It happened in front of 52.3 million fans glued to the television. And even though 11 years have passed, memories of the Dallas Cowboys’ promising playoff run ending in frustration seem as vivid as ever. It all came down to a late fourth-quarter catch that didn’t go as planned. Even though they say time heals all wounds, former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett admits there is nothing from his coaching career that still bothers him quite like that moment.

“I have a regret about that play,” Garrett said, appearing on the Dan Patrick Show. “Afterwards in the game, as a head coach, you’re always preaching no excuses. Something I wish I had said in the moment was that Tony Romo made an amazing throw, and Dez Bryant made one of the greatest catches in the history of the National Football League.

“And for me, as a coach, as a former player, and as a fan of football, this play should have been in the lore of [Terry] Bradshaw to [Lynn] Swann over Mark Washington in the Super Bowl, falling, stumbling down.”

What Garrett hates most, even now, is that the conversation never centered on the beauty of the play itself. The next day, and for years after, all anyone talked about was whether it was a catch, whether it should’ve been ruled an interception, or whether pass interference should’ve been called.

The beauty of that catch always got buried under officiating debates.

It’s tragic because that really was a beautiful play with an interesting name. Called ‘gun empty right java right 929 F post H flat,’ Garrett described it back in the day as one of the most basic concepts they had in their offense. The concept was that the outside receivers were going to run go routes. And the inside receiver on the strong side was going to run what they call a post route.

The Cowboys were down five late, starting what would be their final drive. With 4:42 left on the clock, facing fourth-and-2, Romo took a shot. He lofted a deep ball down the left side to Bryant, who was tightly covered by Packers cornerback Sam Shields.

Bryant went up, pulled the ball in, and somehow fought his way toward the goal line, reaching out as he fell. It looked like a 31-yard completion that would put Dallas at the 1-yard line, maybe even a touchdown. But when Bryant hit the ground, the ball shifted. Initially, it was ruled a catch on the field at 3:58:43 p.m. But everything changed four minutes later.

Officials ruled he didn’t maintain control during the process of the catch. After review, the call was reversed to an incomplete pass.

At the time, the rule was clear. A receiver going to the ground had to maintain control all the way through contact with the turf. Lose it before the process was complete, and it wasn’t a catch. The phrase everyone latched onto was “survive the ground.” It’s mentioned in the 2014 NFL Rulebook, Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3.

By that definition, the ruling was correct.

But to almost everyone who watched football, that was a catch. There was even a social media outcry accompanied by the hashtag #DezCaughtIt. Even former players joined in.

“I have never seen a contested catch like this ever be called anything but a catch,” retired three-time All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman posted on X back in the day. “Even as a DB you know that if it’s even a (t)ie it will go to the WR. Can’t believe this decided the game.”

The backlash eventually forced the league’s hand. First came clarifications. Then, in 2018, a full overhaul. “Survive the ground” was removed from the rulebook. But Garrett’s regret is not about that. His “no excuses” philosophy was meant to protect the locker room and reinforce accountability. Officials weren’t always going to get it right, and he didn’t want his players leaning on that. But in hindsight, he wishes he had allowed himself and his team to simply acknowledge what they had just witnessed.

Bryant and Garrett had a sour relationship

That “no excuses” approach also strained his relationship with Bryant.

Garrett coached the Cowboys from 2010 through 2019. Bryant was one of the defining players of that era, but the two couldn’t really stand each other. When Garrett’s coaching stint ended, he surfaced as the Giants’ offensive coordinator. But when he got fired in 2021, Bryant took to social media with a pointed comment.

“Great dude,” Bryant wrote on X. “Never respected his philosophy towards players and the game.”

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However, time has clearly softened Garrett’s outlook. Now, he talks less about excuses and more about consistency. About how officials let players compete for 58 minutes, only to tighten up at the end. About how, as a fan of the sport, he hates when the story of a big game becomes the officiating rather than the football.

“They let the players play a certain way the whole game and then all of a sudden we’re calling these plays at the end,” Garrett told Dan Patrick. “I hate, as a fan of football, that officiating in these big games is what the conversation is.”

And this isn’t his first time going against the officiating.

Jason Garrett and the challenge flag incident

Matchups with the Packers have a way of pulling something extra out of Jason Garrett. He has never been known as an animated sideline presence, but there have been moments, very specific ones, when Green Bay seemed to bring out a different edge. The most obvious exception, of course, was Dez Bryant’s non-catch. But there was another that fit the pattern.

It came in 2019, against the Green Bay Packers once again, when a 25-yard sideline throw from Dak Prescott to Amari Cooper was ruled incomplete. Cooper appeared to drag his feet, but side judge Scott Edwards ruled he didn’t get both feet down before stepping out of bounds.

The Dallas Cowboys were already down 31–10 and needed something to get going. Garrett didn’t appreciate the call. He turned toward the official and slammed his red challenge flag into the turf. Pretty rare coming from him.

Garrett was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty that stood even after replay overturned the call and ruled Cooper’s catch complete. The Cowboys got the completion, but they lost the yardage. Instead of building momentum, Dallas was facing first-and-25 from its own 42-yard line.

Later, it became clear that the penalty wasn’t about how Garrett threw the flag, but the abuse he threw. Edwards made the call, and referee Ron Torbert explained it afterward in a pool report.

“It was for abusive language toward an official,” Torbert said.

What Garrett actually said that day will probably never be known. Whatever it was, it crossed a line. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, as usual, didn’t bother with subtlety.

“Oh, I hope the little darlin’ didn’t hear something he hadn’t heard before,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “We should all have stopped the wheel over there if he got [upset] over abusive language.”

The fact that Jason Garrett is still talking about officiating years later says a lot.