Super Bowl power rankings: Who’s the best loser?
By John Buhler
22. 1978 Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl XIII
The 1978 Dallas Cowboys went 12-4 and won the NFC East. The Doomsday Defense got the best of Steve Bartkowski’s Atlanta Falcons in the Divisional round and shut out the Los Angeles Rams to get to their fifth and final Super Bowl of the Tom Landry era in Dallas.
Dallas would end up facing an AFC behemoth in the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XIII in the Miami Orange Bowl. The Cowboys lost to the same Steelers in the same Orange Bowl in Super Bowl X by the same four point margin. Do you believe in deja vu?
This time Dallas was the reigning Super Bowl Champion, but that didn’t seem to affect the spread, as the Steelers were a 3.5-point favorite over the Cowboys.
During the 1970s, the two best teams in the NFC were the Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings, accounting for the eight of the conference’s 10 NFC Champions. Though Dallas would end up winning two Super Bowls in the 1970s with Roger Staubach as its quarterback (Super Bowl VI and Super Bowl XII), they could not get the best of the Steelers in a Super Bowl. It was a great, albeit one-sided rivalry between the Steelers and Cowboys in the 1970s.
Next: 21. 1988 Cincinnati Bengals