Steelers, Cowboys Catch Big One : Favre Takes the Packers Only So Far

Despite a season of finger-pointing and second-guessing, the Dallas Cowboys are back in the Super Bowl thanks to the same names who put them there before--Emmitt, Aikman and Irvin.

Emmitt Smith rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns while Troy Aikman combined with Michael Irvin for two touchdowns as the Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers, 38-27, in Sunday’s NFC championship game.

“This year was a tough year and a trying year,” Aikman said. “A lot of people didn’t expect us to get this far.”

The victory put the Cowboys in the Super Bowl for the third time in four years and gave Barry Switzer a shot at his first NFL title as coach.

It wasn’t that easy in a game in which the lead changed five times. Brett Favre, the league’s MVP, completed just two of his first nine passes for Green Bay, but both were for touchdowns, keeping the Packers in the game in the first half.

The heat also was a factor in wearing down the Green Bay defense. It was 78 degrees at game time, 94 degrees higher than it was that fabled day at Lambeau Field in 1967 when Vince Lombardi’s Packers beat Tom Landry’s Cowboys to go to the second Super Bowl.

Some of the stars of that Ice Bowl game were on hand for the coin toss in this one--Ray Nitschke, Bart Starr and Willie Davis for the Packers, Leroy Jordan and Bob Hayes for the Cowboys.

But it was the stars of today who made the difference--the Cowboys’ “triplets,” who put Dallas Cowboys into the NFC’s title game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in two weeks, the third time those two will have met in the game.

“Our great players played great,” Switzer said. “Emmitt Smith made great plays.”

Pittsburgh won both previous meetings, in 1976 and 1978, and each team will be seeking its fifth Super Bowl victory--only San Francisco has as many.

The Cowboys, who were made early 11 1/2-point favorites, also will be looking for their third title in four years and the NFC for its 12th straight Super Bowl win.

Landry coached both those games against Pittsburgh, while Jimmy Johnson was Dallas’ coach in the back-to-back Super Bowl triumphs of 1993-94.

Switzer, in his first year as coach of Dallas, lost to the 49ers in the NFC championship game last year, and his coaching has been criticized through the season -- especially after a late-season loss to Philadelphia, in which he went unsuccessfully for first down on fourth and one deep in Eagle territory.

That’s been typical of the Dallas year. Times have not always been happy at Valley Ranch as the Cowboys chased the 49ers for NFC supremacy. Aikman and Switzer bickered briefly, and owner Jerry Jones and the league swapped multimillion-dollar lawsuits over franchise licensing.

But in the postseason, the Cowboys have come up big--including another maligned Cowboy, Leon Lett, who had an interception to set up one touchdown, and was in the Green Bay backfield all day.

Aikman was 21 for 33 for 251 yards and Irvin caught seven for 100 yards and two- and four-yard touchdowns.

But it was Smith’s five-yard touchdown run 2:36 into the final quarter at the end of a 90-yard drive that put the Cowboys ahead for good in a shootout in which bad blood between the two teams led to a plethora of penalties.

Then cornerback Larry Brown, picked on all day by the Packers, made another big play, an interception after Green Bay seemed ready to go ahead again. That set up a 16-yard touchdown run by Smith that put the Cowboys up by 10.

But while the Cowboys dominated, it took a while to put away the Packers and Favre.

Favre came out so pumped up in his first championship game that he missed his first six passes. But his seventh was a 73-yard touchdown strike to Robert Brooks 21 seconds after Dallas had taken a 14-3 lead late in the first quarter.

And his second completion was also a touchdown, 24 yards to Keith Jackson early in the second quarter. Favre finished 21 of 39 for 307 yards.

But in the end, the Dallas offense, and perhaps the warm weather, finally gave the Cowboys their seventh straight win over the Packers.

Dallas had two drives of 90 yards or more, including a 99-yarder at the end of the first half. And it controlled the ball for all but seven minutes of the first half and for 38:56 in the game.

“We had champagne to celebrate on the plane,” Green Bay Coach Mike Holmgren said. “We’ll still drink a toast to our team.”

The first half lasted almost two hours with a 10-minute delay after Gil Haskell, Green Bay’s wide receivers coach, was knocked unconscious when he was hit by Brooks out of bounds.

Despite its huge lead in time of possession, the Cowboys finished the first half leading only 24-17, thanks to that 99-yard drive capped by Smith’s one-yard touchdown run.

After Chris Jacke’s 34-yard field goal gave the Packers the lead 3-0, the Cowboys scored two quick touchdowns--on passes from Aikman to Irvin. The second score was set up by Lett, who leaped to grab an attempted screen pass at the Packers’ 13.

But 21 seconds after the second TD, Favre completed his first pass in seven attempts, a slant to Brooks, who had beaten Brown to the inside. It turned into a 73-yard touchdown play and suddenly the Packers were back in the game.

They took the lead 39 seconds into the second quarter after Antonio Freeman returned a punt 39 yards and got 15 more yards when punter John Jett pulled him down by the face mask.

That set the Packers up at the Dallas 35 and two plays later, Favre found Jackson over the middle for 24 yards--his second completion and second touchdown.

But Dallas came right back to go 80 yards in 11 plays with Aikman finding Irvin on the goal line from 6 yards out for the score. It was set up by a 35-yard third-down pass to Deion Sanders, who high-stepped his way to the Green Bay 9.

Jacke’s 37-yard field goal 3:31 into the second half cut it to 24-20.

Then Favre drove the Packers 79 yards in eight plays, hitting Brooks from a yard away to give Green Bay the lead again. The key play was a 54-yard pass to Jackson, who got behind the secondary after the Packers picked up a blitz.