Super Bowl XII — 1977 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Harvey Martin (DE) and Randy White (DT), Dallas Cowboys

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: Denver starting QB Craig Morton was not relieved until backup Norris Weese entered late (4/10, 22 yards per the box score, not included above). A halfback-option pass by Robert Newhouse (1/1, 29 yards, 1 TD) is recorded separately in this site's game-context narrative rather than in the passing table, which reports only the two starting quarterbacks' lines.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

Super Bowl XII, the first championship game played indoors and the first broadcast in prime time, saw the Dallas Cowboys' "Doomsday Defense" overwhelm the Denver Broncos 27-10 at the brand-new Louisiana Superdome. The Broncos, appearing in their first Super Bowl after 14 losing seasons to open the franchise's history, were led by Craig Morton -- the same quarterback who had started for Dallas in its Super Bowl V loss seven years earlier, making him the only quarterback ever to start Super Bowls for two different franchises. Dallas's defense set the tone immediately, forcing a Super Bowl-record eight turnovers, including four interceptions of Morton in the first half alone, on the way to a 13-0 halftime lead that effectively decided the game. Denver managed only 61 total passing yards on eight completions all game, and Morton, benched in the second half in favor of Norris Weese, finished with a passer rating of 0.0 -- still the only such performance in Super Bowl history. Denver briefly showed life in the third quarter, adding a field goal and a Rob Lytle touchdown run under Weese to cut the deficit to 20-10, but Dallas answered decisively in the fourth quarter with a trick-play touchdown, a 29-yard halfback option pass from fullback Robert Newhouse to receiver Golden Richards, sealing the 27-10 final. Defensive end Harvey Martin, the NFL's reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and defensive tackle Randy White shared Super Bowl MVP honors, becoming the first co-MVPs in Super Bowl history and the first pure defensive linemen to win the award. Their relentless pressure on Morton, combined with a suffocating overall defensive effort -- Dallas forced eight turnovers against a Denver offense that had ridden the "Orange Crush" defense to the Super Bowl rather than its own attack -- made the individual stat sheet almost secondary to the unit's collective dominance. On offense, Roger Staubach was efficient if unspectacular, completing 17 of 25 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions, while rookie Tony Dorsett added a rushing touchdown; Dorsett, who had won a college national championship with Pittsburgh the previous January and a Super Bowl in the same building (the Superdome having hosted that year's Sugar Bowl) less than twelve months later, became the first player in football history to accomplish that unusual double. The game also carried structural significance as the final Super Bowl played under the NFL's 14-game regular-season format before the league expanded to 16 games the following year, and its Superdome setting inaugurated the modern era of dome-hosted Super Bowls that would become increasingly common in subsequent decades. For Dallas, the win was the franchise's second Super Bowl title in six years, further cementing its 1970s standing as one of the league's marquee franchises -- a reputation that would soon earn it the enduring nickname "America's Team."

Sources

• Wikipedia: Super Bowl XII
• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl Game Summaries