Cowboys countdown to kickoff: Top 100 iconic games – Day 81
It is Day 81 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.
We move to Day 81 of our 100-day countdown to kickoff, where we revisit one of the rare Cowboys losses that still feels like the beginning of something important. The scoreboard says the Giants beat the Cowboys 20-19 in Week 1 of the 2016 season. The larger story, however, was this was the day the Dak Prescott era officially began. A fourth-round rookie quarterback, forced into the lineup because of Tony Romo’s preseason back injury, walked into the opener under enormous pressure and looked like he belonged.
Sunday, September 11, 2016 — 4:25 p.m. ET
AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Final Score: New York Giants 20, Dallas Cowboys 19
The circumstances were almost impossible to ignore. Romo had suffered a compression fracture in his back during the preseason, Kellen Moore went to injured reserve after breaking his ankle in practice, and that left Prescott to start the opener. Dallas also had rookie Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield, making Prescott and Elliott the Cowboys’ first rookie quarterback-running back duo to start an opener since Roger Staubach and Calvin Hill in 1969.
Prescott’s debut was not flashy, but it was composed. He completed 25 of 45 passes for 227 yards, did not throw an interception, and repeatedly helped Dallas move the ball into scoring range. The problem was finishing. The Cowboys settled for Dan Bailey field goals again and again, with Bailey connecting from 23, 56, 25, and 54 yards. Elliott scored the Cowboys’ only touchdown on an eight-yard run in the third quarter, but Dallas never found the passing-game breakthrough it needed.
The Giants did just enough offensively behind Eli Manning. Manning threw three touchdown passes, including a 15-yarder to Larry Donnell, a nine-yarder to rookie Sterling Shepard, and the decisive three-yard touchdown to Victor Cruz in the fourth quarter. Cruz’s score was especially emotional for New York, as it came in his first regular-season game in nearly two years.
Dallas still had a chance to steal it. Trailing by one in the final seconds, Prescott hit Terrance Williams near the sideline, putting the Cowboys close to long field-goal range. But Williams turned upfield instead of immediately getting out of bounds, and the clock expired before Dallas could spike the ball or attempt a potential game-winning kick. It was a brutal ending, and the kind of situational mistake that made the loss sting even more.
But the lasting image was not only the final mistake. It was Prescott looking calm in the huddle, protecting the football, and giving Dallas a chance in his first NFL start. The Cowboys lost the game, but they did not leave it feeling lost at quarterback. That mattered because Romo was not just any injured starter. He was the face of the franchise, one of the best quarterbacks in Cowboys history, and still very much capable of playing winning football when healthy.
What followed is why this game belongs on the countdown. Prescott kept improving, and the temporary replacement became the permanent answer. By November, Romo publicly acknowledged that Prescott had “earned the right” to be the Cowboys’ quarterback, a moment that effectively confirmed the passing of the torch.
This was not a happy ending on the day itself. The Cowboys lost to a division rival by one point at home. But as a franchise marker, it is massive. The Dak era began, he became a national and NFL headline, and the Cowboys found a new starting quarterback under the strangest, most emotional circumstances imaginable.
Interesting Facts About the Game
The loss was the Cowboys’ only defeat until December. They responded with an 11-game winning streak and finished 13-3, earning the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Quite the start to the Dak era in Dallas.
Countdown To Kickoff by day:
100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91, 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, 85, 84, 83, 82
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