Just to make the team in 2011, Dan Bailey had to beat out four other kickers at training camp and nearly didn't keep the job long as he missed a chip shot kick in Week 2 of his rookie year.
But Bailey was able to redeem himself in that game in San Francisco with two clutch kicks, which opened the door for even more dramatic moments along the way of that 2011 season.
Against the Redskins in mid-November, Bailey made the first of two more game-winning field goals in a span of five days. His 39-yard field goal in overtime lifted the Cowboys to a 27-24 victory over Washington.
In that game, both teams traded big plays back and forth as Tony Romo connected on touchdown passes to his three favorite receivers that season. Dez Bryant caught a 22-yard touchdown strike in the first quarter. Later in the fourth, Romo found Laurent Robinson for one of his 11 TD receptions in 2011. That score tied the game and then Jason Witten broke the tie with a 59-yard touchdown, which still stands as the longest scoring play of his career.
But the Redskins would force overtime, where Romo again found Dez for a clutch first-down catch. Bailey would finish the job with the game-winning kick, something he would duplicate a few days later on Thanksgiving Day when he kicked the Cowboys to a comeback win over Miami.
