Quarter 1

• Roy Gerela booted to Butch Johnson, who returned 23y to the 28. Roger Staubach began with four running plays, three by Tony Dorsett: 9y around LE and 16 on a trap up the middle into Steeler territory at the 47. After L.C. Greenwood stuffed FB Robert Newhouse for no gain, Dorsett sped for 13 around RE to the 34. Then Tom Landry got cute, and it backfired. Dorsett took a handoff and headed left. But when he tried to hand the ball on a reverse, Drew Pearson dropped the ball, and John Banaszak recovered for Pittsburgh on their 47. The play called for Pearson to give the ball back to Staubach, who would throw to TE Billy Joe DuPree, who faked a block, then ran free downfield.
  Preston Pearson recalled: "If Tom hadn't gotten cute with that reverse. (Sighs at what might have been.) That turnover put a lot of doubt in our minds. We never really recovered from it."
  Banaszak: "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy football game. It was a classic battle between two teams that knew each other pretty well. We played them every year in the preseason. We knew an awful lot about the Dallas Cowboys. They knew an awful lot about us. The two teams went toe-to-toe against each." But when the game began, "We're on our heels, and they try to gimmick us with a little reverse that I recovered. I think that changes the first half."
  
  Harris runs behind blocks by Sam Davis (57) and Ray Pinney (74).
  The Steelers also started with two runs, but Franco Harris gained only one, then two. Facing six secondary men, Terry Bradshaw flipped down the middle to John Stallworth just in front of Cliff Harris to the Dallas 40. Then Terry rolled left and threw high and out of bounds to Stallworth. With a light rain falling, Rocky Bleier gained 2 around RE. Facing his second straight 3rd down, Bradshaw connected with TE Randy Grossman just beyond S Charlie Waters' reach for a first down at the 38. Then Terry faded back and lobbed the ball to the front left corner of the EZ to Stallworth, who leapt and caught the ball just before being hit and knocked out of bounds by Harris and CB Aaron Kyle. Gerela added the PAT. Steelers 7 Cowboys 0 (9:47)
  Stallworth turned Kyle completely around with a shoulder fake, then went by him to the outside to grab the pass before Harris could get over.
  Henderson may have called Bradshaw dumb, but it was Terry calling his own plays while Roger ran whatever Landry sent in although he was free to audible at the line of scrimmage.
  Cliff Harris: "Bradshaw told me later that in Super Bowl XIII, he had keyed on me. He told me he'd throw where I wasn't because I was a strength. And that makes sense because I would always be helping out a CB on a receiver."
  Waters: "If Aaron would have just done his job and taken the position he was supposed to have taken, then Cliff's help coming over there would have eaten that play up. We changed our coverage in that game to protect our corners, but I'll be damned if our corner didn't even play that technique properly."
  Larry Brinson took the kick on the 12 and ran it straight ahead to the 28. Staubach dropped to pass but bumped into Dorsett, fell down, got up, and threw the ball away toward Newhouse. A draw to Dorsett gained only 4. On 3rd-and-6, Roger took the shotgun snap and threw quickly to Butch Johnson running free over the middle from the right. Ron Johnson caught him at the Pitt 42. Dorsett took a pitch to the left for 3. RLB Loren Teuves blitzed untouched. Staubach ducked under him but could not evade DT Steve Furness. The loss of 12 made it 3rd-and-19. Facing extra secondary defenders, Staubach could find no one open and was sacked again, this time by Dwight White at the Dallas 39. So Danny White punted 43y to Theo Bell, who returned 12y to the 30. As Hollywood Henderson sped downfield in punt coverage, Dirk Winston leveled him with a blindside block. Take that, loud mouth!
  
  
  Bradshaw hands to Harris.
  Harris broke open around LE momentarily for 5y. Bradshaw rolled right and tried to force the ball to WR Lynn Swann between two defenders on the sideline. But Bennie Barnes knocked the ball away. Then Bradshaw converted his third straight 3rd down, hitting Franco running free across the middle for 22y to the Dallas 43. Staying hot, Terry connected with Swann on a down-and-out to the right for another 1st down at the 30. Just when it appeared the Steelers were heading to a two-score lead, the Cowboys blitzed, causing the backpedaling QB to throw short to the left toward Stallworth into the hands of D.D. Lewis at the 15. The LB returned his prize to the 36.
  It was only the third LB INT of the season for the Cowboys.
  As in Super Bowl X, Cliff Harris tried to play mind games with Lynn Swann. "Subtle stuff. Like walking back after a play and saying, 'Hey, Lynn, you had that bad concussion, c'mon.' Or "Lynn, game's on the line now, don't come in my area or I'm going to have to knock you out. Got to, man!' All you want them to do is think a little, make them realize they're vulnerable." But Cliff concluded, "Didn't work much on Swann."
  Harris, however, didn't care for the coaching staff's defensive game plan. "Stallworth and Swann were both great receivers. You change the defense, and they went from a zone to a man-to-man to keep it simple. It made one of our stronger defenses a weaker defense."
  The Cowboys could not take advantage of the turnover, going three-and-out. Newhouse gained 3 up the middle, then only 1 around LE because MLB Jack Lambert tackled him from behind. From the shotgun, Staubach overthrew Preston Pearson. So Danny White punted only 24y out of bounds on the Pitt 38.
  Harris veered through a hole at LT for 9. Then Franco gained the first down, but G Sam Davis was called for holding Randy White.
  The Steelers now had one more penalty than they had in all of Super Bowl X against Dallas.
  On 2nd-and-11, Harris gained 6 to make the 3rd down more manageable. But Harvey Martin thwarted that plan by sacking Bradshaw and causing a fumble that Too Tall Jones recovered at the 41.
  This time Dallas capitalized on the turnover. After Newhouse struggled for 2 up the middle, S Donnie Shell broke up the pass down the middle to Drew Pearson in the EZ.
  According to Steelers' scout Bill Nunn, "What made Donnie great was ability to hit and his sharp reaction time."
  Then lightning struck the Steel Curtain. Just before being hit by blitzers from both sides, Staubach threw to Tony Hill running free ahead of S Shell in the left flat. Mel Blount was between Hill and the goal line but had his back turned guarding Butch Johnson and didn't realize the ball had been caught. So Hill ran right by him down the sideline untouched into the EZ. Rafael Septien added the point.
  As they did in Super Bowl X, the Cowboys became the first team to score a TD on the Steelers in Q1 all season.
  END OF QUARTER 1: STEELERS 7 COWBOYS 7

• Septien booted a short kick that bounded around at the 30 before rookie Larry Anderson picked it up at the 26 and ran back and forth laterally in heavy traffic between being tackled at the 27. Bradshaw threw to Grossman, who caught the ball while falling forward in the left flat at the 37. 1st down. Harris jitterbugged at LT before breaking wide to the 44. Bradshaw tried Harris again, but Jones met him in the hole for a gain of only one. On 3rd-and-2, Franco pushed through Lewis for three yards to move the chains. Then Bradshaw had two straight incompletions, first to Grossman in the middle, then, after Terry rolled right to avoid the rush, to Swann, but Waters knocked the ball down. On 3rd-and-10, Terry went back to pass but, as Staubach had done earlier, bumped into his RB, Harris, and dropped the ball. Bradshaw picked it up but was sandwiched by two blitzing LBs. Henderson pinned Terry's arms, enabling fellow LB Mike Hegman to take the ball away and run 37y untouched to the EZ. Bradshaw was shaken up on the play and had his bruised left shoulder examined on the sideline. Cowboys 14 Steelers 7 (12:08)
  Henderson on Bradshaw: "He was trying to cover up, to cradle the ball and go down, but I pinned both his elbows in the middle of his back and shook him, trying to make something happen."
  It took more than a sore shoulder to keep Terry out of action. Any doubts about his effectiveness would be were removed three plays later. Starting from the 20 after the touchback, Harris ran left (as he did most of the time) for 2, then 3. On 3rd-and-5, angling for a first down, Terry hit Stallworth on a quick turn-out to the right. John shrugged off the attempted tackle by Kyle at the 35 and started up field. Slanting to the middle behind Swann's timely block on Bennie Barnes, the long-striding Stallworth knifed through the Cowboys all the way to pay dirt. Steelers 14 Cowboys 14 (10:25)
  
  
  Stallworth completes 75y TD pass and run.
  This was the first time in Super Bowl history that four TDs were scored in the first half.
  Butch Johnson returned the kick 21y to the 31. Banaszak broke through the dropped Newhouse for a 5y loss as the FB tried to sweep left. Dorsett tried the right side, but LB Jack Ham stopped him for a 3y loss. What do you call on 3rd-and-18 against an outstanding defense? From the shotgun, Staubach couldn't find a receiver. Hit by Greene, Roger fumbled. Banaszak tried to pick up the ball but lost control, and G Tom Rafferty fell on it to retain possession for Dallas. White booted 38y to Bell, who returned 3 to the Dallas 48.
  Greene remembered only part of the first half. "I remember chasing Roger quite a bit. He taxed the defensive line. If he wasn't scrambling around to throw the football, then he was running it. I think I missed two tackles on him. I had him by the leg and he got away from me. And sometime before the half, in the second quarter, as I was coming across the line of scrimmage, I was trapped by Herb Scott, their LG. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, late. I tried to duck him and he caught me right under my chin. I think I was out for a good portion of that first half. I didn't come out of the game, but I was kind of woozy."
  
  Mean Joe Greene chases Dorsett.
  Bradshaw looked left, then threw right to Swann, who cut against the grain for a gain of 26. Harris tried to sweep left, but Jones flew past the blockers for an 8y loss. Bradshaw overthrew Grossman down the middle but a flag flew. Defensive holding against Henderson. Automatic 1st down at the 25. Terry shot the ball to Stallworth, but Kyle was equal to the task this time, tackling Stallworth as he tried to corral the ball. Incomplete. Following a gain of 2 on a draw play to Harris, Bradshaw tried to pass but had no chance as Henderson roared up the middle to collapse the pocket, allowing Hegman to get the sack. So Gerela tried a 51y FG that hit the upright.
  The Cowboys gained several first downs before bogging down. First, Dorsett turned the left corner for 5, but Newhouse tried the same play for no gain. Needing 5, Staubach got 7 on a shotgun throw to Preston Pearson, who made a diving catch near the right sideline for a 1st down at the 46. Then Captain America hit Hill for another first down at the Pitt 44 at the two-minute warning. When play resumed, Roger threw a screen pass over Ham's blitz to Dorsett to the 32. Tony objected to what he thought was a late hit by Ron Johnson, resulting in offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
  Staubach: "Tony Dorsett ran out of bounds around their 25y line, and a guy hit him late, and the ref threw a flag, and as Tony was coming back onto the field, he shoved the ball in the guy's face. So instead of having a 15y penalty, there were offsetting penalties."
  Nearing FG range, Staubach threw down the middle to DuPree. One of the three defenders surrounding the receiver, Blount, snagged the ball and returned 13. The officials added 15y thanks to a personal foul on DuPree on the tackle.
  With Staubach running a two-minute drill and calling his own plays, Landry had interrupted the flow by sending in the play that resulted in Blount's INT. When Roger got to the sideline, Landry asked him, "Why didn't you throw late to the TE?", to which Roger responded, "Why did you call that ridiculous play?" The ensuing discussion about what to do the rest of the game in a similar situation produced a decision to throw to backup TE Jackie Smith on a delayed route to the inside.
  Staubach recalled: "That was a big play. We had a play-action pass called to Drew Pearson past Jack Lambert ... Lambert was the one I was worrying about. I threw it past Lambert, and Mel Blount made a great play and intercepted. Blount should not have been where he was. But he saw the motion, came off his coverage and intercepted ... He told me afterwards he knew we were going to run that play, and they were going to switch. ... Coach Landry said that our TE was wide open, and I told him somebody was on Billy Joe. When he saw the film later, he apologized to me."
  Blount considers this momentum-turning INT one of the top two in his 14-year career. The Steelers were in a three-deep zone. "Staubach never saw me," recalled Mel. "He expected me to stay deep third. I came off and started moving toward the reception area where I anticipated Drew Pearson. Then Billy Joe DuPree clotheslined me and they tacked on a 15y penalty."
  Staubach: "Billy Joe made a great tackle, and the refs gave him a 15y penalty for roughing ... It was a real crime."
  In 2005, Cowboys Personnel Director Gil Brandt said, "I saw Roger three months ago, and he still remembers that play (Blount's INT) like happened yesterday.
  
  Jack Ham tackles Dorsett.
  The Steelers would play the rest of the game without Stallworth, who was suffering from a muscle cramp. His replacement was Theo Bell, whohad only six catches in the regular season. From the 44, Harris took a pitch left but lost 2. However, Dallas accepted a holding penalty on G Gerry Mullins to make it 1st-and-20 rather than 2nd-and-12. Bradshaw called a WR screen to the right to Swann, who used his blockers expertly, dodging tacklers to the Dallas 37. Next, Lynn made one of his patented leaping catches down the middle to the 16. The momentum should have continued, but Harris dropped a pass while in the clear over the middle. With all three timeouts in his pocket, Bradshaw ran Harris over LT for 9 to the 7 before stopping the clock. Needing 1y for a first down, Terry got all of it. Rolling right, he tossed to Bleier who made a leaping catch over Lewis in the EZ just inside the boundary. Steelers 21 Cowboys 14 (0:26)
  Brinson returned 25y to the 34. With timeouts of his own, Staubach tried to pass from the shotgun but had to run around RE to escape the rush. Since he gained only 1, Pittsburgh refused the illegal procedure penalty on Dallas. Preston Pearson took a draw handoff for 6. Staubach stopped the clock with only two seconds left. The source of the name "Hail Mary pass" wanted one more crack at the defense. Avoiding the rush, he threw long but off the fingertips of Preston to end the half.
  END OF 1ST HALF: STEELERS 21 COWBOYS 14
  For once, statistics didn't lie. Pittsburgh led in first downs 13-7 and total yards 271-102. Hegman's defensive TD kept the margin to only seven.
  Dorsett had 45y rushing in Q1 but only 2y in the 2nd.
  

The halftime show, entitled "Carnival: A Salute to the Caribbean," featured various Caribbean bands.

Butch Johnson

L.C. Greenwood

Robert Newhouse

Randy Grossman

John Stallworth smothered after catching pass.

Franco Harris runs left.

Roger Staubach passes in Q1.

John Stallworth makes leaping catch for first TD of game.

Bradshaw after throwing pass.

Aaron Kyle prepares to meet Harris in Q1.

Jack Lambert (58) and L.C. Greenwood (66) stuff Dorsett.

Cliff Harris eyes Franco Harris.

Banaczak tackles Newhouse in Q2

Henderson looms over Bradshaw.

Bradshaw passes over Too Tall Jones.

Steelers rejoice with Stallworth
after his 75y TD.

Swann on the loose.


Bleier makes leaping catch for TD.