October 27, 2013: Calvin Johnson’s 329 yards and Matthew Stafford’s fake spike beat the Cowboys 31-30

Calvin Johnson caught 14 passes for 329 yards against the Dallas Cowboys on October 27, 2013. No NFL player has ever had more receiving yards in a regulation game, and only one has had more in any game. Yet with 62 seconds left at Ford Field, the Detroit Lions trailed by six with no timeouts, and the day Johnson had just put together looked like it would go into the books as a loss.

It did not. Johnson caught two more passes on an 80-yard drive, the second one leaving the ball inside the 1, and Matthew Stafford ran to the line shouting for a spike, took the snap and jumped over the pile himself. Detroit won 31-30.

Two 4-3 teams and a lot of talk

Both teams came in 4-3. The Lions had lost 27-24 at home to Cincinnati the week before; the Cowboys had won 17-3 at Philadelphia. During the week, Dallas receiver Dez Bryant’s comments comparing himself to Johnson had become a talking point. Asked about them after the game, Johnson said Bryant had texted him and he did not know what Bryant was talking about, “because I don’t really pay attention to the media that much. I’m just going out there doing my job.”

Johnson started with an 87-yard catch-and-run from his own 10 on a short pass to the right, finally pushed out at the Dallas 3. Three plays gained one yard, and on fourth-and-goal from the 2 Johnson caught a 2-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.

Four turnovers, and Detroit still had the ball

Detroit then gave the ball away four times in the next two quarters. Linebacker Sean Lee intercepted Stafford twice, returning the second one 74 yards to the Detroit 4 to set up a 5-yard Tony Romo touchdown pass to Bryant just before halftime. Reggie Bush fumbled in the third quarter, and Johnson lost one after a 21-yard catch over the middle. “I should have just dove for it,” Johnson said. “I tried to spin and he put his helmet right on my arm and it popped right up out of there.”

Dallas did not commit a single turnover all day. Dan Bailey kicked two 53-yard field goals, and Romo threw touchdown passes of 60 yards to Terrance Williams and 50 yards to Bryant in the fourth quarter. After Bryant scored with 6:54 left, the Cowboys led 27-17.

Johnson kept answering. His 54-yard catch on the next drive set up a 1-yard Bush touchdown with 3:37 left, and it was 27-24.

Qtr	Time	Team	Score	DAL	DET
1	0:56	DET	Calvin Johnson 2-yard pass from Matthew Stafford (David Akers kick)	0	7
2	5:44	DAL	Dan Bailey 53-yard field goal	3	7
2	0:51	DAL	Dez Bryant 5-yard pass from Tony Romo (Bailey kick)	10	7
3	3:07	DAL	Bailey 53-yard field goal	13	7
4	13:16	DET	Akers 20-yard field goal	13	10
4	11:43	DAL	Terrance Williams 60-yard pass from Romo (Bailey kick)	20	10
4	7:43	DET	Joique Bell 1-yard run (Akers kick)	20	17
4	6:54	DAL	Bryant 50-yard pass from Romo (Bailey kick)	27	17
4	3:37	DET	Reggie Bush 1-yard run (Akers kick)	27	24
4	1:07	DAL	Bailey 44-yard field goal	30	24
4	0:14	DET	Stafford 1-yard run (Akers kick)	30	31

The flag that saved Detroit’s clock

Dallas got the ball back and Detroit spent all three of its timeouts trying to keep time on the clock. On third-and-14 from the Detroit 35, Phillip Tanner ran for 9 yards, and the Cowboys were flagged for holding on the play. Detroit declined the penalty, which left Dallas at fourth-and-5, and Bailey made a 44-yard field goal for a 30-24 lead with 1:07 to go.

The flag mattered more than the yards. With the Lions out of timeouts, Dallas could otherwise have let the play clock run down before kicking. Instead the clock stayed stopped until the field goal snap, and only seven seconds came off between the two snaps. “They made a penalty and we got the clock stopped,” linebacker DeAndre Levy said. Bush said the same thing: the penalty “gave us some extra time on the clock.”

Sixty-two seconds, no timeouts

Bailey’s kickoff went for a touchback. Detroit started at its own 20 with 1:02 left and none of its three timeouts. A short pass to Bush went out of bounds for no gain. Johnson caught a 17-yarder over the middle to the 37, and Stafford spiked the ball with 42 seconds left. Then he found Kris Durham down the left side for 40 yards to the Dallas 23, and Durham got out of bounds with 33 seconds to go.

On the next snap Stafford threw deep to the right for Johnson, who came down with it and was dragged down by two defenders at the 1. He was tackled in the field of play, so the clock kept running, and the Lions sprinted to the line. Stafford was waving and yelling for a spike. “He was saying ‘clock it,'” center Dominic Raiola said afterward. “Don’t listen to him.”

With 14 seconds left, Stafford took Raiola’s snap and went straight over the top. The officials ruled him in, the replay review upheld it, and Akers kicked the extra point with 12 seconds on the clock.

“It was just in my head. I told everybody I was spiking it. I was screaming, ‘Clock,'” Stafford said. “I saw linebackers kind of standing like this. Our guys didn’t fire off, they just stood up. I looked down and we were that far. Shoot, I’m going to go get that.”

Johnson had not known either. “The only thing that went through my mind is that we won the game,” he said. “I didn’t know he was going to do it.” He also noticed the stands: “People leaving the stadium, nobody thought we could pull it off in one minute, but we’ve got some firepower and No. 9 was on point.”

All 14 catches

Qtr	Time	Situation	Yards	Result
1	2:44	2nd-and-10, DET 10	87	Pushed out at DAL 3
1	0:56	4th-and-2, DAL 2	2	Touchdown
2	13:03	1st-and-10, DET 15	8	To DET 23
2	4:56	3rd-and-8, DET 22	9	First down
2	3:46	2nd-and-10, DET 31	21	To DAL 48
2	0:46	1st-and-10, DET 20	29	To DET 49
3	4:16	2nd-and-9, DET 48	21	Fumbled, Dallas recovered
3	0:07	2nd-and-6, DAL 47	18	To DAL 29
4	15:00	1st-and-10, DAL 29	26	Pushed out at DAL 3
4	8:09	1st-and-10, DAL 10	9	To DAL 1
4	6:45	1st-and-10, DET 20	54	To DAL 26
4	4:45	2nd-and-10, DAL 15	6	To DAL 9
4	0:56	2nd-and-10, DET 20	17	To DET 37
4	0:33	1st-and-10, DAL 23	22	To DAL 1

Where 329 ranks

Johnson’s 329 yards broke the Lions’ single-game record of 302, set by Cloyce Box in 1950, and his 14 catches tied the club record Herman Moore set in 1995. Only Flipper Anderson of the Rams has had more receiving yards in a game: 336 at New Orleans on November 26, 1989, a game that went to overtime. That makes Johnson’s total the most ever in regulation.

It was also Johnson’s fifth regular-season game with 200 or more receiving yards, which tied Lance Alworth for the most in league history at the time. Thirteen seasons later, nobody has caught up to it. The closest anyone has come since is Julio Jones’ 300 yards against Carolina in 2016, and through the first six weeks of 2026 the best single-game total is 195.

Number	Detail
14 for 329	Calvin Johnson’s receiving line, with a touchdown and a long of 87
33 of 48, 488	Matthew Stafford: 1 TD pass, 2 INT, plus the winning 1-yard run
623 to 268	Total yards, Detroit to Dallas
4 to 0	Turnovers, Detroit to Dallas
14 of 30, 206	Tony Romo: 3 TD, 0 INT, not sacked
3 for 72	Dez Bryant’s receiving line, with two touchdowns
2	Sean Lee interceptions, one returned 74 yards
21 for 92	Reggie Bush’s rushing line, with a touchdown
64,379	Attendance at Ford Field

What came next

The win sent Detroit into its bye at 5-3, and the Lions won at Chicago when they came back to go 6-3. Then they lost six of their last seven games, finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs, and coach Jim Schwartz was fired after the season. Dallas finished 8-8 and lost the NFC East to Philadelphia in Week 17.

Johnson finished 2013 with 84 catches for 1,492 yards and 12 touchdowns in 14 games. He played two more seasons, retired in March 2016 and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2021. The fake spike is still the play people bring up first.

The fake spike only worked because of how the clock and the rules around it work. Stafford was allowed to spike the ball to stop the clock, and he was just as free not to. Our new delay of game guide explains the 40-second and 25-second play clocks, the 5-yard penalty, and why so many teams this season have taken it on purpose.

Related WhyNFL reading: October 16, 2011: Harbaugh’s handshake and Schwartz’s chase, Intentional grounding, throwaways and spikes, Two clocks, one possession: NFL timing explained. Team pages: Lions, Cowboys.