Super Bowl 49: Ranking the most dramatic finishes
By Will Osgood
15. Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh Steelers 35, Dallas Cowboys 31
Super Bowl X was played in Miami’s Orange Bowl Stadium between the Steelers and Cowboys. So was Super Bowl XIII. And the same team won the game, though it was a higher scoring match. Both were filled with tremendous drama (more on Super Bowl X in a later slide).
Game MVP Terry Bradshaw set a personal career high in yardage—318—and set a Super Bowl record for touchdown passes, with four. The Steelers built a comfortable 18-point lead with 6:51 to play when Bradshaw hit Lynn Swann on an 18-yard touchdown pass.
That came just 19 seconds after Pittsburgh went up 28-17 on a 22-yard touchdown run from Franco Harris. The Cowboys’ Randy White fumbled the ensuing kickoff, thus giving the Steelers the opportunity to score two touchdowns in the span of 19 seconds.
Still Dallas did not fold, instead roaring back to score not once, but twice in the final 2:23—first on a seven yard pass from Staubach to Billy Joe Dupee and then a four yard pass Butch Johnson with 22 second remaining, which followed a successful onside kick recovery.
The Cowboys were left with one more onside kick try, but came up short as Pittsburgh sealed the victory in rather dramatic fashion.
Next: The revenge game which almost went down, but didn't quite