Super Bowl XXVII : THROUGH THE YEARS : Footnotes To History : XII : RED MILLER : DENVER BRONCOS

Dallas’ 27-10 victory over Denver in Super Bowl XII signaled the demise of the phenomenon of the 1977 regular season--the Broncos’ Orange Crush defense.

For the Cowboys, well, they had a hard time swallowing the whole concept. After all, the Cowboy defense, led by Randy White and Harvey Martin, helped Dallas to a 14-2 record, same as Denver’s, and nobody was comparing them to a soft drink, a fruit cup or any kind of snack food at all.

So Dallas was prepared emotionally for playing the Broncos. The Cowboys seemed to acknowledge some sort of silent incentive.

Actually, the Broncos had a strong incentive of their own. They were trying to get out of New Orleans before they got carried off by cockroaches. The Broncos’ official hotel probably wasn’t that bad, but it seemed that way to Denver Coach Red Miller.

“The AFC always got the bad end of the stick,” he said. “We were staying way out of town near the airport and the Cowboys were at some nice fancy hotel. Our hotel? It was fine if you like cockroaches, terrible food and lumpy beds. It was bad.”

One night, 11 players got stuck in the hotel elevator for 40 minutes. And running back Otis Armstrong began naming the cockroaches in his room after Cowboy players.

And bad food, in New Orleans, one of the gourmet capitals of the nation? “The chef quit halfway through the first week,” Miller said.

Best meal? “There wasn’t one,” he said.

And once the game started, Miller probably started thinking about his next meal, the one on the airplane back to Denver. The Broncos piled up turnovers like beignets on a plate down at the Cafe du Monde. Dallas defenders recovered four Bronco fumbles and intercepted four Bronco passes and the rout was on.

“If it hadn’t been for those turnovers, we probably would have beat them,” Miller

said.

Right, and if it hadn’t

been for the Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans would probably have been in Mississippi.

* 1978 AT NEW ORLEANS

Dallas 10 3 7 7 -- 27 Denver 0 0 10 0 -- 10

Dal--Dorsett 3 run (Herrera kick)

Dal--FG Herrera 35

Dal--FG Herrera 43

Den--FG Turner 47

Dal--Johnson 45 pass from Staubach (Herrera kick)

Den--Lytle 1 run (Turner kick)

Dal--Richards 29 pass from Newhouse (Herrera kick)

A--75,583

Winning Coach--Tom Landry

MVPs--Randy White, Harvey Martin