If fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers could forget one game in the team’s long history, there would be no shortage of people who would never want to remember Super Bowl XXX. Not only did the Steelers lose football’s biggest game, but they lost to the Dallas Cowboys, an old rival from the 1970s with one of the NFL’s most insufferable fan bases.
There are a million reasons why Steelers fans detest this game, but while it was happening, there were moments of brilliance that instilled hope in the people of Pittsburgh. Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher reflected on one of these moments recently, revealing that it was an ace he had up his sleeve the entire game.
Succeeding the legendary Chuck Noll left big shoes for Cowher to fill, but he almost did when he nearly captured the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl in only his fourth season as head coach. Cowher did everything he could to get the win for the Steelers that day, including calling a surprise onside kick in the fourth quarter. On a recent video posted to NFL on CBS’ YouTube channel, Cowher reflected on his decision to attempt an onside kick, revealing he could have called it whenever he wanted.
“I knew we’d have it,” Cowher said. “The question I was gonna say was, ‘Do you do it on the opening kickoff or do you save it?’ The only reason I didn’t do it on the opening kickoff was I didn’t feel like it was a momentum changer because momentum was created. It was in the [fourth] quarter, we had just scored, and I knew it was there. Norm Johnson executed it; Deon Figures picked it up. It was there the whole game, so it was just a matter of having the right time to call it.”
Cowher’s decision to save his greatest trick paid off. The Steelers recovered the kick and went on to score a touchdown, cutting the Cowboys’ lead to just three with just over six minutes to go. All the momentum was on the Steelers’ side, and it seemed that, despite the Cowboys being heavy favorites, the Steelers were going to defeat them in the Super Bowl for the third time.
After forcing a Cowboys punt, the Steelers had the chance to take the lead when they got the ball with a little over four minutes remaining. However, Neil O’Donnell proceeded to throw the ball right to Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown, breaking Steelers fans hearts everywhere. The Cowboys scored on the enusing drive, putting the final nail in the Steelers’ coffin.
Super Bowl XXX is a black spot in the Steelers’ ledger, but Cowher’s decision to attempt an onside kick was a stroke of brilliance. The fact that he knew enough about the Cowboys to know the Steelers could steal a possession anytime they wanted shows what a tremendous coach he was. That’s just one of the many reasons why he is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The end result wasn’t what Cowher, or the Steelers, were hoping for, but considering they had lost arguably their best player in Rod Woodson for basically that entire regular season, no one can take anything away from that team. Besides, Cowher ended up getting his fairy tale ending when the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, so while the loss still stings, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
