✭ Why This Dallas Cowboys vs New England Patriots Game IMPORTANT!!!

From 1966 to 1985, the Cowboys never had a losing record, a 20-year run that is an NFL record. Dallas won 13 division titles and played in two NFL Championship Games, 10 NFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls -- winning twice. They finished first or second in their division 18 times. During the two seasons they did not make the playoffs, the Cowboys finished 8-6 (1974) and 9-7 (1984). On Sunday, behind Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the organizations with the longest runs of success in NFL history will meet at Gillette Stadium at 4:25 p.m. ET (Fox). The interconference matchup between the Cowboys (6-4) and Patriots (9-1) could conceivably be a preview of Super Bowl LIV. Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt was one of the architects of the Cowboys' success, and even he has to bow to the current streak put together by Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. The Patriots' record of 264-90 since Belichick became coach in 2000 is the best in the NFL over that span, and the franchise has appeared in nine Super Bowls, winning six. They have played in the AFC Championship Game 13 times. "It's a lot harder today to do what they've done than what we did because everybody is so much better," Brandt said. "The competitive balance is so much better than before." Belichick's appreciation for the Cowboys' success goes back to his days as an assistant coach, competing against Tom Landry's teams into the 1980s and seeing Jimmy Johnson return the Cowboys to Super Bowl glory in the 1990s. Also, it didn't hurt that Belichick grew up watching Roger Staubach practice at Navy, where his father, Steve, coached. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Cowboys organization, the history there, what they've created," Belichick said. "Obviously, they're probably the premier franchise in all of pro sports. That's no accident. That didn't happen overnight. With what Jerry [Jones] and Stephen [Jones] and the rest of the organization have put together there, and the history going back to Coach Landry and Coach Johnson, those are standards that I'd say all of us in the profession aspire to, look up to and aspire to meet the levels of success that they have achieved." There are similarities between the runs -- from strong head coaches who defined their eras and quarterbacks who played their best on the biggest stages to defenses that wrote their own history and personnel folks who seemed to have all the answers. As the winning continued, the jealousy and contempt for both organizations grew louder than the appreciation of their successes.