The 2014 National Football League season opens tonight, which means it’s time for the season’s first “Throwback Thursday” post of 2014, which highlights a game of the past that was played between two of the teams scheduled to play each other that week. The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers open the 2014 campaign against each other on Sunday, and the obvious choice for a “throwback” game between these 2 franchises would be the 1981 NFC Championship game which became forever known as “The Catch”, as Dwight Clark caught a touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the back of the end zone to launch the Niners into a decade of domination. However, we’ll go back to an earlier playoff contest between the two teams, an NFC Divisional playoff game in 1972.
To set the stage for this game, these teams were fast becoming playoff rivals. The Cowboys had eliminated the Niners in 1970 and ’71, and this was a third chance for San Francisco to get revenge. Coach Dick Nolan’s 49ers came out flying, as Vic Washington returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. When Larry Schreiber scored on a pair of one yard plunges to give the 49ers a commanding 21-6 lead, it looked like Dallas’ past dominance was about to end. Cowboy quarterback Craig Morton hit Lance Alworth for a touchdown to bring the Cowboys closer at the half, but when Schreiber scored from a yard out again in the third quarter to up San Fran’s lead to 28-13, it looked like a lost cause. That’s when Dallas coach Tom Landry made the decision to bench Morton, who had struggled all day, in favor of Roger Staubach. At this point, the 49er players figured the game was theirs, and began taunting the Cowboys, but little did they know that Staubach was about to write the first chapter of what would become a string of come-from-behind performances that would earn him the nickname “Captain Comeback”. Staubach proceeded to lead his team on three fourth quarter scoring drives, culminating in a Toni Fritsch field goal and touchdown passes to Billy Parks and Ron Sellers. When the dust settled, Dallas came away with a 30-28 victory, and the San Francisco players who had done the taunting slithered away with their tails between their legs.
Dallas QB Roger “The Dodger” Staubach leads a stunning comeback