Dallas Cowboys History

March Madness tournament: Cowboys top 64 plays of all time, Round 1, Group 14

Here are four new plays for your viewing pleasure.

By Dan-Rogers@DannyPhantom24 Apr 9, 2020, 1:00pm CDT

The BTB 64-play tournament continues as we have a new group with four more plays to choose from. It’s getting down to crunch time. After today, only eight more plays will show up in the tournament. Have you seen all your favorite plays already? If not, hopefully they’ll be coming soon. For today’s group, we have some really long touchdown runs, including some great moments on Monday Night Football. Let’s get to the action.

99 and a half

Hey, it’s finally here! All of you who have pondered whether or not this one was going to make the list - you should be ashamed of yourselves. As if we would leave out one of the most epic plays in Cowboys history. On Tuesday, Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett celebrated his 66th birthday, so today we honor him with the gift that keeps on running.

In a strike-shortened season back in 1982, the Cowboys only played nine regular season games and finished 6-3. During the regular-season finale on Monday Night Football, Dorsett pulled off a special run. With the offense backed up at their own one-foot line, Dorsett took a hand off right up the middle, and with one swift cut in the second level, he was off to the races. It appeared as if a Minnesota Vikings defender was going to be able to push him out of bounds, but Drew Pearson provided just enough of a hindrance to keep the defense from getting a clear shot at Dorsett, allowing him to race down the sidelines for the score.

Last call for Captain Comeback

Over Roger Staubach’s career, there were 14 games where the Cowboys were trailing in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter only to have the Hall of Fame quarterback lead them to victory. It was only fitting that in his last ever regular-season game he would pull off a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback. And what better way to do it than with the division title on the line, and a chance to eliminate the hated Washington Redskins from the playoffs.

In a game of streaks, the Cowboys fell behind 17-0 thanks to a couple fumbles that the Redskins were able to convert into points. The Cowboys fought back to retake the lead, but a Redskins surge in the fourth quarter gave Washington a 34-21 lead with under four minutes left in the game. It seemed as if the Cowboys season was coming to a crashing halt. But a Randy White fumble recovery combined with a crucial third down stop by Larry Cole gave Staubach the opportunities to orchestrate two late game touchdown drives. The last one was capped off with an eight yard pass to Tony Hill, giving the Cowboys a 35-34 come from behind victory.

Spinning out of trouble

We’ve already established that the Cowboys have the player who has the most rushing yards on a single play, but the team also has the player who has the most rushing yards on all his rushing plays. And that player is Emmitt Smith. When it was all said and done, Smith became the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, but back in the early ‘90s we were just learning how special he was.

In just his second season in the league, he ran for over 1,500 yards, helping the Cowboys make the playoffs for the first time in six years. In Week 2 of that season on a Monday Night game against the Washington Redskins, he pulled off the longest run of his 15-year career. Smith maneuvered around the defense, but looked like he was dead in the water as he was running straight into several Redskins defenders. But then Smith did a little pirouette, causing Redskins defenders to come up empty, allowing Smith to race away for a 75-yard touchdown.

Barbarian in the desert

The 2008 season was a rough one. After the Cowboys had made the playoffs in the previous two seasons, they would fall short that year, finishing with a 9-7 record. The team endured a rough patch in December that saw them lose three of their final four games, ousting themselves from playoff contention. It was also Terrell Owens last season with the team as strife within the locker room was starting to surface.

While the season was disappointing, there were still some exciting plays. In the middle of the season against the Arizona Cardinals, the Cowboys found themselves down 10 points with a little over three minutes to play. Dallas ended up tying the game and sending it into overtime, thanks largely to an impressive 70-yard dump off pass to Marion Barber. The Cardinals defenders had plenty shots at him, but Barber scampered down the sideline and then cut inside to finish off the run with sheer determination. The Cowboys ultimately ended up losing the game when a blocked punt resulted in the game-winning touchdown for Arizona, but Barber’s impressive run helped the Cowboys get back in it.