Well, here we go again.
This Sunday, the ninth playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys will unfold at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Historically, the two teams have each won four games; at Dallas’ various home fields, the Cowboys have emerged victorious in four of six contests.
Three of the Packers’ four postseason losses to “America’s Team” ended Green Bay’s season in consecutive seasons, beginning in 1993. During this span, the Brett Favre and Reggie White-led Packers were just starting their reemergence to NFL prominence, and these lessons learned from the Cowboys served as the preamble to their Super Bowl XXXI victory in 1997. However, after over 20 years of being shunned from the playoffs, Green Bay had the misfortune of running into the best team in football, and the Cowboys made sure the Packers knew who ruled the NFL roost.
Today marks the first of three installments chronicling the most memorable playoff matchups between the two NFL bluebloods. Not coincidentally, this game changed how millions of football fans viewed what constituted a pass reception.
MEMORABLE MOMENT #3: January 11, 2015–The Dez Bryant Game
Even without one of the most controversial plays in NFL history, this game was a back-and-forth classic. After holding a 14-10 halftime lead behind two Tony Romo touchdown passes, the Cowboys extended their lead to 21-13 after a Demarco Murray 1-yard plunge with 4:12 left in the third quarter.
However, 2014 league MVP Aaron Rodgers put the Packers on his shoulders. A 46-yard scoring strike to Davante Adams in the last two minutes of the third quarter and a 13-yard pass to Richard Rodgers with 9:10 left in the game propelled the Pack to a 26-21 lead.
Then, all hell broke loose.
DID HE OR DIDN’T HE?
Taking over at the 18-yard line following a Mason Crosby kickoff with 9:05 to play, the Cowboys started their drive and promptly reached near midfield on the first play after Murray raced 30 yards over Dallas’ right side. A second down pass to Dez Bryant, good for 10 yards, made it 1st and 10 at Green Bay’s 40 with 7:09 remaining. After a short Murray run and a shared sack of Romo by Datone Jones and Mike Neal, Cole Beasley caught a pass over the middle for nine yards, leaving the Cowboys with a pivotal 4th and 2 from the 32 with 4:42 left in one of the team’s seasons.
With Packers’ cornerback Sam Shields pressed up on Bryant, Romo took the shotgun snap and stared Bryant’s way the whole time the receiver streaked down the left sideline. Shields and Bryant were side by side, but when the ball reached the two around the six-yard line, Bryant leaped to highpoint the ball. Shields’ raised hands were useless when he did not jump to defend. Bryant’s left foot landed at the five, his right at the three, and his momentum flung him forward within a couple of feet of the goalline.
As the front of Bryant’s body hit the turf, the ball came loose momentarily but was quickly gathered back in. Dallas players and coaches celebrated the big play and started to prepare for a first-and-goal situation. However, that’s when the real drama began.
CONFUSION REIGNED
A prolonged video review with 4:06 remaining ensued. Most in attendance, fans and football personnel alike, needed clarification on what the holdup was all about. Bryant took two steps with possession, then lost momentary control of the ball when he hit the ground. Ground can’t cause a fumble, right?
Not exactly. The phrase “maintaining control throughout the process of the catch” became widely known for the first time, because despite the pleading of Bryant, the officials ruled the pass incomplete. “All I know is I had possession, I had possession of the ball coming down,” Bryant said. “That’s possession, right? One, two, reach. Bam, that’s possession.”
According to a tweet from then-head of officials Dean Blandino: “By rule, he must hold onto it throughout the entire process of contacting the ground. He didn’t, so it is incomplete.”
Green Bay took over on downs and ran the clock out to preserve the 26-21 win. Unfortunately for the green and gold faithful, the Packers’ luck ran out the following week when Seattle claimed the NFC crown, beating Green Bay 28-22 in overtime.
THE AFTERMATH
The NFL ruled that Bryant did, indeed, catch the ball–three years later. Because of the storm brewed by this play, as well as a Calvin Johnson “non-catch” four seasons earlier, the league adjusted its rule on what is or isn’t a catch in February 2018.
Kevin Seifert, a reporter for ESPN in 2018, wrote that the NFL competition committee is working to overhaul the “going to the ground” part of the league’s broken catch rule, with the unanimous belief among committee members that plays like Bryant’s overruled catch against the Green Bay Packers during the NFC playoffs should have been ruled complete.
In a tweet dated February 27, 2018, Seifert posted the following during the league’s winter meetings: “The NFL competition committee appears to have unanimous agreement that controversial catch rulings involving Dez Bryant and Calvin Johnson should have been ruled complete, according to Giants owner John Mara.”
Translation? The Green Bay Packers were lucky to receive the judgment of incomplete on that day. However, even if the Cowboys had first-and-goal at the 1 and scored to take the lead, there is no guarantee that their defense would have held Rodgers and the Packers’ offense over the final four minutes. Yet, no doubt had Bryant’s “catch” occurred in today’s NFL, the story of the game’s ending would have been written far differently.
