Day 62 of the Cowboys’ 100-day countdown takes us back to a playoff game that had all the right ingredients: a fast start, a few momentum swings, and a defensive performance that took over the afternoon.
On Sunday, January 16, 1983, at Texas Stadium in Irving, the Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers 37-26 in a second-round playoff game from the strange, strike-shortened 1982 season. That year had been reduced to nine regular-season games and pushed into a special 16-team “Super Bowl Tournament” format. Dallas came in as the NFC’s No. 2 seed, Green Bay as the No. 3, with two old postseason opponents meeting again in a game that fit the moment.
The Cowboys wasted no time getting on the board. Rafael Septién opened the scoring with a 50-yard field goal, then Green Bay’s Del Rodgers fumbled the kickoff and Jeff Rohrer pounced on it for Dallas. Septién followed with a 34-yard field goal, and before the Packers had even picked up a first down, the Cowboys had run 19 straight offensive plays and built a 6-0 lead.
Green Bay finally answered when Lynn Dickey found James Lofton for a six-yard touchdown, flipping the Packers ahead 7-6. Dallas responded with an 80-yard march that ended with Timmy Newsome scoring from two yards out.
From there, Dennis Thurman started putting his stamp on the game. With 1:13 left before halftime, he picked off Dickey and took it 39 yards to the end zone, sending Dallas to the locker room up 20-7.
The Packers kept hanging around. Jan Stenerud hit field goals from 30 and 33 yards, while Septién added a 24-yarder for Dallas.
Then Lofton broke loose again, this time on a 71-yard touchdown run off a reverse. A missed extra point left the Cowboys in front 23-19, but Green Bay had made it clear this one was far from finished.
Danny White answered with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Doug Cosbie, pushing Dallas ahead 30-19. Green Bay still had one last surge left. Mark Lee intercepted White and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown, trimming the Cowboys’ lead to 30-26 in the middle of the fourth quarter.
That set the stage for Thurman to close the door. He grabbed his third interception of the day and sparked a 74-yard drive.
The most memorable snap on that march came when Drew Pearson took a lateral from White and launched a 49-yard pass to Tony Hill, setting Dallas up at the Green Bay one-yard line. Newsome finished it on the next play, and the Cowboys sealed the 37-26 win.
The game earns its place in the countdown because Thurman’s afternoon was one of the great individual postseason showings in Cowboys history, and because it came at a point when the franchise was still winning in the playoffs even as the 1970s dynasty was starting to fade. On this day, though, the Cowboys had the defense, the timely offense, and just enough Texas Stadium magic to finish the job.
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