Most Passing Yards in a Game
One of the oldest records in team history is most yards passing in a single game. Don Meredith established the mark with 460 yards in a 31-24 loss to San Francisco in 1963.
Here is a clip of the story from that game:
Don Meredith had one of the greatest afternoons in National Football League history and that was not enough to defeat the San Francisco 49ers.
Meredith threw 48 passes. That’s a team record. He completed 30, another record. The total distance was 460 yards, which not only breaks the Cowboy team record by 112 yards, but approaches Norm Van Brocklin’s NFL record of 554.
Only three quarterbacks in league history have pitched more productively in a single afternoon: Van Brocklin, Y. A. Tittle (505) and Johnny Lujack (468).
Had the Dallas defense contributed anything but awkwardness and stupidity, Meredith would have surpassed Lujack and probably scared the keepers off Van Brocklin’s treasured moment.
But the defense was pitiful against the pitiful 49ers.
And when they counted all the chips San Francisco had won its second game of the season. 31-24.
All-pro halfback Don Perkins was normally violent, punishing he 49ers when it was necessary. Frank Clarke (eight catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns), Bill Howton (eight for 107 and one score) and Lee Folkins (seven for 112) caught brilliantly and ran like wild boars.
But these heroics were insufficient, vastly insufficient.
Troy Aikman came close to breaking the record with a 455-yard performance that also occurred in a loss (46-36 to Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day in 1998). Meredith also had the only other 400-yard game in team history, in a 31-30 win over Washington in 1966.
Below is the list of games in which a Dallas quarterback has had at least 350 yards passing in one game.
Table: Most Passing Yards in a Game (Regular Season)
| Date | Player | Yards | Opponent | Result | Score |
| 11/10/1963 | Meredith, Don | 460 | San Francisco 49ers | L | 24-31 |
| 11/26/1998 | Aikman, Troy | 455 | Minnesota Vikings | L | 36-46 |
| 11/13/1966 | Meredith, Don | 406 | Washington Redskins | W | 31-30 |
| 10/9/1966 | Meredith, Don | 394 | Philadelphia Eagles | W | 56-7 |
| 12/22/1985 | Hogeboom, Gary | 389 | San Francisco 49ers | L | 16-31 |
| 11/12/1989 | Aikman, Troy | 379 | Phoenix Cardinals | L | 20-24 |
| 10/9/1983 | White, Danny | 377 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | W | 27-24 |
| 10/27/1996 | Aikman, Troy | 363 | Miami Dolphins | W | 29-10 |
| 9/25/2005 | Bledsoe, Drew | 363 | San Francisco 49ers | W | 34-31 |
| 10/27/1985 | White, Danny | 362 | Atlanta Falcons | W | 24-10 |
| 9/12/1999 | Aikman, Troy | 362 | Washington Redskins | W | 41-35 |
| 12/13/1987 | White, Danny | 359 | Washington Redskins | L | 20-24 |
| 9/18/1966 | Meredith, Don | 358 | New York Giants | W | 52-7 |
| 11/27/1997 | Aikman, Troy | 356 | Tennessee Oilers | L | 14-27 |
| 9/12/2004 | Testaverde, Vinny | 355 | Minnesota Vikings | L | 17-35 |
| 10/25/1981 | White, Danny | 354 | Miami Dolphins | W | 28-27 |
| 12/25/1995 | Aikman, Troy | 350 | Arizona Cardinals | W | 37-13 |
Notice how all of Aikman’s came in seasons the Cowboys struggled, except for the ‘95 game against the Cardinals, which also happened to be the game Emmitt broke John Riggins record at the time. Stauback never reached 350 because the Cowboys mostly played with the lead during his reign. Meredith’s mostly all came in ‘66, and I’ll bet that had alot to do with Bob Hayes. Opposing defenses just didn’t know how to stop him yet.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm[…] Only seven players in the history of the Dallas Cowboys have gained more than 200 yards in a single game. The last man to do it was Kevin Williams in the regular season finale against Arizona in 1995. Bob Hayes set the team record for most receiving yards in a game with 246 in 1966, in one of the games in which Don Meredith surpassed 400 passing yards. […]
July 28th, 2007 at 8:07 pmAs a kid in junior high I watched Don Meredith lead the 1st generation of the conference winning Cowboys and he did it on pure grit and determination. You can’t say he did just because of Bob Hayes because statistics show he spread the ball around to such receivers as Dan Reeves, Pete Gent, Lance Renzel, and Frank Clarke. Outside of a good defense Dallas did not have many mercurial offensive people. Meredith suffered from injuries from an offensive line that allowed him to get beat up on a regular basis. People have forgotten such great playoff games as Dallas beating Cleveland 52-7 with sizzling and complex offensive execution. You can talk about Staubach and Aikman all you want but Meredith didn’t have the talent to work with that his successors did. For my money he was the best.
November 25th, 2007 at 11:59 pmYou forgot to mention Houston Oiler QB Warren Moon’s 527 passing yards against the KC Chiefs in 1990. Moon also threw for 555 yards in the CFL once too.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:11 pmThanks, George. This list was limited to Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks, though. There are quite a few performance in NFL history that are better than Meredith’s 460.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:49 pm