Super Bowl XXVII Retrospective:
The Boys are Back
BY Gary Myers
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Monday, January 13, 2014, 10:00 AM
.The Cowboys beat the Bills, 52-17, in Super Bowl XXVII last night with the youngest team in the league. And for the rest of the NFL, it could get worse.
The Bills began their record run of three straight Super Bowl losses to NFC East foes with the Scott Norwood heartbreaker against the Giants. They followed that with a loss to the Redskins last year. And last night, the Cowboys, 1-15 four seasons ago, humiliated Buffalo for Dallas’ first championship in 15 years.
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| PROGRAM & TICKET: Program calls it the NFL Championship Game and Ticket calls it the World Championship as always. Kick is 6pm EST from Pasadena. Watched this game at Brad Bull, Peppy and Wayne's house the January after we graduated as I was still living in MQT. I moved away soon after. |
“I dreamed of this,” Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin said. “I’m glad the dream came true.”
He never could have imagined the Cowboys breaking the Super Bowl record of quickest TDs. It was the 33 seconds that killed Buffalo. Two TDs in 15 seconds at the end of the first quarter and two Irvin TDs in 18 seconds at the end of the second quarter.
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| Date | January 31, 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, California | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Troy Aikman, Quarterback | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Cowboys by 6.5[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Dick Hantak | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 98,374[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Future Hall of Famers | |||||||||||||||||||
| Cowboys: Troy Aikman, Charles Haley, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith. Bills: Ralph Wilson (owner), Bill Polian (general manager), Marv Levy (coach), Jim Kelly, James Lofton, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ceremonies | |||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Garth Brooks | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coin toss | O.J. Simpson | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Michael Jackson | ||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 45.1 (est. 90.99 million viewers)[4] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Market share | 66 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of 30-second commercial | US$850,000 | ||||||||||||||||||
Little dab will do
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| Jerry & Jimmy in happier times. They played football together at Arkansas. Johnson went to high school with Janis Joplin and later cut Chuck Klingbeil in Miami. I once ran into Johnson in Key Largo at this restaurant and asked him about Chuck, he had very little to say. |
And there were multiple ice water baths for Jimmy Johnson, who became the first coach to win a Super Bowl and an NCAA title. He even joked, “They messed up my hair a little bit.”
Johnson said, “I felt we had the best football team. We said all year that the best game we were going to play was the last game. And we saved the best for last.”
The AFC has lost nine straight Super Bowls by a combined 349-142.
The Cowboys did it with their No. 1-ranked defense while their offense had the jitters. The defense scored two touchdowns and fumbled away a third. It forced a Super Bowl record nine turnovers, setting up 35 Dallas points. It also KO’d Jim Kelly with a sprained right knee when the Bills were trailing 14-7 in the second quarter.
And the Cowboys offense exploded with MVP Troy Aikman firing four touchdown passes while completing 22-of-30 for 273 yards. As the ‘Boys knocked out the Eagles, 49ers and Bills, Aikman was on fire, throwing 8 TDs, 0 INTs and completing 68.6%.
“This team has meant everything to me,” Aikman said. “It’s a tremendous weight off my shoulders. No matter what happens in my career from here on, I’ve taken a team to the Super Bowl and won it. Not a lot of people can say that.”
There probably should be at least a two-year moratorium on the Bills in the Bowl, even though Buffalo got off to a quick start. Steve Tasker raced around Robert Jones to block Mike Saxon’s punt, setting up Thurman Thomas’ 2-yard run five minutes into the game.
Giving it away
But Kelly set up Dallas’ first TD when he was intercepted by James Washington at the Buffalo 48. A key third-and-16 rocket from Aikman to Irvin for 23 yards kept the drive alive before Aikman hit a wide-open Jay Novacek from 23 yards out with 1:36 left in the first quarter.
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| The return of America's Team. |
Just 15 seconds later, the ‘Boys were in the end zone again. Charles Haley raced around right tackle Howard Ballard as Kelly attempted to pass from his goal line, forcing the ball to pop in the air and right into the arms of tackle Jimmie Jones. He went the easiest two yards of his life for a TD. “The ball looked real small coming to me,” Jones said. “But it was an easy catch.”
The Bills self-destructed in the second quarter. They had a first-and-goal at the Dallas 4 after a 40-yard pass from Kelly to Andre Reed. After Carwell Gardner picked up three yards on first down, Thomas was stopped for no gain and Ken Norton Jr. put a huge hit on Kenneth Davis as he was about to go in.
And Levy decided to go for it on fourth down. Odd decision. Odd play call. He had Kelly pass and with Tony Tolbert wrapped around him, he threw an end zone INT to Thomas Everett. Kelly was gone for good on the Bills’ next series when Norton hit him and he injured the same knee that forced him to miss Buffalo’s first two playoff games.
In came the Bills miracle worker Frank Reich. Could he do it? After bringing the Bills back from 35-3 against Houston in the playoffs, why not? He hit Reed for 38, but the drive stalled a yard short of a first down at the Dallas 3. Levy learned his lesson. He let Steve Christie kick a 21-yard field goal with 3:24 left in the half.
But the Bills were destroyed by Irvin in an 18-second span. One play after a 38-yard run by Smith to the 19, Irvin started out on the left side and ran a slant. He spun Nate Odomes around, Aikman drilled him at the four and he scored with 1:54 left in the half.
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| Future Packer Don Beebe batted this ball away from Leon Lett to rob him of a sure TD. |
On the Bills’ next play, Thomas, who had no problem with his helmet this year, instead misplaced the ball after a short pass. It was knocked loose by Leon Lett, recovered by Jones, and on the next play, Aikman hit Irvin with an 18-yard TD pass. It was 28-10 at the half.
Buffalo did close to within 31-17 on Reich’s 40-yard pass to Don Beebe on the final play of the third quarter. Back in the game? Dallas scored three more TDs in a 2:33 span in the fourth: a 45-yard pass from Aikman to Harper, Emmitt Smith’s 10-yard run and Norton’s nine-yard fumble return.
The ‘Boys are back big time. “There was never any doubt we would get to this point,” Johnson said. “I was just concerned how long it would take.”
It didn’t take long at all.
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