Super Bowl XII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1977 season. The Cowboys defeated the Broncos 27–10 to win their second Super Bowl…..as te game was played on January 15, 1978, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisana…..which was the first Super Bowl played in a domed stadium….and the first time that the game was played in prime time in the Eastern United States.
The game pitted Cowboys QB Roger Staubach against their former quarterback, Craig Morton…..when led by Staubach and the Doomsday Defense, Dallas advanced to its fourth Super Bowl after posting a 12–2 record in the regular season….along with home playoff victories over the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings….while the Broncos were led by Morton and the Orange Crush Defense….who made their first ever postseason appearance after a franchise-best 12–2 regular season….while also having home-field advantage in defeats over the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders.
The Cowboys defense dominated most of Super Bowl XII….while forcing eight turnovers and allowing only eight pass completions by the Broncos for just 61 yards…..as two interceptions led to 10 first-quarter points…..as Denver’s longest play of the game was just 21 yards….which occurred on their opening drive. Dallas expanded its lead to 20–3 in the third quarter after wide receiver Butch Johnson made a diving catch in the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown reception. An ineffective Morton was replaced by Norris Weese late in the third period…..and he promptly drove the Broncos downfield to score a touchdown to cut the lead to 20–10….which was capped by a Rob Lytle one-yard touchdown run. But the Cowboys put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter when fullback Robert Newhouse threw a 29-yard touchdown pass on a halfback option play to receiver Golden Richards…..and for the first and only time in Super Bowl history that two players won and shared the Super Bowl MVP honors….as defensive tackle Randy White and defensive end Harvey Martin won the honor…while this was also the first time that a defensive lineman was named Super Bowl MVP.
