Dallas Cowboys History

March Madness tournament: Cowboys top 64 plays of all time, Round 1, Group 13

With four new plays to choose from, which one should advance?

By Dan-Rogers@DannyPhantom24 Apr 8, 2020, 1:00pm CDT

1992 NFC Championship Game - Dallas Cowboys v San Francisco 49ers

We have entered the final quadrant of the first round for BTB’s 64-play tournament. Over the next four days, we’ll have the last remaining groups for you to cast your vote to see which one makes it to the Sweet 16. Today’s group consists of a couple special yards after-the-catch passing plays as well as couple heads up special teams plays. Let’s get to it!

A dynasty is born

It’s hard to describe the pain and anguish that came along with the Cowboys loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the 1981 NFC Championship game. Tom Landry’s team went through a stretch where they made the playoffs in 17 out of 18 seasons, but in 1981 - little did we know that things were soon coming to an end. When Dwight Clark made “The Catch” it symbolized a changing of the guard of NFC supremacy.

So, when Jimmy Johnson’s team in the ‘90s was on the rise, their 1992 NFC Championship matchup was a time for redemption as they strolled back onto that same Candlestick Park grass. It was a good battle, and the Cowboys looked to be pulling away, but late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers cut the Cowboys lead to 24-20 in hopes of getting the ball back one more time to complete another comeback and once again crush the spirits of Cowboys fans everywhere. Thankfully, Dallas had other plans and rather than burning clock, Troy Aikman attacked through the air and hit Alvin Harper on a deep slant. Harper took off for a 70-yard gain that set up another Cowboys touchdown, putting the game on ice and punching their ticket to a Super Bowl return.

All-purpose punter

The Cowboys drafted Arizona State quarterback Danny White in the third round of the 1974 NFL Draft to be the team’s punter. With Roger Staubach firmly established as the team’s quarterback and White wanting to play quarterback himself, White opted to go play in the World Football league for the Memphis Southmen. Two years later after the World Football league folded, White joined the Cowboys as a backup quarterback.

When Staubach retired after the 1979 season, White took over the starting quarterback duties. In his first three seasons as the team’s new quarterback, the Cowboys went to three straight NFC Championship games, but unfortunately lost each time. White still served as the team’s punter until 1985, and his athleticism was on display whenever the he pulled of a little trickery with a fake punt. His 48-yard scamper against the Green Bay Packers back in 1980 was pretty impressive and showed what White’s versatility added to the team.

The silver & blue bullet

Zone defense. Quick-screen. Bump and run. There was a time when these things didn’t exist in the NFL, but that all changed when “Bullet” Bob Hayes entered the league. Hayes was a seventh-round draft pick back in 1964 as the Cowboys took a gamble that this Olympic sprinter turned wide receiver would be an asset for them. And he was.

Hayes played 11 seasons in the league, with 10 of them for Dallas. In 2009, he entered Canton, joining Jim Thorpe as only the second Olympic gold medalist to be selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Hayes was revered as one of the games fastest it’s ever seen, and in Week 10 of 1966 against the Washington Redskins, he used that speed to take a Don Meredith pass 95 yards for a touchdown.

Catch me if you McCann

In 2010, there wasn’t a lot to cheer about as the Cowboys finished the season 6-10; however, Bryan McCann had a two-game stretch where he did something amazing. McCann was an undrafted free agent and only played in 11 total games with the Cowboys. He ended up getting cut when injuries to the wide receiver position forced the team to sign Laurent Robinson.

While McCann’s time was short-lived, he had a flash of greatness his rookie season. First, against the New York Giants, he picked off Eli Manning and ran it back 101 yards for a touchdown. It was, and still remains the Cowboys longest interception return in franchise history.

Then, the following week against the Detroit Lions, McCann made a heads-up play and caught a batted ball the Lions special teams was trying to keep from going into the end zone, and ran it 97 yards for a touchdown.