This play was essentially Dallas getting past their demons with respect to the Eagles. Didn’t they lose eight straight to Philly coming into this one? Not to mention, a few weeks earlier the Eagles lit up the Cowboys in Irving, sacking Aikman 11 or 12 times - Gang Green held us under 100 total yards that afternoon.
Fast forward to this miserable December day at the Vet. Our offense couldn’t get much going before the Martin TD return. I think we had half our total yards after this play - the big plays coming late Beuerlein to Irvin. Fortunately, we were dealing with Jeff Kemp, not Randall Cunningham.
This play was massive because it sort of took the veil off this seemingly unbeatable Eagle mystique. Washington was running away with the division, but we at least felt like we could compete. With Philadelphia, they dominated the Cowboys ever since the Buddy kneel-down game. Kelvin Martin did a lot to exercise those demons.
For me, this was moving on from batteries in snowballs, the Luis Zendejas bounty, the Aikman ragdolling, Buddy Ryan, all of it.
Plus we really needed this win to get the wildcard.