | 0 |
Drew Pearson | 3 | 31 | 10.3 | 25 | 0 |
Billy DuPree | 1 | 12 | 12.0 | 12 | 0 |
Glenn Carano | 8 | 9 | 1.1 | 11 | 0 |
Tony Hill | 1 | -3 | -3.0 | -3 | 0 |
Totals | 630 | 2711 | 4.3 | 75 | 15 |
Receiving:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tony Hill | 46 | 953 | 20.7 | 63 | 4 |
Ron Springs | 46 | 359 | 7.8 | 32 | 2 |
Drew Pearson | 38 | 614 | 16.2 | 42 | 3 |
Tony Dorsett | 32 | 325 | 10.2 | 73 | 2 |
Butch Johnson | 25 | 552 | 22.1 | 55 | 5 |
Billy DuPree | 19 | 214 | 11.3 | 33 | 2 |
Doug Cosbie | 17 | 225 | 13.2 | 28 | 5 |
Jay Saldi | 8 | 82 | 10.2 | 18 | 1 |
James Jones | 6 | 37 | 6.2 | 16 | 0 |
Doug Donley | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 17 | 0 |
Robert Newhouse | 1 | 21 | 21.0 | 21 | 0 |
Totals | 241 | 3414 | 14.2 | 73 | 24 |
Kicking:
Player | X/CA | X/CM | X/CP % | FGA | FGM | FG % | Pts. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rafael Septien | 40 | 40 | 100.0 | 35 | 27 | 77.1 | 121 |
Totals | 40 | 40 | 100.0 | 35 | 27 | 77.1 | 121 |
Punting:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long |
---|---|---|---|---|
Danny White | 79 | 3222 | 40.8 | 60 |
Rafael Septien | 2 | 62 | 31.0 | 33 |
Totals | 81 | 3284 | 40.5 | 60 |
Punt Returns:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
James Jones | 33 | 188 | 5.7 | 17 | 0 |
Ron Fellows | 11 | 44 | 4.0 | 10 | 0 |
Doug Donley | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 3 | 0 |
Totals | 45 | 235 | 5.2 | 17 | 0 |
Kick Returns:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
James Jones | 27 | 517 | 19.1 | 33 | 0 |
Timmy Newsome | 12 | 228 | 19.0 | 27 | 0 |
Ron Fellows | 8 | 170 | 21.2 | 31 | 0 |
Robert Newhouse | 3 | 34 | 11.3 | 15 | 0 |
Steve Wilson | 2 | 32 | 16.0 | 17 | 0 |
Doug Cosbie | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals | 53 | 981 | 18.5 | 33 | 0 |
Interceptions:
Player | No. | Yds | Avg. | Long | TDs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Everson Walls | 11 | 133 | 12.1 | 33 | 0 |
Dennis Thurman | 9 | 187 | 20.8 | 96 | 0 |
Michael Downs | 7 | 81 | 11.6 | 25 | 0 |
Charlie Waters | 3 | 21 | 7.0 | 21 | 0 |
Bob Breunig | 2 | 8 | 4.0 | 8 | 0 |
Steve Wilson | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
Guy Brown | 1 | 28 | 28.0 | 28 | 0 |
Benny Barnes | 1 | 24 | 24.0 | 24 | 0 |
D.D. Lewis | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals | 37 | 482 | 13.0 | 96 | 0 |
Defense and Fumbles:
Player | Tackle | Brup | Fum | FRec | FYds | FTD | FF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Danny White | 14 | 8 | -34 | 0 | 0 | ||
Ron Springs | 3 | 4 | 11 | 0 | |||
Too Jones | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Tony Dorsett | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
James Jones | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
Kurt Petersen | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||
Angelo King | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Anthony Dickerson | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Jay Saldi | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
Benny Barnes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 72 | 1 | 0 | |
Everson Walls | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Michael Downs | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Charlie Waters | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Harvey Martin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
Glen Titensor | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Steve Wilson | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Tom Rafferty | 2 | 1 | -30 | 0 | 0 | ||
Pat Donovan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Dennis Thurman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Drew Pearson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Timmy Newsome | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
D.D. Lewis | 0 | 1 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | |
Tony Hill | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Doug Cosbie | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Glenn Carano | 3 | 0 | -6 | 0 | 0 | ||
Totals | 0 | 0 | 45 | 38 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
Total Scoring:
Touchdowns | Other | Total | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Rush | Rec | Punt | Kick | MFG | Int | Fum | Other | FG | X/C | Single | 2Pt | Saf | Points |
Rafael Septien | 27 | 40 | 0 | 121 | ||||||||||
Ron Springs | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 | ||||||||
Tony Dorsett | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | ||||||||
Doug Cosbie | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | |||||||
Butch Johnson | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | |||||||||
Tony Hill | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | ||||||||
Drew Pearson | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | ||||||||
Billy DuPree | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||||||||
Jay Saldi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||||||||
Benny Barnes | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||||
James Jones | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||||||
Harvey Martin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
John Dutton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
Totals | 15 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 27 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 365 |