Cowboys' Stars Wear Crown Again

August 26, 2024

Super Bowl XXX
Jan. 28, 1996 Tempe

Cowboys' Stars Wear Crown Again

By David Aldridge
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 29, 1996; Page C1

TEMPE, Ariz., Jan. 28 Celebration in the heart of Texas? Vindication for Big D? There was neither tonight. The Dallas Cowboys, in the wake of their third Super Bowl championship this decade a 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sun Devil Stadium looked like a team that had merely survived something arduous and exhausting. Claims of greatness or of any historical meaning were lost in the team's collective exhale.

In winning the championship for the fifth time in franchise history, tying them with the San Francisco 49ers for most Super Bowl wins, the Cowboys merely did what had been expected of them, and the truth of that statement tells you all you need to know about the pressure that has been on this team the past two years. That's when owner Jerry Jones fired Jimmy Johnson and brought in Barry Switzer, who had not coached since leaving the University of Oklahoma after the 1988 season. Dallas could win, Jones said, without Johnson.

Tonight, the Cowboys did. But they had to overcome a fierce fight from the AFC champion Steelers, the 13½-point underdogs who clawed back from a 20-7 third-quarter deficit to make a game of it in the fourth quarter. The Steelers got within 20-17 with more than six minutes left on Norm Johnson's field goal, a successful onside kick and a 52-yard touchdown drive that ended when fullback Bam Morris scored from a yard with 6:36 left.

But after Pittsburgh took possession on its 32 with 4:15 left, Dallas got the second of two interceptions from cornerback Larry Brown, voted the game's most valuable player, to set up a short touchdown run that put the game away.

So it came to pass that Switzer, who had his coaching ability constantly questioned the past two seasons, had his pro football title to go with his three college national championships.

"Like I told our team, on Saturday, when they fire the final gun on Sunday, there's going to be one team left, and the other team is going to be thrown on the pile," Switzer said. "And the team left standing was going to be the Dallas Cowboys. I really believed that. ... There's no redemption. It's not important to me. It really isn't. We did it, and we did it my way. Let the players tell you how we did it."

First, quarterback Troy Aikman.

"We've got a group that's been playing together for a number of years," Aikman said. "We're able to draw upon past experiences. That's what this football team did tonight. I didn't panic . . . and I don't think anybody panicked and thought we were going to lose the football game."

Second, wide receiver Michael Irvin.

"You can put the other two [Super Bowls] together and they equal this one," Irvin said. "Every time somebody counted us out this year ... I saw my boys to my right and my boys to my left and we squeezed down and got a little bit tighter. . . . Bottom line is, we got it done."

Third, Brown, who got roasted for letting the 49ers' Jerry Rice score on a long touchdown late in the first half of last year's NFC championship game, and got all the work he wanted this year after the Cowboys signed Deion Sanders to man the other side of the field.

"I dedicate this to Barry Switzer," Brown said.

Fourth, everyone's favorite, guard Nate Newton.

"I hope I don't sound like we're bragging or nothing, but we're pretty good, man," he said.

The Steelers are, too. Pittsburgh's players had said they weren't going to back down from Dallas's mammoth offensive line, and they didn't. Emmitt Smith gained 23 yards on his first carry from scrimmage, but had just 26 the rest of the game. Aikman was, as ever, efficient passing (15 of 23, 209 yards), but the Cowboys' longest drive in the second half was 18 yards the distance remaining after Brown's first interception. The second scoring drive was six yards.

Pittsburgh's linebackers were as good as advertised. They took on Dallas's 300-plus pound offensive linemen and stripped Smith of his escorts. Inside linebacker Levon Kirkland was outstanding with 10 tackles, but Greg Lloyd and Kevin Greene weren't far behind. After the Cowboys took a 13-0 lead in the first half, the Steelers' defense took the game to them.

"It was just being physical," Greene said. "Just playing physical, up-front physical. You have to credit the defensive linemen. . . . They stuck it right up in there. [Smith] didn't run north and south like everybody thought he was. If there's one silver lining in this dadgummed dark cloud, you can say that we came to play, and we played Steelers football. I don't think there was anyone in the stands {in the fourth quarter} that thought Dallas was going to win this game."

Dallas scored on its first three possessions, but two of those scores were Chris Boniol's field goals. The other score came on an eight-play, 75-yard drive that included a 47-yard pass to Sanders on a post pattern, and culminated in a three-yard touchdown pass from Aikman to tight end Jay Novacek, who ripped the Steelers' secondary in the first half.

But even though the Cowboys dominated the play in the first two periods they had possession for 17 minutes they led by only those 13 points when the Steelers went on a 54-yard touchdown drive late in the second quarter. They got first downs out of third-and-20, third-and-seven and third-and-13 holes, and scored on a six-yard touchdown pass from O'Donnell to wide receiver Yancey Thigpen with 13 seconds left in the half. So Pittsburgh trailed by just 13-7 at the half.

"We knew we had a chance to win this game," O'Donnell said. "I thought our defense was playing well, and offensively, we were moving the ball."

The Steelers gave Dallas a gift score midway through the third quarter, though. On third and nine from the Pittsburgh 48, O'Donnell threw behind wide receiver Ernie Mills, who had broken wide open across the middle. The ball settled into Brown's stomach, and he returned the interception 44 yards to the Pittsburgh 18. Aikman rolled and found Irvin across the middle for 17 yards, and on the next play, Smith carried it in or at least the officials said he did for a 20-7 lead with 6:42 left in the third.

And the Steelers looked finished for sure after fullback Bam Morris got stuffed three straight times with two yards to get for a first down from the Steelers 47. Second, third and fourth downs went by with Morris going nowhere, and when he was held for no gain again with 1:26 left in the third, the game seemed over.

Pittsburgh's defense, however, wasn't done playing. They got the Cowboys off the field in three plays, and the Steelers' offense recovered. Their receivers haven't been put in the same category as some of the league's elite pass-catching groups, but they shined in the final 18 minutes. A half-dozen bad passes were caught; a handful more were held on to after crunching Cowboys hits.

The Steelers drove 52 yards and got a 46-yard Norm Johnson field goal with 11:20 left in the game to make it 20-10. Then, Coach Bill Cowher gambled, calling for an onside kick.

"I was holding my breath," said Steelers cornerback Rod Woodson, playing for the first time since injuring his knee in the season opener. "We were trying not to give it away on the sideline."

It worked perfectly. Deon Figures recovered for Pittsburgh at the Steelers 48, and the offense was right back on the field. The Steelers drove 52 yards this time, with Andre Hastings, Mills and Thigpen each making huge catches. Thigpen's gave the Steelers first and goal at the Dallas 6-yard line, and three runs by Morris, the last from the 1, got the ball in the end zone. Johnson made it 20-17, and the Terrible Towels were being waved furiously.

Dallas was back on its heels. Even after Aikman hit Kevin Williams for 22 yards, the Cowboys couldn't get another first down. Kirkland's sack of Aikman stopped Dallas, and the Cowboys had to punt. Hastings's punt return set up the Steelers at their 32 with two timeouts left.

"This is how we wanted the game to end," Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt said. "We'd go on a methodical drive, and put points up on the board, and let them scramble a little bit."

The dream lasted two plays. On second down, the Steelers came out in the four wide receiver set they used almost exclusively in the second half. Hastings was in the slot on the right side, with rookie Corey Holliday lined up wide. The Cowboys blitzed, as they had done frequently. A lot of times, they had hit O'Donnell or pressured him, but this time, everyone was blocked. O'Donnell had plenty of time to throw the ball.

Only, sometimes, it doesn't look that way on the field. O'Donnell got rid of the ball quickly. He thought Hastings would run a route to the outside. Instead, Hastings curled up in the middle. Again, the ball wound up in Brown's stomach, and again, he returned it deep into Pittsburgh territory, this time to the Steelers 6. Two plays later, Smith scored from four yards, and the Cowboys were back up by 10.

Afterward, the Steelers drove to midfield. But their drive died with one final incompletion by O'Donnell on fourth down with 1:47 left. The Cowboys ran out all but three seconds of the clock from there.

And then, they walked off the field, happy, to be sure, but more relieved than anything. Their coach had suffered the slings and arrows, and had won, after all.

"I'm a rookie," Switzer said. "But I'm going back [to more Super Bowls]. Where's the next one?"

Back to the top

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMSxedKrrWiroKS%2Ftb%2BOp52lZ5yku6jAxKukaKulpbKzrs6wo2irpKS%2FqrHSaKqba2BjtbW5