Mac Engel: When the Cowboys play the Giants, expect to see this play a lot

FORT WORTH, Texas — The person who deserves his due credit for his role in one of the greatest plays in the history of the sport is not the quarterback who threw the ball, or the receiver who caught it, but the man who tried desperately to stop it and ultimately gave it up.

Former Dallas Cowboys defensive back Brandon Carr played 13 years in the NFL, 195 regular-season games, and he is associated with one play that, on Sunday night, will be brought up again and again when the Cowboys start the season against the Giants in New York.

Carr was on the other side of one of the great individual plays in NFL history when the Cowboys played the Giants on Nov. 23, 2014, in the Meadowlands; with Carr pulling on him, Giants rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made a one-handed, fingertip 43-yard touchdown catch behind his head on a pass from Eli Manning that still more than a decade later does not seem possible.

Beckham Jr. signed as a free agent with the Giants in the offseason, and he made the roster for what will be his 11th NFL season.

“I’ve had several conversations with OBJ since then, and it’s kind of a wonderful little shared common bond, I think, that we have that he made that play,” NBC color analyst Cris Collinsworth said this week on a conference call with reporters.

Collinsworth was on the call that night in 2014, and will be again on Sunday.

“What was so interesting about that play, and even as I watch it back,” Collinsworth said, “is how it just sort of slowly evolved and got better as we went. Do you know what I mean?”

Yes. We know exactly what you mean.

OBJ’s ‘miracle catch’

The circumstances of that play have been largely removed from the catch. It was the first play of the second quarter and the Giants led, 7-3.

Eli Manning rolled out to his right and uncorked a pass down the right sideline near the end zone; Carr did everything in his power to prevent Beckham from having a chance to make a play on the ball, and two officials threw penalty flags to assess a pass interference call.

As Beckham was falling backwards toward the pylon in the end zone, he extended his right arm behind his head and caught the ball with his fingertips. It was one of those plays where everyone inside MetLife Stadium let out the same gasp in unison, a sound made only possible by disbelief.

“That may be the greatest catch I’ve ever seen,” Collinsworth said on the telecast.

It was one of those plays where the edict “No cheering in the press box” does not apply. Personally, in the press box I may have said quite aloud, “Oh my God! Did he catch that?!”

The strength, coordination and athleticism required to catch that pass generated a level of scrutiny, admiration and celebration that few receptions have ever enjoyed.

Players like Lynn Swann, Dwight Clark, David Tyree, Franco Harris, Justin Jefferson, Antonio Freeman and a few others all have their own receptions that are so difficult that they come up on the following Google search: “best receptions in football history.”

Beckham’s might have been the most difficult. The New York Times ran an entire page detailing the science behind the catch to explain the degree of difficulty.

“It was like, first, I didn’t know he caught it. Then I was like, 'Did he catch that?’ ” Collinsworth said on the conference call. “But then you also knew that he got fouled just before he got to the catch point, so surely he stepped out of bounds; and then no.

“Then as they did it in super slow motion, we saw that instead of catching it with his hand, he caught it with three fingers on the hand and then had to get his feet down inbounds. So he got fouled. He caught it with three fingers — it’s like it just, every replay something new got revealed as to the greatness of that catch.”

OBJ’s catch surpassed the significance of the actual game. A game the Cowboys won, 31-28, in a season where they would win the NFC East with Tony Romo at quarterback.

Less than two months later the Cowboys would be involved in another “Great Catch” moment, only that one involved Dez Bryant’s obvious reception in the NFC divisional round playoff game at Green Bay that was ruled an incompletion.

Why Carr deserves his props for OBJ’s ‘Catch’

After the game, an abnormally large crowd of reporters gathered around Carr’s locker. The national media, the New York media, and the DFW media all wanted a piece of Brandon Carr for his up-close-and-personal view of a catch that he allowed.

Carr sat and stood at his locker and answered every single question, from every single reporter. For a defensive back, that’s not a lot of fun. The scene was aided immeasurably because the Cowboys won the game.

At every turn, and every question, Carr gave OBJ his props, and expressed amazement that that ball was caught. Carr never complained about the questions; he was never rude, and he never cut off anybody.

Carr, who signed as a big-money free agent from Kansas City after the 2011 season, became an easy target for Cowboys fans who felt like he never lived up to the size of the contract. A contract so big at the time that it deterred the Cowboys from signing expensive free agents again.

In his five seasons with the Cowboys, Carr started every game and was a reliable pro, and adult. He wasn’t great, but he was always there, never a problem, and was solid.

Carr’s time with the Cowboys was mostly inconsequential, but he was there, and did everything in his power, to prevent one of the greatest catches in NFL history.