Day 23 of the countdown takes us back to one of the most argued-over finishes in Cowboys history: the “Dez Caught It” game.
On Sunday, January 11, 2015, Dallas walked into Lambeau Field and left with a 26-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers, but the final score barely tells the story of what happened in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The stakes were obvious from the start. Both teams finished the regular season 12-4. The Cowboys had gone 8-0 on the road, while the Packers had not lost at Lambeau Field.
Green Bay opened the scoring when Aaron Rodgers hit Andrew Quarless on a four-yard touchdown. Dallas answered with a long drive of its own, and Tony Romo finished it with a one-yard touchdown pass to fullback Tyler Clutts to make it 7-7.
The Cowboys grabbed the lead after Jeremy Mincey forced and recovered a Rodgers fumble. Romo turned that mistake into points with a short pass to Terrance Williams, and Williams did the rest, turning it into a 38-yard touchdown and a 14-7 Dallas lead.
The Cowboys had a chance to add more before halftime, but Dan Bailey’s 50-yard field-goal attempt was blocked. Rodgers then pushed Green Bay into position for Mason Crosby’s 40-yard field goal at the buzzer, trimming the lead to 14-10.
Dallas had another chance to build on that edge early in the third quarter, but the game turned again when DeMarco Murray lost the ball after breaking through the line with open field ahead of him. Julius Peppers knocked it loose, Green Bay recovered, and Crosby knocked through a 30-yard field goal to make it a one-point game.
The Cowboys answered with an 80-yard march that ended with Murray scoring from a yard out, putting Dallas back up 21-13. But Rodgers and the Packers took control from there.
Rodgers found rookie Davante Adams for a 46-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, cutting the gap to 21-20. Then, after a punt, Rodgers completed seven straight passes on an 80-yard drive and hit Richard Rodgers for a 13-yard touchdown.
Green Bay missed the two-point try, but it still led 26-21.
That set up the finish everyone still remembers. With less than five minutes left, Dallas faced fourth-and-two from the Green Bay 32.
Romo gave Bryant a shot against single coverage, and Bryant went up over Sam Shields, secured the ball, took multiple steps and stretched toward the goal line before the ball moved when he hit the ground. The play was ruled a catch at the Packers’ one-yard line.
Mike McCarthy challenged it, and referee Gene Steratore overturned the call. Under the catch rule in place then, officials ruled Bryant had not maintained control through the act of going to the ground.
The reversal turned it into a turnover on downs with 4:06 left, and Dallas never got the ball back. Green Bay picked up two third downs and ran out the clock.
That’s why this game still belongs on any Cowboys list of the most iconic. Dallas had finished a 12-win regular season, won the NFC East and picked up its first playoff victory since the 2009 season. Then the Cowboys went to Lambeau Field, were inches away from possibly taking the lead against one of the NFC’s best, and saw everything end on a ruling that still gets argued to this day.
In 2018, NFL owners unanimously approved a simplified catch rule that removed the old requirement to keep possession all the way through going to the ground. The league specifically pointed to Bryant’s overturned reception as the kind of play that would count as a catch under the revised standard.
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