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Cowboys’ amazing moments and big plays: It started with converting third-and-30
By Bob Sturm
7h ago
Third-and-30.
To the best of our research’s capability, this was the first such conversion that the Dallas Cowboys have had in generations. We have no way of going back further than 1994 in the Pro Football Reference’s search engine, but if you are comfortable with going back that far, then you should know there have been several other opportunities.
In 2006, in a game against the Arizona Cardinals at Texas Stadium, there was a third-and-32 when Tony Romo hit Marion Barber for eight yards. On a forgettable day in 2010, the Tennessee Titans presented Romo with a third-and-34 and he dumped down to Jason Witten for three. In 2012 in a home game against the Steelers, there was a third-and-30 when DeMarco Murray ran for three yards. And then on a third-and-30 the next year against the Giants he tried again and made it 12 yards. In 2015 against the Jets, Matt Cassel hit James Hanna for 17 yards on third-and-30. In 2019 against the Eagles, Dak Prescott hit Ezekiel Elliott on a swing pass for seven yards on third-and-30. And finally, last year in Week 1 against Tampa Bay, Prescott scrambled for one yard on third-and-32. Records are sketchy, but 0 for 7 on third-and-30 or more is an indicator of staying out of that mess.
If you want to look at the entire NFL, according to our same source, the three-decade success rate on attempts of third-and-30 or more is roughly 2 percent (8 for 374).
So, if you face third-and-30 in the fourth quarter of a game you feel like you must win — if only because the morale lost by dropping a game to a rival with a backup quarterback would send the franchise’s loyalists into a self-loathing holiday where no amount of cold weather could make anyone feel any worse — our recommendation is to prepare for the onslaught of doubters, because nobody converts third-and-30.
The Cowboys trailed 34-27 with only 8:02 left in the fourth quarter. They had been unable to get enough stops and here on a “must-score” drive, the first-down play resulted in a Haason Reddick sack against Tyron Smith where the ball was lost and feared recovered by Philadelphia on the broadcast. Yet, somehow as the referee is signaling the ball went to the Eagles, Tyler Biadasz managed to pull the ball away at the last moment and roll onto his back holding it (banana stand included). Elliott actually tapped the ref on the back to show him that the Eagles cannot have the ball if the Cowboys center is cradling it in both hands. This is pure speculation, but down seven, it would seem a fumble at midfield would probably be the end.
Then, on second down, Josh Sweat — admittedly another player the Eagles bet on and paid a huge extension to before they needed to who has become everything they thought he would — beats Tyler Smith – and Prescott is sacked again. This is another of the six times Prescott was sacked. He was under assault all day long. Not the best indicator of where the Cowboys stood on both sides of the line of scrimmage against these Eagles. The Cowboys led the NFL in sacks almost the entire season and came up with a second zero-sack performance against the stout Philadelphia line. Then, the Eagles’ pass rush which has taken over the league lead in sacks, had no problem collapsing the pocket Saturday and had five sacks in the final 18 minutes of the game. Not great.
So, you might as well run the punt team out there after all of that. Third-and-30? No chance after two sacks.
Enter T.Y. Hilton, the newly signed receiver who should need no introduction because of his nearly 10,000 career receiving yards. Hilton is a legitimate star of this era, but does he have anything left in the tank? You might recall his first moment of significance with a star on his helmet from early in the second quarter. The Cowboys faced fourth-and-8 and Mike McCarthy decided to be aggressive and go for it. On that play, Hilton drew an illegal contact penalty when Darius Slay held him and that allowed Dallas to continue an early touchdown drive.
But, third-and-30?
Could that possibly be this deep threat’s first official catch in Dallas? That seems too ridiculous to conceive.
And yet, it happened.
With KaVontae Turpin in the slot and Michael Gallup across the field, we realized that CeeDee Lamb was not even on the field. The Eagles decided to rush four and dropped seven in coverage and the Cowboys definitely had intent. And yet, with Gallup not getting separation and Turpin going across the middle, the Eagles are going to wonder what happened here. Slay was again on the scene and seemed to believe that Hilton was going to stop near the sticks and Josiah Scott arrived late and too shallow. Hilton never stopped and demonstrated that long speed he has always had and made a ridiculous catch after a superb on-the-money throw. It was truly a moment to scream at and Hilton’s catch where he pinned the ball between his hand and his opposite wrist resulted in a 52-yard catch for a third-and-30 conversion.
Game back on. Of all of the first impressions for a player who last week when he signed was met with a universal, “why not?” although most could not quite understand that he wasn’t retired. If Hilton had anything left, there was no chance he would be on the street. Yet here he is catching the longest ball from Prescott all year on his very first target.
Normal game, right?
A few plays later, Prescott put a beautiful touchdown pass to Lamb. Match that with his beautiful touchdown pass to Gallup earlier, add in the other long TD to Lamb in the first half and this moment, and you have the type of massive performance from Prescott that he seldom gets recognized for. I would argue that this type of game should quiet his critics because he played wonderfully. Of course, I anticipate that those critics are so dug in that they will focus on the interception to start the game and maybe the clock management late because crediting him for his best games is something that many of them do not seem capable of doing. But, make no mistake, this was a game that you would expect from a top quarterback and Prescott provided exactly that.
Oh, yeah, and it was the eighth consecutive game with 27 points or more and yes, the Cowboys still lead the NFL in points scored with Prescott as their QB.
DaRon Bland intercepts a pass intended for Quez Watkins on Saturday. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
But, since we are highlighting the absurd moments of Biadasz and Hilton, I think it is also our job to point out the genius from a Day 3 rookie a bit later in the game to help this one over the finish line.
You see, the Cowboys did not win easily, despite their 40 points. That is because the defense could not slow down an Eagles offense that did not have Jalen Hurts. Hurts is going to receive votes for MVP — although anyone who thinks he is more valuable than Patrick Mahomes needs their head examined — and yet, the Eagles put up 442 yards of offense against Dallas. This type of production added to the Cowboys’ zero sacks is another chapter in the questioning book about the Cowboys defense fading in December.
But, we better not overlook the four takeaways.
Some were flat-out lucky; some were not. I want to focus on DaRon Bland getting his fourth interception of the month and fifth of the season. His pick Saturday night was an amazing swiping of the ball from Quez Watkins on third-and-short that saved the game. For a rookie to do something like that has cemented his quality yet again. Bland, who was picked late in the fifth round, is one interception off the league lead despite not playing the first month of the season. Unbelievable.
So, there you have it. Tyler Biadasz, T.Y. Hilton and DaRon Bland were three of the biggest heroes on Christmas Eve. That doesn’t mean Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and several others didn’t do plenty, but it shows the type of performances that guys are putting out there.
What do we make of this game? Tough to say. Philadelphia really wanted it, but we should expect that. Overall, the Cowboys were in a real bind and figured it out again. Prescott led them to another hard-fought win and they can feel good again after letting Jacksonville get away.
I suggest that a lot needed to go their way, but that is how the sport works. Three extraordinary plays in the final 10 minutes needed to go right. And they did.
So, give them credit for a gritty win that entertained America.
Merry Christmas.
By Bob Sturm
7h ago
Third-and-30.
To the best of our research’s capability, this was the first such conversion that the Dallas Cowboys have had in generations. We have no way of going back further than 1994 in the Pro Football Reference’s search engine, but if you are comfortable with going back that far, then you should know there have been several other opportunities.
In 2006, in a game against the Arizona Cardinals at Texas Stadium, there was a third-and-32 when Tony Romo hit Marion Barber for eight yards. On a forgettable day in 2010, the Tennessee Titans presented Romo with a third-and-34 and he dumped down to Jason Witten for three. In 2012 in a home game against the Steelers, there was a third-and-30 when DeMarco Murray ran for three yards. And then on a third-and-30 the next year against the Giants he tried again and made it 12 yards. In 2015 against the Jets, Matt Cassel hit James Hanna for 17 yards on third-and-30. In 2019 against the Eagles, Dak Prescott hit Ezekiel Elliott on a swing pass for seven yards on third-and-30. And finally, last year in Week 1 against Tampa Bay, Prescott scrambled for one yard on third-and-32. Records are sketchy, but 0 for 7 on third-and-30 or more is an indicator of staying out of that mess.
If you want to look at the entire NFL, according to our same source, the three-decade success rate on attempts of third-and-30 or more is roughly 2 percent (8 for 374).
So, if you face third-and-30 in the fourth quarter of a game you feel like you must win — if only because the morale lost by dropping a game to a rival with a backup quarterback would send the franchise’s loyalists into a self-loathing holiday where no amount of cold weather could make anyone feel any worse — our recommendation is to prepare for the onslaught of doubters, because nobody converts third-and-30.
The Cowboys trailed 34-27 with only 8:02 left in the fourth quarter. They had been unable to get enough stops and here on a “must-score” drive, the first-down play resulted in a Haason Reddick sack against Tyron Smith where the ball was lost and feared recovered by Philadelphia on the broadcast. Yet, somehow as the referee is signaling the ball went to the Eagles, Tyler Biadasz managed to pull the ball away at the last moment and roll onto his back holding it (banana stand included). Elliott actually tapped the ref on the back to show him that the Eagles cannot have the ball if the Cowboys center is cradling it in both hands. This is pure speculation, but down seven, it would seem a fumble at midfield would probably be the end.
Then, on second down, Josh Sweat — admittedly another player the Eagles bet on and paid a huge extension to before they needed to who has become everything they thought he would — beats Tyler Smith – and Prescott is sacked again. This is another of the six times Prescott was sacked. He was under assault all day long. Not the best indicator of where the Cowboys stood on both sides of the line of scrimmage against these Eagles. The Cowboys led the NFL in sacks almost the entire season and came up with a second zero-sack performance against the stout Philadelphia line. Then, the Eagles’ pass rush which has taken over the league lead in sacks, had no problem collapsing the pocket Saturday and had five sacks in the final 18 minutes of the game. Not great.
So, you might as well run the punt team out there after all of that. Third-and-30? No chance after two sacks.
Enter T.Y. Hilton, the newly signed receiver who should need no introduction because of his nearly 10,000 career receiving yards. Hilton is a legitimate star of this era, but does he have anything left in the tank? You might recall his first moment of significance with a star on his helmet from early in the second quarter. The Cowboys faced fourth-and-8 and Mike McCarthy decided to be aggressive and go for it. On that play, Hilton drew an illegal contact penalty when Darius Slay held him and that allowed Dallas to continue an early touchdown drive.
But, third-and-30?
Could that possibly be this deep threat’s first official catch in Dallas? That seems too ridiculous to conceive.
And yet, it happened.
With KaVontae Turpin in the slot and Michael Gallup across the field, we realized that CeeDee Lamb was not even on the field. The Eagles decided to rush four and dropped seven in coverage and the Cowboys definitely had intent. And yet, with Gallup not getting separation and Turpin going across the middle, the Eagles are going to wonder what happened here. Slay was again on the scene and seemed to believe that Hilton was going to stop near the sticks and Josiah Scott arrived late and too shallow. Hilton never stopped and demonstrated that long speed he has always had and made a ridiculous catch after a superb on-the-money throw. It was truly a moment to scream at and Hilton’s catch where he pinned the ball between his hand and his opposite wrist resulted in a 52-yard catch for a third-and-30 conversion.
Game back on. Of all of the first impressions for a player who last week when he signed was met with a universal, “why not?” although most could not quite understand that he wasn’t retired. If Hilton had anything left, there was no chance he would be on the street. Yet here he is catching the longest ball from Prescott all year on his very first target.
Normal game, right?
A few plays later, Prescott put a beautiful touchdown pass to Lamb. Match that with his beautiful touchdown pass to Gallup earlier, add in the other long TD to Lamb in the first half and this moment, and you have the type of massive performance from Prescott that he seldom gets recognized for. I would argue that this type of game should quiet his critics because he played wonderfully. Of course, I anticipate that those critics are so dug in that they will focus on the interception to start the game and maybe the clock management late because crediting him for his best games is something that many of them do not seem capable of doing. But, make no mistake, this was a game that you would expect from a top quarterback and Prescott provided exactly that.
Oh, yeah, and it was the eighth consecutive game with 27 points or more and yes, the Cowboys still lead the NFL in points scored with Prescott as their QB.
DaRon Bland intercepts a pass intended for Quez Watkins on Saturday. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
But, since we are highlighting the absurd moments of Biadasz and Hilton, I think it is also our job to point out the genius from a Day 3 rookie a bit later in the game to help this one over the finish line.
You see, the Cowboys did not win easily, despite their 40 points. That is because the defense could not slow down an Eagles offense that did not have Jalen Hurts. Hurts is going to receive votes for MVP — although anyone who thinks he is more valuable than Patrick Mahomes needs their head examined — and yet, the Eagles put up 442 yards of offense against Dallas. This type of production added to the Cowboys’ zero sacks is another chapter in the questioning book about the Cowboys defense fading in December.
But, we better not overlook the four takeaways.
Some were flat-out lucky; some were not. I want to focus on DaRon Bland getting his fourth interception of the month and fifth of the season. His pick Saturday night was an amazing swiping of the ball from Quez Watkins on third-and-short that saved the game. For a rookie to do something like that has cemented his quality yet again. Bland, who was picked late in the fifth round, is one interception off the league lead despite not playing the first month of the season. Unbelievable.
So, there you have it. Tyler Biadasz, T.Y. Hilton and DaRon Bland were three of the biggest heroes on Christmas Eve. That doesn’t mean Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and several others didn’t do plenty, but it shows the type of performances that guys are putting out there.
What do we make of this game? Tough to say. Philadelphia really wanted it, but we should expect that. Overall, the Cowboys were in a real bind and figured it out again. Prescott led them to another hard-fought win and they can feel good again after letting Jacksonville get away.
I suggest that a lot needed to go their way, but that is how the sport works. Three extraordinary plays in the final 10 minutes needed to go right. And they did.
So, give them credit for a gritty win that entertained America.
Merry Christmas.
