Now that we're at the halfway point in our survey of the top ten regular season games in Cowboys history, I thought I'd call for a brief pause to review where we've been and to give you, the BTB community, an opportunity to weigh in on where we should go from here.
Lets start this off with a countdown of the games we've covered over the past five Fridays, with a brief excerpt from each game summary:
Make the jump...
Number 10: week eight of the 1981 season, a stirring 28-27 Danny White-led comeback over the Dolphins.
In the final assessment, this game offered further proof that, in Danny White, the Cowboys had a worthy successor to Roger Staubach, who was deservedly known as "Captain Comeback." Recall that, in the previous year, White had calmly led his team to a similarly stirring fourth-quarter comeback in a playoff game at Atlanta. And there would be more in future...
Number 9: week two of 2008: the "hair on fire" game, a 41-37 win over the hated Eagles
On fourth down, the Eagles tried a "Stanford Band" play involving a series of laterals—Jackson to Hank Baskett to Westbrook—to no avail. Dallas ran out the clock with a couple of kneel-downs. As this happened, I sat on my couch, stupefied; for some reason, this one left me more emotionally drained than any other regular-season Cowboys game I have ever watched. Just recollecting it makes me weak!
Number 8: a handful of great contests from the 60s and early 70s (guest column by Longball)
Roger then hit Lance Alworth from 21 yards out to take the lead in the 3rd quarter, but Gabriel drove the Rams back down and hit Pat Curran from 2 yards out. Thank goodness for Chuck Howley – he always seemed to come up with a big play, intercepting Gabriel and returning it 12 yards, allowing Duane Thomas to score from 5 yards out and win the game.
Number 7: week 12, 2003: surprising Cowboys win battle for NFC supremacy, beating Carolina 24-20
With the win, the Cowboys remained in a tie with Philadelphia for the NFC East lead and moves into a four-way tie with the Eagles, Panthers and St. Louis Rams for the best record in the conference. During the post-game presser, the normally taciturn Parcells was very emotional. He tearfully proclaimed that the Cowboys couldn’t be called losers anymore and admitted, "we've got a real shot to do something here."
Number 6: two games against the Packers: 42-31 (1994) and 37-27 (2007)
"Probably more than anything else, it was a great reminder of the importance of team," Garrett said recently when asked about that game. If there’s any doubt, check out the reaction on the sideline when Larry Brown breaks up a 4th-and-4 Favre pass with under 4 minutes left to seal the victory. After the game, a reporter asked Nate Newton if he had thought the Cowboys could win with Jason Garrett at quarterback. Newton looked him dead in the eye and said, "man, we could win with you at quarterback." That was a tightly-knit and confident bunch.
Those games are off the docket; that leaves a whole lot of exciting regular-season contests still to be considered. So, whaddya think, BTB Nation? What games absolutely must be included in the top ten? Weigh in in the comments section, and then do a gloat-y dance in front of your friends when your game shows up on the list.