Doomsday In The Dome

"Roger told me to run a good post, and the rest is history," said Butch. Someone said, "It looked spectacular." And Butch said, "It was."

However, members of the Dallas defense had more reason to talk than anyone else.

Martin, who devoured Denver Tackle Andy Maurer like so much barbecued shrimp, said, "He stopped me short in the first half, but I gave him some different looks and went inside on him a lot. Orange Crush is soda water, baby. You drink it. It don't win football games."

White, who dined on so many platters of Denver Guard Tom Glassic on the half shell, said, "We knew pressuring Craig was the key and it was all on our shoulders. We wanted it."

And then there was the gesturing Henderson, who added, "I'm sorry they took Morton out. I wanted him to throw me a couple."

One of the more amazing aspects of the game is that the score was not 35-0 for Dallas at the end of the first half. Denver committed enough crimes against itself to do a life term in Leavenworth. When Morton wasn't throwing the ball directly into a white Cowboy jersey, one of his own receivers would give it away after he caught it. Not only did the Broncos lose the ball in these normal ways, they once lost it on what was supposed to be a punt return, when the ball bounced off John Schultz' headgear as he tried to block for Rick Upchurch. Yep, it hit him in the head. Once more a Cowboy wound up with the football.

Why didn't the Cowboys do more with all these boners? Maybe it was because of their own sophistication. Ahead 13-0 early in the second quarter after Dorsett's touchdown and two field goals by Efren Herrera, they became a bit too cutesy when they got down in scoring range. It was as if they had already learned that whatever they wanted to do would work, so they decided they would show the Broncos what a real mosaic of an offense looked like. Staubach put everyone but Landry in motion, ran misdirection pass routes, tried throwing across the field and against the flow and screening—all those things—and in the end Herrera would wind up missing another field goal. He missed three, in fact, for the day.

On the other hand, one possible reason for all this flimflam was that the Cowboys could not use their preferred double-tight-end attack when in scoring position because backup Tight End Jay Saldi didn't dress for the game as a result of a calf injury.

Before the Cowboys were able to turn Denver's first two turnovers into 10 points, they had to overcome some sloppiness of their own. Tony Hill foolishly attempted to field a Denver punt near his goal line. He fumbled it away, but the Cowboys got lucky when Aaron Kyle outscrambled a herd of Broncos for the ball at the one. Morton's first interception came shortly thereafter, when Waters and White forced him to throw a horrible wobbler that Randy Hughes intercepted on the Bronco 25. Very quickly, Staubach hit Tight End Billy Joe DuPree for 13 yards, and then Dorsett took over. He ran for six, then one, and finally skittered off left tackle for a touchdown, standing up.

The next time Morton got the football, it was time for him to meet Too Tall Jones. The towering end pressured Morton into throwing another nowhere-in-particular pass. Bob Breunig tipped it, Kyle intercepted it and Dallas had it on the Denver 35. Newhouse ran for nine yards, then Dorsett zipped for 18 more around right end to give the Cowboys a first down at the Bronco eight. When a pass failed and Staubach was sacked, Herrera kicked a 36-yard field goal to make it 10-0.