It is Day 70 of our 100-day countdown to kickoff. We are looking back at the 100 most iconic games in Dallas Cowboys history. The countdown will leads us right up to the opening game of 2026. Our look back doesn’t depend on just one criteria for our rankings. We take into consideration things like how big the game was for the organization, how memorable the game was, games that had unusual events take place, games that are a part of NFL lore, Cowboys firsts, and games where the Cowboys just plain
dominated. Variety is the spice of life and we have all different kind of Cowboys games to review. At the bottom, we’ll link each day of the countdown so you can go back and check out any you missed.
Here we go for Day 70 of our 100-day countdown to kickoff, where we revisit one of the strangest Cowboys-Eagles endings ever staged under the Monday Night Football lights. The Cowboys came into Week 3 of the 1997 season at 1-1, still stinging from an overtime loss to Arizona the week before, while Philadelphia had just upset the defending Super Bowl champion Packers. In classic NFC East fashion, this one became ugly, tense, dramatic, and borderline absurd.
Monday, September 15, 1997 — 9:00 p.m. ET
Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas
Final Score: Dallas Cowboys 21, Philadelphia Eagles 20
Philadelphia easily controlled the first half. Former Cowboys kicker Chris Boniol opened the scoring with a 49-yard field goal, Richie Cunningham returned the favor and answered with a 46-yard field goal of his own, and then the Eagles’ defense struck. William Thomas returned a Troy Aikman fumble 37 yards for a touchdown, putting Philadelphia ahead 10-3 by the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Ty Detmer hit rookie tight end Chad Lewis for a 12-yard touchdown, and the Eagles led 17-3 before Cunningham’s 48-yard field goal made it 17-6 at halftime.
For most of the night, Dallas could move the ball only far enough for Cunningham. He hit another field goal from 25 yards in the third quarter, then Boniol answered with a 44-yarder early in the fourth to stretch Philadelphia’s lead to 20-9. Cunningham kept the Cowboys alive with two more fourth-quarter field goals, from 29 and 22 yards, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 20-15. At that point, Dallas had five field goals and no touchdowns.
Then Aikman finally found the end zone. With less than a minute left, he took Dallas on a gruelling 62-yard drive, helped by a controversial fourth-down pass interference call against Charles Dimry. Aikman then hit Eric Bjornson for an insane diving 24-yard gain, and then two plays later found Anthony Miller in the back of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, but Dallas had its first lead of the night, 21-20.
But this was still was not the end and things got wild. Detmer quickly drove Philadelphia from its own territory to the Dallas four-yard line, helped by a 46-yard completion to Freddie Solomon. With just four seconds left, the Eagles lined up for an easy 22-yard chip shot that should have won the game. Boniol, the former Cowboy, was in position to break Dallas’ heart. Instead, holder Tom Hutton bobbled the snap, never got the ball down, tried to improvise, and it became a mad rush by the Cowboys defense to kill the game. Thankfully they did.
This game belongs on the countdown because it is pure Cowboys-Eagles theater. Dallas did not play well. Aikman was harassed, the offense spent almost the entire game settling for field goals, and Philadelphia had the ball on the Dallas four with a kick to win it. But rivalry games are not always remembered because they are well-played. Sometimes they are remembered because the ending is so chaotic that it lives forever. This was one of those nights.
Interesting Facts About the Game
Richie Cunningham made all five of his field-goal attempts, the most in a single game during his NFL career. In 1997 he would earn All-Pro honors and be named Septembers NFC Special Teams player of the month.
Countdown To Kickoff by day:
100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, 85, 84, 83, 82, 81, 80, 79, 78, 77, 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 71
