FRISCO, Texas -- In studying the Dallas Cowboys' offense the past week, Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer can’t help but think he has seen this before.

Zimmer joined the Cowboys as an assistant coach in 1994 and won a Super Bowl the following season. He saw the Triplets -- Hall of Famers Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith -- in practice every day and in games. He saw Jay Novacek, Daryl Johnston and an offensive line that had four Pro Bowlers: Mark Tuinei, Nate Newton, Ray Donaldson and Larry Allen.

As Zimmer has watched current Cowboys Ezekiel Elliott, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, Dak Prescott and the offensive line, he sees the Cowboys’ offense of the 1990s.

Zimmer's Vikings (6-5) host Dallas (10-1) on Thursday at 8:25 p.m. ET.

This season's Cowboys offense looks like a throwback to their 1990s teams that won three Super Bowls. EPA/LARRY W. SMITH

“The offensive line is unbelievable. They’re by far the best in the league that I’ve seen. [Tyron] Smith is the best lineman in the league by far. But they’ve got a lot of big, physical guys. ... The back is special. He’s a physical, impact player that can make all the cuts. He’s great. He reminds me of Emmitt in a lot of ways. He’s got speed to the perimeter. He catches the ball well. He’s good in protection. Obviously, the quarterback is younger, but he’s making a lot of really, really good plays, not only with his arm, but I think he’s making great decisions and throwing the football well and then with his legs as well. I think [Cole] Beasley has played excellent, and now they’ve got Dez Bryant back. So, yeah -- it does. It reminds me a lot of what we had in Dallas at that time.”

In an era when offenses have become more pass-happy and rely on elements of the spread game seen in college, the Cowboys are a throwback to their success in the 1990s that led to three Super Bowl wins.

They have run more than they have thrown, with Elliott leading the league in rushing with 1,199 yards on 243 carries. He has 11 touchdowns on the ground. Prescott has had Aikman-like efficiency, completing 67.9 percent of his passes.

Irvin was the staple of the receiving corps in the 1990s, but the 2016 passing game is more balanced: Beasley, Witten and Bryant have 30-plus catches apiece. Beasley already has a career-high 58 catches for 647 yards and five touchdowns. Witten has 52 catches. Bryant, who missed three games with a knee injury, has 33, but 22 have come in his last five games.

Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan has implemented some “college-ish” plays into the offense for Prescott on the zone-read and for wide receiver Lucky Whitehead on jet sweeps, but Linehan also has plays dating back to his time at Idaho.

“We got a repertoire of innovation,” Linehan said. "We’re not that old-school, but if we are anything like the teams of the '90s, I’ll take any of those things too, because that was a great, great offense then too.”

The offensive lines are more than comparable, but how the 1995 line was constructed was different than the 2016 line. Tuinei and Newton were holdovers from the Tom Landry era. Donaldson was a free-agent signing. Allen was a second-round pick in 1994.

The 2016 line has three first-round picks: Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin. The other two starters are also homegrown: Doug Free (fourth-round pick) and Ronald Leary (undrafted free agent).

“We believe in being a physical football team -- physical on the offensive side of the ball, physical on the defensive side of the ball and physical in the kicking game -- and in order to be a physical team, you've got to be physical up front,” coach Jason Garrett said.

“That's how we built this team. We got a lot of physical players on our offensive line and that's where it all starts, and if you're physical and really good up front, that gives your skill players a chance to have success, whether it's your runner, your quarterback, your receivers. And that's how those teams were built in the '90s. Had a lot of great skill there -- but you ask any one of those guys, they would say it starts up front, how we physically dominated people, and that's certainly the objective we have with this team.”

Zimmer knows. That’s how he wanted to build the Vikings. He even had the coordinator from earlier in the Triplets’ era, Norv Turner, calling plays for the Vikings, but Turner resigned in the middle of this season.

“That was kind of my plan going into the season, was trying to get our offensive line like that, because going into the season we had Adrian [Peterson] and Teddy [Bridgewater], obviously,” Zimmer said, referring to his injured running back and injured quarterback. “So it was kind of my plan going in there, kind of to be like them. But yeah, it does remind me a lot.”