This Comeback Win Is One for the Aging

The Dallas Cowboys may be aging, but they still know how to win big games to save a season.

Troy Aikman’s clutch passing and Richie Cunningham’s 42-yard field goal with four seconds to play rallied the Cowboys to a 17-14 victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday and kept Dallas close in the race for NFC East championship.

Dallas (6-5) had to win or it would lose ground in the division to the New York Giants (7-4) and the Redskins (6-5), who had beaten the Cowboys earlier in the season. Dallas has won five consecutive NFC East titles.

Cunningham’s third field goal of the game came after Aikman brought the Cowboys from behind by directing a 97-yard drive.

“The odds were against us,” said Aikman, whose longest drive this season had been 81 yards. “It felt good to take it 97 yards, although reality said we couldn’t because we hadn’t done it all day. I thought we could do it. The key was not to panic in that situation.”

Dallas tied the score at 14-14 with 1:55 left on Aikman’s six-yard touchdown pass to Michael Irvin and a two-point conversion pass to Emmitt Smith.

“The touchdown pass and the two-point conversion were plays we put in this week,” Aikman said. “It was a big victory, no question.”

Then Dallas held and got the ball back at its 47 after a 28-yard punt by Matt Turk. Aikman passed to Anthony Miller for a first down that helped put Cunningham in position for his winning kick.