Week 1 ‘One-Game Wonders’: Cowboys Greatest Opener Heroes

Some Cowboys saved the best for first.

The Dallas Cowboys have often had little trouble getting themselves pumped for opening weekend. Usually thrown into prime time slots, including the Week 1 Sunday night contest on Sept. 11 against Tampa (7:20 p.m. CT, NBC). 

Their 38 kickoff weekend wins, tied with the New York Giants for the seventh-best tally in NFL history, have been earned with the efforts of some of the most renowned names in NFL history, with Roger Staubach, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, and many others rising to the occasion in early Septembers (and even late Augusts) past. 

Yet, some Cowboys opt to save the best ... for first.

Having looked back some of the most memorable team showdowns in Week 1 history, we look back on the greatest individual efforts from the most unexpected sources ... 

1984: Doug Donley

Well-lauded for speed (which caused the Cowboys to overlook his lingering shoulder issues at Ohio State), Donley was the Cowboys' second-round pick in 1981, a consolation prize after Howie Long and Rickey Jackson each disappeared within the previous five selections. 

Medical woes prevented Donley from making a lasting impression, but he started the last four seasons in Dallas on a fiery note. In the Week 1 opener, he was the leading receiver (career-best 137 yards on nine receptions) in the Cowboys' erasure of a 13-0 deficit to the Los Angeles Rams in Anaheim. A run of 20 unanswered points allowed Dallas to escape with a 20-13 triumph. 

Though Donley had another triple-digit game two weeks later, further injuries prevented him from sticking around in the Cowboys' post-Drew Pearson era. He was released in the following offseason and ended his career with a tryout in Chicago.

1997: Anthony Miller

The Cowboys' 1997 season goes down as one of the most disappointing in franchise history, a six-win slog that ended the Barry Switzer era in brutal fashion. It's thus easy to forget that the campaign started with a blowout win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the team's first meeting since Super Bowl XXX. 

Miller was brought in to replace the departed Kevin Williams after five Pro Bowl efforts between San Diego and Denver. His score got things off to a roaring start, nabbing the first of four Troy Aikman tallies in the 37-7 demolition. Miller helped get the Cowboys off to a 3-1 start but civil war and inconsistency took over soon after. The '97 campaign wound up being Miller's final NFL season.

1999: David LaFleur

Dallas' 1999 season opened with a thrilling shootout with Washington, the affair ending on Aikman's 76-yard rocket to Raghib Ismail in overtime, giving the Cowboys a 41-35 win. The surplus of offensive fireworks, not to mention the comeback from a 35-14 fourth quarter deficit, perhaps hid a sterling day from one of the more disappointing first-round picks in team history. 

The Cowboys' scoring began with two touchdowns from an unlikely source, as Aikman found LaFleur in the early going, putting Dallas up 14-3 after the first play of the second period. It was LaFleur's second ... and final ... two-score game after he went 22nd overall (six picks before future Pro Bowler Trevor Pryce). While he did lead NFC tight ends with seven scores that season, that opening afternoon in Landover was perhaps his best, most impactful individual performance with a star on his helmet.

2012: Kevin Ogletree

Ogletree could perhaps go down as the greatest player in the history of Wednesday night football. When Dallas opened against the defending champion New York Giants in 2012, the traditional Thursday night opener was moved up a day to accommodate the final day of the Democratic National Convention. It set up the first Wednesday night NFL game since 1948 and the league's first in the Super Bowl era. 

On a team boasting the offensive firepower of Miles Austin and Dez Bryant (as well as lacking a full-strength Jason Witten), Ogletree temporarily became Tony Romo's favorite target, earning a game-best 114 yards and scoring two touchdowns that gave Dallas a permanent lead en route to a 24-17 final. With the win, Dallas became the first Week 1 opponent to top a defending Super Bowl champion since the tradition was instituted in 2004. 

The two touchdowns Ogletree scored that night were good for half of his career Dallas scores. It also wound up being the lone triple-yardage game of his NFL service before his final professional season came, ironically, with the Giants in 2014. 

2015: Lance Dunbar

One of Romo's final great moments as a Cowboy was his six-play, 72-yard masterpiece that secured a 27-26 Week 1 win over the Giants before his season-long injury woes set the pace for a dreary 2015 campaign. 

Everyone associated with modern Dallas football knows that the final, lucrative throw of the trek appropriately went to Witten, but Dunbar, a reserve rusher, got things rolling with 40 yards on a pair of receptions on the opening two plays (part of a team-best eight reception effort). It was part of an evenly distributed 140-yard effort between the aerial and kick return games. 

He likewise wasn't immune to the 2015 Cowboys' expansive injury list, one that also included Bryant: he had a 100-yard receiving game against Atlanta in Week 3 but left knee injuries prematurely ended his season. Dunbar partook in only 17 games between Dallas and St. Louis over two final NFL season before resurfacing in North Texas football with the XFL's Dallas Renegades. 

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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