With the kickoff of Super Bowl LVIII two days away we continue our recap of the eight Super Bowl games played by the Dallas Cowboys.
It would be the second time the Cowboys faced an opponent in the Super Bowl for the second time. The first came in Super Bowls X and XIII against the Steelers.
It was also first time they did so in back-to-back Super Bowls.
And it was the first time in Super Bowl history that two teams met in the Super Bowl in consecutive years. It has not happened again since.
The Cowboys (14-4) had started the year 0-2 – including a 13-10 loss at Texas Stadium to the Bills in Week 2.
But they hadn’t lost a game since an overtime loss to Miami on Thanksgiving Day. The streak included an overtime win at the Giants to secure the division and the No. 1 seed.
The Bills (14-4) were playing in their fourth straight Super Bowl and hoping to finally win a championship while avenging the previous year’s 52-17 loss to Dallas.
The game was played on Jan. 30, 1994, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. It was the second time the Cowboys played in a Super Bowl inside a domed stadium.
They won Super Bowl XII, 27-10, over the Denver Broncos at the Superdome in New Orleans at the end of the 1977 season.
Defensive Struggle Early
The two teams exchanged field goals on their opening possessions.
Eddie Murray got Dallas on the board with a 41-yarder with 13:05 left. The Bills answered with a 54-yarder by Steve Christie with 10:39 remaining.
One play after a Dallas punt, Jim Kelly hit Thurman Thomas on a seven yard pass.
Thomas fumbled the ball and Darren Woodson recovered it. Six plays later, Murray hit a 24-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 6-3 lead with 4:33 left in the quarter.
Buffalo Takes The Lead
The Bills answered with a six-play drive that ended with a punt. But a Dallas penalty gave Buffalo new life.
After 11 more plays, the Bills capped a 17-play, 80-yard drive of 6:07 of game time with a four-yard Thomas run.
The Bills has a 10-6 lead with 12:48 left in the half.
The teams exchanged punts and Dallas embarked on a drive that began on their own one. After 10 plays, The Cowboys had a first down at Buffalo’s 37.
But Aikman’s pass to Michael Irvin was picked off at the 12 and returned to the Cowboys’ 47 with 1:03 left in the half.
Kelly got the Bills to the nine-yard line with 17 seconds left but his pass to Thomas went for no gain.
The Bills settled for a 28-yard field goal by Christie and a 13-6 halftime lead.
Defense Does It Again
The Bills took the opening kickoff and moved to their own 43.
But after a three-yard run, Thomas fumbled for the second time. This time, James Washington recovered the ball and ran 43 yards to tie the game at 13.
The Bills would go three-and-out and punted the ball away just 40 seconds later.
Emmitt Smith would run the ball seven times in eight plays – a three-yard pass from Aikman to Daryl Johnston the only non-Smith play – on the ensuing drive.
His 15-yard touchdown run capped a 64-yard drive and gave Dallas a 20-13 lead with 9:16 left in the quarter.
The rest of the quarter would see the teams exchanging punts.
The Final Blow
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Washington collected his second turnover of the game. The defensive back picked off a Kelly pass and retuned it to the Bills’ 34.
Nine plays later, Smith punched it in from a yard out on fourth down to give Dallas a 27-13 lead with 9:50 to play.
It was the score that broke the Bills.
Buffalo punted on its next possession after six plays. Murray capped a nine-play drive with a 20-yard field goal to make it 30-13 with 2:54 remaining.
Buffalo reached the Cowboys’13 with six seconds left. But Kelly’s final pass – a nine-yarder to Don Beebe – was a yard short of a first down.
Bernie Kosar – who had come so close to making the Super Bowl with the Cleveland Browns in the 1980s – took the final snap for the Cowboys to secure the 30-13 victory.
The Final Numbers
For Dallas, it was the first repeat championship in two tries in franchise history. Their Super Bowl XIII loss to Pittsburgh had denied them a repeat championship at the end of the 1978 season.
For Buffalo, it was a record fourth straight Super Bowl loss in as many years.
While the Bills are the only team to lose four consecutive Super Bowls, they at least aren’t the only team to go 0-4 or worse in Super Bowl history.
The Minnesota Vikings went 0-4 in the Super Bowl between 1969-1976. The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3 in the Super Bowl.
Emmitt Smith took down the MVP honors in Super Bowl XXVIII. Smith had 132 yards on 30 carries with his two scores. He added four catches for 26 yards.
Aikman was 19-of-27 for 207 yards and one interception.
Alvin Harper had three catches for 75 yards while Michael Irvin added five for 66 yards.
Kelly made it all the way through this Super Bowl, getting injured midway through the previous year’s title game.
Kelly was 31-of-50 for 260 yards and an interception.
Thomas had 37 yards on 16 carries and one score, as well as 52 yards on seven catches. But he also had the two critical fumbles.
Andre Reed led the Bills’ receivers with six catches for 75 yards.
Cowboys Starters
Player Pos
Offense
- Troy Aikman QB
- Emmitt Smith RB
- Daryl Johnston FB
- Alvin Harper WR
- Michael Irvin WR
- Jay Novacek TE
- Mark Tuinei LT
- Nate Newton LG
- Mark Stepnoski C
- Kevin Gogan RG
- Erik Williams RT
Defense
- Tony Tolbert LDE
- Tony Casillas LDT
- Leon Lett RDT
- Charles Haley RDE
- Vinson Smith LLB
- Ken Norton Jr. MLB
- Darrin Smith RLB
- Kevin Smith LCB
- Larry Brown RCB
- Thomas Everett SS
- James Washington FS
- Darren Woodson DB
Special Teams
- Eddie Murray PK
- John Jett P
