I believe it's a hard running, smashmouth play when a bruising running back fights for 3 yards, the defense piles on and all you see is a cloud of dust. The saying is actually more about a style of football rather than any one play. I believe it goes back to the Woody Hayes/Bo Schembechler era of the Big Ten where most of the teams in the mid-western conferences relied on a grinding, short-run game.
A cloud of grain dust
The word "enveloping" in the phrase "an enveloping cloud of dust" suggests that the cloud of dust completely surrounds or wraps around something, creating a sense of being completely immersed or covered by it. It conveys the idea of the dust cloud completely surrounding or enclosing its surroundings.
a dust cloud
That would be a nebula, which is an interstellar cloud of hydrogen gas, dust, and plasma. It is the first stage of a star's cycle.
A nebula.
A Cloud of Red Dust was created on 1997-10-06.
A strong tornado that forms a cloud of dust when it makes contact with the ground is called a "dust devil." Dust devils are relatively small whirlwinds that occur in arid or semi-arid regions and are driven by intense heating at the surface creating updrafts. Unlike tornadoes, dust devils are not associated with thunderstorms.
dust
A cloud of dust and gas in space is known as a Nebula.
The presence of dust in the air can expedite cloud formation by providing a surface for water droplets to condense and form cloud droplets around. Dust particles act as cloud condensation nuclei, which help water vapor in the air to condense into clouds.
Not if they stampeded in a swamp!
If you are refering to popular lines like "Disappearing in a cloud of dust" or "in a cloud of smoke" it can be refering to a cleche' as in old westernes when cowboys would ride of into the sunset, the hooves of their horses kicking up a cloud of dust and in that way he would "disappear" from sight. In the same way, magicians used to set smoke off on stage to help in their disappearing acts to blind the audience from not seeing exactly what they were doing. I hope this answeres your question ;D