Cowboys countdown to kickoff: Top 100 iconic games – Day 89

It is Day 89 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’re now at 89 of our 100-day countdown to kickoff, where we revisit one of the strangest and most controversial Cowboys wins in recent memory. The 2023 Lions came to Arlington as NFC North champions, while the Cowboys were still chasing the NFC East and trying to protect an unbeaten home record. By the end of the night, Dallas had survived 20-19, but only after one of the most confusing two-point conversion sequences the league has seen in years.

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Saturday, December 30, 2023 — 8:15 p.m. ET

AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas

Final Score: Dallas Cowboys 20, Detroit Lions 19

Detroit opened the scoring with a Michael Badgley field goal, but Dallas answered with the night’s biggest offensive play. Backed up near his own goal line, Dak Prescott escaped pressure and launched a 92-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb, giving the Cowboys a 7-3 lead. It was the kind of play that exemplified the 2023 Cowboys offense with danger, improvisation, and explosive payoff.

The game then settled into a defensive fight. Detroit took a 10-7 lead in the third quarter on a David Montgomery touchdown run, but Brandon Aubrey tied it with a very crucial 51-yard field goal. The Lions went back in front early in the fourth quarter on another Badgley kick, only for Dallas to answer with a 75-yard touchdown drive capped by Prescott’s eight-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks. Later, Donovan Wilson intercepted Jared Goff, and Aubrey’s 43-yard field goal gave Dallas a 20-13 lead with 1:41 remaining.

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That should have been enough, but Detroit nearly stole it. Goff led a 75-yard drive in the final two minutes and found Amon-Ra St. Brown for an 11-yard touchdown with 23 seconds left, cutting the Dallas lead to 20-19. Dan Campbell, aggressive as ever, chose to go for two and the win rather than kick the extra point. Goff appeared to complete the conversion to left tackle Taylor Decker, but the officials ruled Decker had not reported as eligible and wiped the play out for illegal touching.

The confusion came from which Detroit lineman had reported. Referee Brad Allen later said Dan Skipper had reported as eligible, not Decker. Skipper later said he had not reported, while the NFL sent teams a reminder that eligible status must be clearly communicated to the referee by an ineligible-numbered player. Detroit got two more chances after that first try was erased, one incompletion was nullified by a Dallas offsides penalty, then Goff’s final pass to James Mitchell fell incomplete.

This game belongs on the countdown because it was memorable for several reasons at once. It was a win over an 11-win Lions team. It preserved Dallas’ perfect home record at the time. It featured one of the best receiving nights in Cowboys history from Lamb. And, most importantly, it became one of those games where everyone remembers exactly where they stood on the final call. For Cowboys fans, it was survival, for Lions fans, it was robbery, for the NFL, it was a rules and communication fiasco. For this countdown, it is an iconic Cowboys win because nobody stopped talking about it once the clock hit zero.