Cowboys-Rams Throwback Thursday: Best short gain in team history?
The Dallas Cowboys are gearing up to face off against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 8 of the 2023 season. The teams have met 28 times previously, with Dallas owning a 15-13 advantage in the head-to-head series. The teams have split the last four contests and Dallas has won six of the last 10. Most of the Cowboys’ victories during this recent stretch have been blowouts while most of the Rams’ wins were close contests.
One of Dallas’ blowouts occurred in 2007, when the Cowboys broke a 7-7 tie late in the first half and scored the final 28 points en route to a 35-7 victory. The Week 4 win sent Dallas to a 4-0 record at the time as it was one of the best Cowboys’ teams of this millennia. There was one lasting memory from the contest though, and it wasn’t even a scoring play.
3rd and 3 from the 50, 2007 Week 4
The Cowboys, leading 7-0 in Texas Stadium, had just been stymied with a three and out and had to punt the ball away to the Rams, who were still based out of St. Louis at the time. Dante Hall, one of the best returners the NFL has ever seen with 12 scores, got one that day with an 85-yard weave.
Dallas took possession from their 17-yard line right before the two-minute warning. Quarterback Tony Romo completed four of his first five passes on the drive, but an incompletion over the middle to Jason Witten brought up 3rd-and-3 from midfield.
Looking to take the shotgun snap, Romo called for the ball only to have center Andre Gurode launch the pigskin into the stratosphere, sailing over Romo’s head.
Romo caught up to the ball at the Dallas 26, only to boot it further backwards to their 16-yard line before he was finally able to scoop it. Of course he’s supposed to fall on it so the team can punt it away, right?
Wrong.
The Cowboys gained the first down and continued to march down the field until Romo scored from 15 yards out on a 3rd-and-10 right before the half expired.
Here’s the drive in it’s entirety.
The only competition
Strangely enough, that wasn’t the only magical play from what should’ve been a magical season. Two weeks later a still undeafeted Dallas squared off against the AFC juggernaut New England Patriots, who were also 5-0 at the time.
Dallas and Wade Phillips got their lunch handed to them that afternoon, but not because of the effort of the late, great Marion Barber.
After falling behind double digits, Dallas made a game of it and actually took a 24-21 lead in the third quarter, only to have Kyle Brady (yes, from NFL Network) score a TD to put New England back on top, 28-24.
The ensuing kickoff was a touchback, and a Flozell Adams penalty put Dallas at their 10-yard line facing a 1st-and-20. A Jason Garrett run play was called, but the Patriots weren’t going for it and things went completely downhill after the snap.
Romo handed it off to Barber but the left side of the offensive line had been blown back to the 5-yard line. Barber bounced backwards off his linemen and circled back into the end zone with the Patriots in hot pursuit.
All looked lost and a safety seemed inevitable, but somehow Barber escaped multiple defenders and created the only play that could rival Romo’s escape.
After breaking through two tackles, Barber escaped another four Patriots while in the end zone, somehow making it back to the line of scrimmage and a little past it
I was actually in attendance for this game, so it stands out as one of the greatest plays in an otherwise maddening second half. The Patriots would go undefeated that year, losing their first game in Super Bowl.
