In the Heat of Battle: Unforgettable Dallas-Washington Games

One of the great National Football League rivalries of all time is the Dallas and Washington rivalry.

These two franchises really don't like each other, and they constantly are playing against each other in big games.

Twice a year, sometimes three.

In this episode, we're going to talk about some of the biggest and best events in Washington Dallas history, coming up in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout his history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And it's time for another top 10 segment.

We have our friend Ed Cleese joining us again.

You may have heard him last week telling us about some of the great moments in playoff history that you might not remember.

And this time, he's got another great top ten list.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hi, Darren.

Thanks for having me back.

Yeah, this is exciting.

And I think, you know, just by looking at your hat, I think I know sort of the theme that we might be going here.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you got for us tonight and some of your criteria.

You bet.

I want to come up with the top 10 Washington, Dallas games of all time and the criteria.

Big rivalry there.

Big rivalry.

Big rivalry.

A lot to choose from for sure.

The criteria there.

First of all, I, I left out that they've met in the postseason twice, two NFC championship games.

I left those out because the playoff games, to me, are a totally different animal from regular season.

It's kind of hard to compare when you get the importance involved.

So congratulations, Cowboys fans.

You don't have to hear me talk about your two NFC championship game losses to the Redskins.

So those, those will not be on the list, although they would probably be 1, 2 if they were included.

So regular season, and it had to be a game that mattered.

It wasn't just a close game, you know, so the game itself needed to be good and it needed to matter.

So in the years where either one or both teams were not relevant, late season, not good records, those kind of didn't get considered.

So we're going trying to find games that mattered and games that we remember and games that really expanded the lore of the series and heated up the rivalry.

Well, you have plenty of games to choose from because you're just doing quick math.

I don't know if they.

In the 60s, if they played twice a year, but we definitely know in modern times you got probably close to 120 games to talk about regular season.

There's a lot.

There's a lot.

And to be fair, from the early 90s till now, it's much slimmer pickings because the teams have very rarely both been good or relevant at the same time in the past 30 years.

So it thinned out.

When you're going through the.

When you're going through the games, there's some in there, but really the.

The meat of it would have been from that, like, late 60s to the early 90s.

Yeah, that sounds great.

That sounds like the.

The sweet spot for that.

That rivalry series.

Anyway.

We ready to go?

Yeah, absolutely.

Please do.

Number 10.

This was an earlier season game in October.

The Redskins wind up winning the game 24 to 20 after being down two separate times by 13.

They're down 13 to nothing, and then they're down 20 to 7.

And Larry Brown, the great, great Redskins running back of the time, he had 95 yards rushing and he had 100 yards receiving in the game and scored a late touchdown.

They kind of put them over the top.

They held on to win pretty significant game because those two teams would meet again in the NFC Championship game at the end of the year at rfk.

And had Dallas been able to hold on to win that game, it very likely would have been in Dallas.

So it was an impactful game, kind of a little bit of a comeback for the Redskins and a real memorable game and one of the first turning points for the Redskins under George Allen as well.

That wound up being their first super bowl team.

Dallas had sort of dominated them prior.

This was a little bit of an arrival game for the Redskins.

Yeah, just take it.

Take me back here.

You have, you know, the rivalry of the head coaches of Landry and Allen, you know, two.

Two legends of the game and then all the great players on both those sides.

The.

So, yeah, great memory.

Those 70s were great.

The 70s were great.

Now we're going to go to number nine.

And now we get into one that I remember very well.

And every Redskins fan will remember this.

It has its own name.

This is the Monday night miracle.

Okay.

The reason I don't have this higher on the list is it is the most amazing ending ever.

But the reason I don't have A higher on the list because for the first 57 minutes of this game, it is about as bad of a football game as you will ever watch.

It was horrible.

It's 13 to nothing with three and a half minutes to go.

Dallas has the lead and it is as ugly as it sounds.

Sometimes a low scoring game can be really fun and hard hitting and exciting in its own way.

This was just bad.

We, we didn't score a touchdown in Week 1.

The Redskins didn't score a touchdown in Week 1 that year they did win.

So they were being shut out late in the fourth quarter in week two.

So you do the math.

We're eight quarters in, no touchdowns, and then this Mark Brunel is the quarterback of the game.

We get the ball late and I am in my living room, I'm pouting.

I'm not even really paying super close attention anymore.

I'm sitting with my hand in my, my, my face in my hand.

I'm just kind of watching the end of this misery.

And we have a, we have a fourth down conversion.

And then on another fourth down, he sort of heaves one up, falls in Santana Moss's lap in the end zone.

Whoa, we scored a touchdown.

It's 13 to 7.

Still thinking, no way, this isn't going to happen.

The Redskins stop the Cowboys, they get the ball back and on the first play of the next drive, he heaves one back up to Santana Moss against the same exact two defenders.

And this time it is an over the shoulder touchdown for about, I think this is about 78 yards that he runs into the end zone.

So two long Santana Moss touchdowns in a span of about a minute and a half of game time transitions the score from 13 to nothing to 14 to 13.

Washington does hold on.

The Cowboys actually get the ball twice at the end, stop them twice.

They never quite get in field goal range.

And Washington wins the game.

14:13.

One of the more.

This was the Joe Gibbs a second run.

And this was one of the more emotional post game bursts I've ever seen from Gibbs.

It was like he was as shocked as everybody else was.

So this was that.

It was one of the more shocking endings of any football game I've ever seen.

When you put it up against the first 57 minutes of the game, and it is of the last 25 years of Redskins football, I think some fans will probably tell you it's number one in terms of, in terms of memories.

The Monday night miracle.

Wow, that has taken me back.

I, I didn't remember that one until you said It.

But now that you, you talk about it now, it's bringing the light on again, so.

Well, there's a good chance you were asleep because I think most of America was.

I probably was, yeah.

Because I think most of America was.

And you would have had every reason to be.

It was a terrible game.

Terrible game.

If you decided.

We all have Sports center though, if.

You decide to look it up on YouTube, just fast forward to the, to the last few minutes.

You'll, you'll be much happier.

So we're going to number eight now.

We go to the very next year.

This barely made it because both teams are sort of middling.

It's a middle of the season game at FedEx Field and Landover, another incredible ending.

It's a back and forth game.

It's a pretty decent game.

It's tied late.

Tony Romo leads them down the Cowboys down the field.

He hits Jason Witten and it looks oh, Washington because they're, they have, they can, they can bleed the clock down and kick a last field goal.

It's not a particularly long one.

It looks like it's over.

He lines up to kick it.

I can tell you right now, the Redskins never block kicks.

Never, never happens.

I can barely, I can probably count them all in one hand, our block kicks.

But we had signed Troy Vincent of the Eagles kind of on a mid season desperation, needed an extra body kind of thing.

He comes flying in on this field goal, blocks it right.

Time has expired.

It's tie game.

Time's expired.

We're going to go to overtime.

Sean Taylor picks the ball up and starts running it back and you're like, well, gosh, if he scores a touchdown here, I guess we can win.

He doesn't.

He gets tackled.

However, the Cowboys grab his face mask as he's running the ball and he runs it to a, you know, he crosses midfield with it.

So as you know, a game cannot end on a defensive penalty or.

And at that point the Cowboys were the defense.

And so it's 15 yards added on to the end of the run.

So Washington is now in field goal range.

We bring on a kicker named Nick Novak who was kind of an off the street guy as well, who had missed one earlier that would have given us the lead.

And he, it looks like he shanks it, but it kind of cooks back in.

He wins it on an untimed down.

So literally you go from the Cowboys kicking a field Goal with three seconds left to somehow Washington winning in regulation on their own field goal.

I don't think if somebody would have told you, you had to connect how that could happen, that anybody would really be able to do that.

It was the highlight of what really wound up being sort of a disappointing season, but at the time it was amazing.

That's a really fun video to check out on YouTube as well.

A lot of the fan reaction, that was an amazing game.

The added element of Sean Taylor being involved in it was really cool.

I mean, it goes back with the prior game you talked about.

It's one of those games where you're like deep depression, like, oh my God.

But how could they do anything more wrong?

You know, the game didn't go their way and you have all of a sudden you have this miracle happen at the end and put you in a total elation.

That's the fun of football, isn't it?

It was a miracle.

It was a lot of fun.

So now we go to number seven and Cowboy fans can calm down.

I'm finally going to put a Cowboys win on the list.

Number seven.

So they opened the next season back in RFK against the Cowboys.

And you know, it's 23 to 3 at halftime.

So it's sort of like, oh man, we're just talk about how we own Dallas now, just rolling and rolling and it's like a party at rfk.

And then Danny White is the quarterback for the Cowboys, starts launching passes.

I think Tony Hill Dorsett has a very, very famous run in this game.

It's famous because this is the game where Daryl Green comes out of nowhere and catches him down at like the three yard line.

He's not in the screen when the play starts and Daryl Green runs him down at about the three yard line.

So it's sort of a Redskins highlight.

However, it set up a touchdown.

They really, they kind of had the game one by late in the fourth quarter.

They stormed back so much.

But that was a huge win for Dallas.

And it kind of takes me back a little bit to what I think is that era of Monday Night Football.

I really Encourage people to go check that out.

Just the intro and everything.

That sort of the.

It's still got the 70s vibe to it in, like, 83, you know, I think there's a shift there in Monday Night Football, maybe like, mid to late 80s where it changes a little bit.

In 83, it still very much feels like that 70s, that original Monday Night Football vibe.

Is it still Cosell and Meredith and.

Yeah, I'm not sure if Cosell is on the call in that game or not.

I have to check.

He may have been gone by then, but just the.

The graphics and the feel and the welcome to D.C. and it just.

It was.

It's a really nice, cool.

It's a cool thing.

83 was kind of a fun.

The yellow text at the bottom of the screen, it bounces.

Yes, yes, yes.

So that's a good one.

So there you go, Cowboys fans.

Okay, you're on.

You're on the board.

So now we go to numbers.

Now we go to number six.

And this was really cool because both teams were nine and six going in.

And the way the wild card worked out that year, it was win and in or lose and go home.

So it's not like the loser was the wild card.

It was the winner is the winner of the division and the loser misses the playoffs.

This was the RG three year for the.

For the Redskins.

This was.

They started 3 and 6, and then they were 9 and 6.

So this was.

And then they had climbed this mountain, and we have this big game, and it's again, a pretty fun game back and forth.

Washington does take a lead late.

Dallas gets it back, close.

And then Romo throws a terrible interception to, like, on a little swing pass out of the backfield.

Rob Jackson, a kind of a rotational linebacker, intercepts it for the Redskins, who they score a touchdown.

They go up 10 at that point, ice the game.

It's over.

It's.

It's probably the last time that the stadium as the Redskins really, really rocked the hail to the Redskins.

It was.

We hadn't been to the playoffs in, at that point, five years.

We hadn't won the division at that point in 13 years.

And then you add on the element of.

We thought we also had our quarterback situation solved as well.

So it was this real big elation, a little bit of a we're back kind of feel.

And, of course, happening against Dallas was a big deal.

It of course, would all fall apart in the ensuing months.

But for that night, yeah, it was a great game and one of the more important and memorable games in the history of the series.

Yeah.

Good memory.

Yes, it was a good memory.

That was a good one.

There haven't been many over this time frame, but that was a good one.

So we'll go on to number five now.

Okay, number five, we're going to take you back to rfk.

We're going to take you back to Monday Night Football.

And this was, if you go back and do any research on this game, this is the Ken Houston game.

And so really the memory of this game is Washington is winning 14 7.

Late Walt Garrison catches a pass near the goal line and Ken Houston wraps him up around his waist.

And it's like Garrison's almost like kicking his legs trying to get in the end zone and, and Houston's holding them back.

It's like a literal, it's like a tug of war to the end zone.

Houston wins.

He does not cross the goal line.

Washington holds on and wins the game 14 to 7.

Again, just sort of in that classic 70s Redskins Cowboys rivalry, Monday Night Football.

Kind of a big, there's a lot of cool still photos of that play out there that I think people should go check out.

It's really cool.

All right.

Yeah, that was a big play.

Ken Houston, another great gamer, you know.

Could hit top 10 safeties of all time.

For sure.

For sure.

An overlooked player.

So now again, Cowboys fans, here you go.

We'll go back.

As, as most Cowboy fans and Redskin fans will remember, The Redskins lead 16 3.

Roger Staubach goes out with a concussion.

And so now it looks like, wow, this is a great Thanksgiving for Washington.

Right?

Enter Clint Longley, a journeyman backup quarterback who leads the Cowboys back to this miraculous comeback.

He hits Drew Pearson for a 50 yard touchdown.

Dallas wins 24 to 23.

Probably up there in the top five most, I think, iconic Thanksgiving games of all time.

And as on my, as my list will tell you a top five all time Washington, Dallas game as well.

Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't remember watching that play, but I remember reading about it before and yeah, that's, that's a tremendous one.

And I've seen some highlights of it.

Yeah, especially when you lose your starter and quarterback who's like, you know, Mr.

Cowboy, you know, it's.

It was the start of the Cowboys ruining Thanksgiving for Redskin fans for quite a while because it was, it was a number of years before Washington actually won on Thanksgiving.

They didn't have a whole lot of success.

So now we're on to our top three.

And this is one that's very personal to me.

Very, very personal.

Just a regular Fox Sunday afternoon noon game.

This is at the end of the Cowboys triplets era.

All three are still there, starting, impactful players.

But it's at the end and this is a tremendous game, a back and forth game.

I actually, I shouldn't say back and forth game.

It's back and forth early Washington.

The Cowboys lead 14 to 13 at the half.

Solid game.

Washington explodes in the third quarter.

I am at my rental house in college with my friends and I am loving it.

Up 35 to 4.

I'm usually pretty cautious but up 35 to 14, I'm pretty much celebrating at that point.

We've got this.

Our offense looks amazing.

This is going to be an incredible season.

And we're whooping Dallas on, on opening day.

I spoke too soon.

Here come the Cowboys.

Emmett scores a touchdown.

Two touchdown passes from Aikman to Irvin.

Dallas ties the game.

This is sort of an important note.

35, 35.

Washington gets the ball back.

They do drive late.

They have a very makeable field goal and on the field goal attempt it is muffed by the holder who is our punter, Matt Turk.

So we don't even get the kick off.

So remember that Matt Turk, the punter muffs the hole on that play, goes to overtime.

Like the first Cowboys snap of overtime, I believe or very early.

75 yard touchdown pass from Troy Aikman to Rocket Ismail who toasts our defensive backs.

He is wide open.

I will always remember the pit in my stomach as that ball is in the air.

And then you see Rocket wide open, lands in his arms.

He runs in the end zone.

We lose 41 to 35.

I am despondent at that point and the reason I say remember the muff is because Washington does win the division that year.

They do go to the playoffs.

They play the Bucs in the second round of the playoffs.

They are down 14 to 13 on the last play of the game.

They line up for a field goal and it is A bad snap by Dan Turk, Matt's brother.

So there's the scene that the Turk brothers.

So the punter and the long snapper, week one and then end the season the exact same way in the divisional playoffs, all the way in January with muff snaps and holds on game winning, on game winning field goals.

So.

But yeah, the 99 game is.

That is one.

I said sometimes if you find it on YouTube to skip around to the good parts, you should.

People can watch that one start to finish.

It's pretty awesome.

Sounds like it.

Great pick.

I can't wait to see what these top ones are.

All right, top two.

Number two is just.

This is, this is as personal as it gets for me.

This is the year after Washington have won the super bowl and they were very much fighting to get back.

Dallas was better that year.

That was the first year that they would wind up winning the Super Bowl.

Obviously we don't know it at that time, but it's this very big game.

It's a late, it's December 12th, something like that.

It is late afternoon, it's Sunday, it's Madden and summer all at rfk.

That for me is like my childhood right there.

Okay?

That is everything wrapped up in one.

It is this brutal, hard fought, kind of ugly, but sort of awesome game that, you know, we, we all kind of love.

If you love football, it is, it is just brutal.

A tough, tough game.

It's 17 to 13, Dallas late.

We cannot get in the end zone.

We go for it on fourth down, we can't get it.

We have Dallas backed up though about the five yard line.

Times running out.

Aitman drops back to pass in the end zone.

He's kind of swarmed and we can't really tell what's happening.

Does he throw it?

Is it incomplete?

The ball's out.

Is it a fumble?

Is it an incomplete pass?

Is it a safety?

The refs literally don't know where the ball is or what's going on.

It's like this mad scramble.

Our safety Danny Copeland had just come and picked it up and was in the end zone and then ran out to the 50 yard line to celebrate.

He's at the 50 yard line holding the ball and everybody's still trying to unravel the pile.

And then it's also this discussion of did he try to throw it, Is it a pass, is it a fumble, is an incomplete, whatever.

They rule it a fumble.

Which if you could go back and look, I think it was, it'd Be interesting now with the tuck rule because it's similar, it's kind of a similar play.

But the Redskins do get, are awarded the touchdown for recovering the fumble in the end zone and they, they, they take a 20 to 17 lead.

Dallas does have one more drive.

They're able to sack Aikman on a big play and hold on to win.

It is one of my personal favorite memories in 40 plus years of watching football.

That is a. I remember where I was.

I remember what the weather was like, where I was.

I remember the feeling I had and I remember that my mom made spaghetti meatballs with homemade sauce that night.

That's how much I remember that game is.

And that's when football is at its best, when you have those kind of moments and memories.

And if I ever want to put a smile on my face, I can go back and watch the end of that one.

It was glorious.

That sounds like your happy place with the spaghetti.

It was the game and, and everything.

It was great.

It was great.

And shout out to.

I gotta say Jason Buck was the defensive tackle who, he was kind of just a rotational guy.

He's the one that kind of got in there to pressure Aikman, knock the ball out.

Danny Copeland recovers.

So wonderful memory for me for sure and, and, and, and really the Madden and Summerall element to that is very important as well because it was just, it was, it was awesome.

It's, it's everything that everybody loved about that era of football.

I don't know how you can top that one.

I mean now you got me on the edge of the seat.

This one was at Dallas for the division and for the playoff spot.

Okay there.

This was an incredible, incredible game.

You know, Riggins, Staubach, Theisman, this was, this was it.

And again Washington takes a, a lead late.

I think it's a two possession lead on a, on maybe besides the super bowl run, this might have Reagan's most famous run in the game.

He has a 66.

I believe you are touchdown down the sideline.

He looks like Bo Jackson in the video.

He looks incredible.

It's the speed and size is amazing.

Nobody can catch him.

They take a lead.

It's a two score lead at that point.

It looks good.

Of course Dallas comes back.

There's a very famous final play.

It's not the final play of the game, but it's very late.

It's a touchdown pass from Roger Stallback to Tony Hill that gives Dallas a 35 to 34 lead late.

Kind of ripping the hearts out of Washington right there.

Semi controversial.

Washington does get the ball back.

They are trying to drive down and there is a completed pass, I believe, on what winds up being the last play of the game.

And it should have been stopped with one second.

It's very clear that he got out of bounds and there's still a second left.

But you know, we're in an era where they're not going to review any of that and that would have given Mark Mosley a shot and I think would have.

Would have been about a 58 or maybe even like a 60 yard field goal to win it.

Now, back in the 70s, even as good as Mosley was at that distance, that's very unlikely.

But he was probably one of the few that were capable of actually possibly making it on the turf in Dallas, you know, with no.

With no elements really involved.

Made it interesting though, right?

It made it interesting.

It could have made it interesting and would have added another element to a game.

But I've, I've read some things.

Some people think that it is one of the best games in NFL history.

Okay.

That, that one has made that list.

And I, as much as I would have liked to have left it out and maybe even put it farther down the list, I think I have to be honest and say that that is a.

As classic as it gets.

Yeah.

Great list.

And there you go, Cowboys fans.

He puts the Dallas win as the number one on his.

His list there.

So again, again, let's talk about the championship games, you know, at some point.

So let's just, let's not forget those.

Let's not forget those.

Yeah.

Ed, you did it again.

Once again, great list, great topic and loved having you on here to share these great moments of football history.

Anytime, Darren.

You know, I've been, you know, boring my friends and family with them having to listen to this for so long.

So for somebody else that wants to listen to it, oh man, you can have me on anytime.

I'll be thrilled.

We can do top 10 lists for the next five years.

I got them all.

You always have an audience here in the pig venue because myself and the listeners love this stuff so.

Well, I appreciate.

You're welcome anytime to come on.

I appreciate the opportunity very much.

Thanks for having me.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our.

Website pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks comics.

Pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and don't forget the Big Skin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of the Sports.

Show History Network, your headquarters for the.

Guest of the year of your favorite sport.

You can learn more at sportshistorynetwork.

Com.