Super Bowl power rankings: Miami games from 10-1

3. X: Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17

Two weeks earlier, Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Lynn Swann had been knocked out of the AFC Championship Game in frigid Pittsburgh. There were some doubt that he might not have been able to suit up for this clash with the wild card Dallas Cowboys. He was certainly up to the task and then some.

But it was Tom Landry’s upstart team that would take the early lead as a botched punt by Chuck Noll’s squad set up Roger Staubach’s 29-yard scoring pass to wideout Drew Pearson. The defending Super Bowl champions would respond with a Terry Bradshaw short TD toss to tight end Randy Grossman.

There were so many side stories to this entertaining clash. Cowboys’ linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson almost took back the opening kickoff for a score if not for Steelers’ kicker Roy Gerela. He would suffer bruised ribs on the play and it hampered him for the rest of the game. There was Dallas’ safety Cliff Harris, who will be enshrined in Canton this August but on this afternoon would be thrown to the turf by Pittsburgh middle linebacker Jack Lambert after taunting Gerela following a missed field goal. And there was Cowboys’ wide receiver Percy Howard, who hauled in a 34-yard TD pass from Staubach with 1:48 to play. It would prove to be the only reception of his NFL career.

However, it was mostly Swann. He finished with only four receptions but for an amazing 161 yards – including the game-winning 64-yard score in the fourth quarter. And perhaps the most memorable was his 53-yard catch in the second quarter – a leaping attempt that bounced off his hands but hauled in before it touched the ground.

Next: XXIII