For the first time, the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers meet on Sunday night for the 34th installment of one of the NFL’s most classic rivalries. Both teams are known to have one of the most passionate fan bases in the league, and with it a standard of organization to make the team as competitive as possible year after year. Until 2024, the Cowboys and Steelers have found different ways to get there.
Sunday’s road team relied on star quarterback Dak Prescott to regularly make game-winning throws, especially to leading receiver CeeDee Lamb, to propel an offense that lacks game-breaking ability elsewhere at WR or RB. The Steelers have been playing fill-in football that got QB Justin Fields off to a 3-0 start before last Sunday’s loss to the Colts, relying on a defense that gets behind the quarterback better than most starts and develops into negative games. Those styles of play have raised questions about both teams’ legitimacy as true contenders heading into the season, but both have the advantage of having no other high-profile rivals in their division right now. The Cowboys and Eagles are tied at 2-2 against the surprising 3-1 Commanders, while the Steelers now lead the NFC North at 3-1, with the Ravens right behind them, and already two games to go. Bengals and browns. That makes Sunday night’s game important because the Cowboys can win back-to-back games for the first time all year and leave with a 3-2 record, or Pittsburgh can bounce back and turn even more heads with a impressive start with 4. – 1.
The last five meetings between the Cowboys and Steelers have all been one-point games, and the previous four have all been double-digit Cowboys wins, including Super Bowl XXX in 1996 (for those unfamiliar, the very game that made me a Cowboys for life). fan since I was born that Super Bowl Sunday).
The first game in Cowboys franchise history was a 35-28 loss to the Steelers in the Cotton Bowl, one of three games the 1960 Cowboys lost by seven points or less, finishing 0-11. The following year, these two teams met again to open the season, with the Cowboys taking their first victory, and coach Tom Landry’s first 27-24, again in the Cotton Bowl. Dallas and Pittsburgh were both in the NFL’s Eastern Conference at the time, meaning they played twice in 1961, with the Steelers taking a 37-7 loss at Pitt Stadium in the week 9. Both teams finished the season below. 500 and out of the playoff race. 1961 was the first of seven consecutive years that the Cowboys and Steelers met twice in one season, with four splits, a sweep of the Steelers in 1963 and a sweep of the Cowboys in 1966 en route to the NFL championship game. While there is certainly a large portion of the Cowboys fan base that still follows the team and remembers a lot of that rich history between their team and the Steelers, there are also some younger fans who have only seen recent episodes of this rivalry with Dak Prescott. was One of Prescott’s most memorable wins came against Pittsburgh in Week 10 of his rookie season in 2016. The Steelers are coming off a three-game losing streak, the most recent of which was a post-bye road loss against the Ravens, and they look poised to shake off that disappointment at home against the Cowboys by taking a 12- 3, then winning. twice the advantage. in a fourth quarter. In the end, the Cowboys won their eighth straight game as part of an 11-game winning streak.
Ezekiel Elliott scored from 14 yards out to give Dallas a 29-24 lead with 1:55 left. It was Elliott’s second touchdown of the game, his first an 83-yarder that remains to this day the longest of his career, but neither was Elliott’s defining moment – in the game. The Steelers needed five plays to answer with an Antonio Brown touchdown run to take a one-point lead with 42 seconds left. The Cowboys had to be within striking distance of Dan Bailey, who already had three field goals, including a 53-yarder, on the day. They did it quickly with two first down passes to Cole Beasley and Jason Witten, using their first two interceptions after each, and needed just one more play from their own 48-yard line to have a chance. They got that chance on a short pass to Witten, which was intercepted by the mask and caused a 15-yard penalty for the Steelers. Now well in Pittsburgh territory with a timeout yet to be used, the Cowboys made a play that everyone but the Steelers defense knew was coming. A simple pass through the middle by Ezekiel Elliott became an iconic moment in the history of this rivalry, as Elliott crossed the line and scored in the blink of an eye from 32 yards to win the game for the Cowboys. Dallas had a five-point lead with nine seconds left, and as local Cowboys radio announcer Brad Sham loudly announced, “Zeke’s gone, bye Zeke, tap!” , “The Cowboys pulled off a landmark victory that immediately gave legitimacy to an unlikely team led by two rookies, Prescott and Elliott. This was now his team, and the one that grabbed the top seed in the NFC playoffs. Prescott finished the 22 of 32 passing for 319 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first 300-yard game of his career. This was the last loss of the season until the AFL championship game against the Patriots.