NFC: Dallas Cowboys

AFC: Pittsburgh Steelers

Date: January 18, 1976

Super Bowl X

Scoring:

Team 1 2 3 4 Final

DAL 7 3 0 7 17

PIT 7 0 0 14 21

NFC playmakers:

Drew Pearson, Percy Howard

AFC playmakers:

TE Randy Grossman, FB Reggie Harrison, WR Lynn Swann, Mike Wagner

Network: CBS (KHOU Houston)

Announcers: Pat Summerall, Tom Brookshier

Pregame: No

Halftime: No

Postgame: Yes

Commercials: No

Grade: 8/10 – Poor commercial edits

Notes: What were at the time the two most popular teams in the NFL met in Super Bowl X, and the contrast between their styles was greater than that of their jerseys. Only four years away from their victory in Super Bowl VI, the glitzy, white-clad Dallas Cowboys – “America’s Team” – combined a high tech offense and a state-of-the-art flex defense to put on a dazzling show each Sunday. They were easy to like, and for once they even had an underdog aura, having reached the Big Game after starting as a playoff wild card. The Pittsburgh Steelers, wearing bad-guy black to defend their Super Bowl win of the year before, lived by a steel hard defense occasionally spelled by a grind-it-out running attack that would have been at home in the 1930s.

The Cowboys struck first. Roger Staubach zeroed in on Drew Pearson for a 29-yard touchdown pass. Before the first quarter ended, Pittsburgh evened the score on a seven-yard pass from Terry Bradshaw to tight end Randy Grossman. Setting up the score was a 32-yard pass to Steeler receiver Lynn Swann on which he outleaped a Dallas defender and then magically kept both feet inside the sideline to make his catch legal. Going into the game, Swann’s status had been questionable because of a concussion he’d suffered in the AFC championship game. In practice, he’d dropped every pass thrown to him.

The second quarter was scoreless until Cowboy Toni Fritsch booted a 36-yard field goal with only fifteen seconds left on the clock. Earlier, Pittsburgh’s Roy Gerela, playing at less than a hundred percent because of a cracked rib he’d earned with a tackle on the opening kickoff, shanked a field goal try. Dallas safety Cliff Harris mockingly patted him on the helmet only to be unceremoniously dumped on his hip pads by an irate Jack Lambert. Macho displays aside, Dallas went into the locker room with a 10-7 lead.

The defenses continued to dominate in the third quarter which saw three fewer points than the second. Pittsburgh sacked Staubach seven times during the game and forced him to scramble on five other occasions. Moreover, they pressured him into three interceptions, and straight arrow Staubach normally threw interceptions about as often as he used gutter language.

The fourth quarter lacked only the kitchen sink. First, Steeler reserve fullback Reggie Harrison blocked Mitch Hoopes’ punt. The ball rolled through the end zone for a safety to cut the score to 10-9. Gerela, who’d donned a corset to protect his rib, regained his kicking touch with field goals of 36 and 18 yards to put the Steelers in front 15-10. With 3:02 left, Bradshaw lofted a long pass to game MVP Lynn Swann who caught the ball at the five and took it over the goal line to complete a 64-yard lightning strike. Swann finished the day with 161 yards on four catches, a tidy 40.3 average per catch. Bradshaw only saw the TD on film; he’d been knocked loopy by the Dallas pass rush. Gerela missed the extra point.

Now it was Dallas’ turn with Captain Comeback Staubach in charge. It took Roger Relentless only 1:14 to get the touchdown back, completing a drive with a 34-yard bull’s-eye to Percy Howard – exactly one more pass than Howard caught during the regular season.

Terry Hanratty replaced the woozy Bradshaw, but the Steelers were stalled fourth-and-nine at the Dallas 41 with almost a minute and a half to go. Coach Noll feared a blocked kick and called for a Rocky Bleier run that gained only two yards. Noll was gambling that his defense could stop the Cowboys.

Only four points down, 21-17, Staubach had the ball back with more time than he usually needed to negotiate 61 yards. Down the field came the Cowboys, but with no timeouts remaining for Dallas, the clock kept running. With five seconds left, Staubach launched his final pass into the end zone. Steeler Mike Wagner batted the ball but it was caught –by another Steeler, Glen Edwards. Pittsburgh had its second straight Super Bowl win.

(Thanks to The NFL History Network - http://nflhistory.net/)

Thanks Dean!

Running time: 3:01 (2 discs)