As hard as it may be to believe, it's been a little more than 11 years now since the Dez Bryant "catch or no catch" controversy during the Dallas Cowboys' 26-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. And just fans of America's Team everywhere, ex-Dallas head coach Jason Garrett still hasn't gotten over it.
For those who may need a quick refresher—or for our younger readers who have no idea what we're talking about—Garrett and the third-seeded Cowboys visited Lambeau Field on January 11, 2015, for a date with Mike McCarthy and the second-seeded Packers with a trip to the NFC Championship Game on the line.
Trailing 26-21 with a little less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Dallas was facing 4th-and-2 at the Packers' 32-yard line. Lined up in shotgun formation, quarterback Tony Romo took the snap and wasted little time in launching a pass deep down the left side toward a streaking Bryant, who was blanketed by Packers cornerback Sam Shields.
But despite the tight coverage, Dez made an incredible leaping catch and fell to the ground at the 1-yard line. And while he seemingly had possession of the ball when he hit the turf, he momentarily lost control of the ball as he rolled over. While initially called a catch, upon further review after McCarthy threw the challenge flag, the play was ruled an incompletion, thus forcing a turnover on downs. Green Bay took possession, ran out the clock, and that was that.
Jason Garrett remains adamant that Dez Bryant made the catch against the Packers
Garrett was livid at the decision and, as mentioned, still isn't happy about the call to this day, as he explained on a recent episode of The Dan Patrick Show.
"The number of times I had heard prior to that play," Garrett said when asked what he was told in the moment, "you know, how long do you need to catch the ball? And there was always this idea of, hey, all you need is time enough to make a football move. And the officials who were telling me this, they would say he doesn't need to make a football move. It's just time enough to make a football move.
"And if you look at the Dez Bryant play, he catches the ball just outside the 5-yard line. It was one of the most amazing catches, I believe, in the history of football. He catches it, and he switches hands with it. He gets one foot down, two foot down, the third, he lunges. So, he switched hands, he's gotten the feet down, lunge is a football move, he has the ball here, he extends it. These are all football moves over the course of five yards. So, he's essentially running with the ball to get himself down there to make that extension.
"And for them to come back and say that he needs to survive the ground, this thing that seemed to trump everything else, you know, how many times have I heard from you guys that he doesn't even have to make a football move, he just needs time enough. And literally, he made seven football moves."
Garrett didn't stop there, by the way, but you get the point. And he certainly has an argument, as Article 3, Item 1 in the 2014 NFL Rulebook (h/t ESPN), stated that "a forward pass is complete" when a player "secures control of the ball in his hands or arms...touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands "..and then "maintains control of the ball long enough...to enable him to perform any act common to the game...."
Facts are facts, folks. Dez caught it.