IRVING, Texas – Jason Garrett’s signature moment as the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback turns 20 years old on Thursday.
Is it that long ago? Not to Garrett. The memories of that 42-31 win against Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers at Texas Stadium on Nov. 24, 1994, remain fresh. He can recall the plays in his mind, the good and the bad, as if it were yesterday.
“I think it’s probably a lot like life,” Garrett said. “Sometimes things that happened a long time ago seem like they were yesterday, those memories are vivid for you. It certainly was a memorable day for me, for our team. Time travels quickly, and you have to embrace the moments.”
Garrett was making his first start because of injuries to Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete. He completed 15 of 26 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns.
But it was what happened after his first pass of the game was intercepted by Packers cornerback Terrell Buckley he remembers most.
The play was 525 F Post, a play that remains in the Cowboys’ playbook to this day.
“I worked through the progression, he sat underneath the five route and I threw it right at him. I think it was in the first or second series of the game,” Garrett said. “The great Michael Irvin came over to me and said, ‘Hey, if he wants to do that, we’re going up on top.’ It really was a great memory for me, because of the confidence he instilled in me, and then also, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ And eventually we did that in the game.”
The Cowboys trailed 17-6 at halftime, but they scored touchdowns on their first five drives of the second half, putting up a franchise-record 36 second-half points. Garrett completed 7-of-8 passes for 198 yards and two scores in the second half.
Garrett is asked about his heroics every Thanksgiving, a natural tie for the Cowboys’ annual game, but he’s not sure many of his players know about the game.
“Very few of them were born I think,” Garrett said. “I’m not so sure.”
Cowboys rookies Anthony Hitchens, DeMarcus Lawrence were 2 years old. Jeremy Mincey is in his first year with the Cowboys and did not recall Garrett’s heroics. He was only 10 at the time. Tony Romo was 14 and vaguely remembers the game because he grew up in Burlington, Wisconsin. He also has around the Cowboys long enough to know most of the team’s history.
“I remember just this little red-head guy, putting on a performance,” Romo said with a tinge of sarcasm.
Romo was not the biggest of Packers’ fans. He was more of a John Elway fan than anything else, but there was some disappointment that Green Bay lost.
“Thought you might be able to win when they put a backup quarterback in,” Romo said. “Not when you’ve got a guy as good as Jason.”
Garrett is hoping for another Thanksgiving memory Thursday when the Cowboys play the Philadelphia Eagles with first place in the NFC East on the line. That is more important now then reminiscing about the past.
“It was a good Thanksgiving 20 years ago, there’s no question about that,” Garrett said. “There were a lot of great ones growing up, nothing like my mom’s Thanksgiving dinner and the backyard games we played all throughout our youth. Those were good days for us.”