There is no shortage of excitement for the Dallas Cowboys, even when things don’t go according to plan. We have been subjected to 30 years of disappointment, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been moments when a little dose of hope has crept in. Despite the letdowns, there have been some really fun moments during this long drought, and sometimes it is just nice to look back and remember how it made us feel. Today, we want to travel back nearly 20 years and relive one of the most electric nights
for the team during this span.
This memory takes us to a Thursday night in Week 13 when a matchup against Green Bay turned into a heavyweight fight. Both teams entered Texas Stadium with identical 10-1 records, completely running away with the conference and vying for the top seed in the playoffs. No other teams were even close (Seattle was next at 7-4). The game featured a fascinating matchup of playcallers, with future head coach Jason Garrett calling plays for Dallas and his eventual successor, Mike McCarthy, for Green Bay.
This game is also remembered as the official origin story for Aaron Rodgers. He came into the game midway through the second quarter after Brett Favre injured his shoulder. It was the third season of the young backup quarterback, but up until this night, he had rarely played and had never thrown more than eight passes in a single game.
The Cowboys came out on fire, with the offense scoring on their first five possessions of the game and jumping out to a commanding 27-10 lead. But after Favre got hurt and Rodgers entered the game, the Packers went on a mini-run. They scored touchdowns on two straight possessions and cut the lead to 27-24, turning the second half into a tense nail-biter. With the Packers down 10 with just over five minutes left in the game, McCarthy made the puzzling decision to kick a field goal on a crucial fourth down with only a foot to go. The kick cut the lead to seven, but Dallas marched down the field and answered with a field goal of their own, putting the game completely out of reach with just over a minute left.
Looking back at this crucial in-season conference battle reveals a goldmine of random trivia with future team connections. The game featured a fierce battle between Terrell Owens and Al Harris. The Green Bay cornerback had some big moments, including an interception in the end zone and a strip of TO that was luckily wiped out because forward progress had been stopped. To help his star receiver, Garrett frequently moved Owens into the slot just to avoid dealing with Harris. As most know, Harris eventually joined the Cowboys’ coaching staff years later when McCarthy took over as head coach in 2020. Green Bay also had Joe Philbin as their offensive coordinator back then, who followed his boss to Texas in 2020 to coach the offensive line for three seasons.
The coaching staff connections do not stop there. Kurt Schottenheimer, who is the uncle of Cowboys’ current head coach Brian Schottenheimer and the younger brother of Marty, was the secondary coach for Green Bay back then. Ben McAdoo was coaching tight ends for the Packers that night, and he later served as a consultant for Dallas in 2021.
It was an unforgettable game that featured four touchdown passes from Tony Romo and over 150 yards receiving from Owens. Dallas won the battle and ultimately earned the top seed in the conference by holding the tiebreaker when both teams finished the year 13-3. It was the first time in the post-’90s dynasty era that it truly felt like the Cowboys were legitimate championship contenders with a real shot to return to the big stage.
Sadly, fate had other plans, and the anticipated playoff rematch between these two never happened because both teams were shocked and eliminated by the underdog New York Giants, who continued shocking people when they beat the undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. Even with the sad ending, that Thursday night contest remains an exciting memory of what it felt like to believe this team was going places.
