The Top 10 Greatest NFL Rushing Performances of All Time
By Erik Lambert
#4: Eric Dickerson vs. Dallas Cowboys (1986)
The Dallas Cowboys weren’t the same team they’d been in the 1970s by 1985, but they were still a fairly good team. They’d gone 10-6 that year, won a hotly contested NFC East division and seemed to have a favorable matchup in the opening playoff round. The Los Angeles Rams were a one-dimensional team. They couldn’t throw the ball at all. So Dallas just needed to stop star running back Eric Dickerson to be given a good chance to win.
They could not.
The Cowboys defense, who ranked 11th against the run that year, spent 60 minutes trying in vain to run Dickerson down as he sprinted back and forth across the field. He finished the game with 248 yards and two touchdowns on the afternoon, completing one of the most dominant playoff performances in NFL history. That game would prove to be the dying breath of the old guard for Dallas. They wouldn’t make the playoffs again until 1991.