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 Dallas Cowboys  Pittsburgh Steelers | |
| Location | Dallas,Pittsburgh |
|---|---|
| First meeting | September 10, 1960 Steelers 35,Cowboys 28[1] |
| Latest meeting | October 6, 2024 Cowboys 20, Steelers 17[1] |
| Next meeting | TBD (no later than 2028 regular season) |
| Stadiums | Cowboys:AT&T Stadium Steelers:Acrisure Stadium |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 34[1] |
| All-time series | Cowboys: 18–16[1] |
| Regular season series | Cowboys: 17–14[1] |
| Postseason results | Steelers: 2–1[1] |
| Largest victory | Cowboys: 52–21(1966) Steelers: 37–7(1961)[1] |
| Most points scored | Cowboys: 52(1966) Steelers: 37(1961)[1] |
| Longest win streak | Cowboys: 7 (1965–1972) Steelers: 5 (1976–1982)[1] |
| Current win streak | Cowboys: 1 (2024–present)[1] |
| Post–season history[1] | |
| |
TheCowboys–Steelers rivalry is aNational Football League (NFL)rivalry between theDallas Cowboys andPittsburgh Steelers.[2]
CBS Sports ranked this rivalry No. 2 of the best NFL rivalries of the 1970s.[3] As the Cowboys are in the NFC and the Steelers are in the AFC, they usually only meet at least once every four years and at least once every eight seasons at each team's home stadium, sometimes more often if the two teams finish in the same place in their respective divisions in the year they do not play one another but met two years prior, play in the preseason, or meet in the Super Bowl.[4][5][6][7][8]
The Cowboys lead the overall series, 18–16. The two teams have met three times in theplayoffs, with the Steelers winning two out of the threeSuper Bowls against the Cowboys.[1]
The roots to the Cowboys–Steelers rivalry can be traced several years before the Cowboys played a game, and to another team entirely. Following the1951 NFL season,New York Yanks owner Ted Collins sold his team back to the NFL due to financial difficulties competing with theNew York Giants in the same market, as well as theAll-America Football Conference, in which it had played, folding just two years before and putting a severe drain on the team.
Not wanting the team to compete with the Giants in the same market, the NFL decided to move the rights to the franchise to eitherDallas orBaltimore. Baltimore had previously been home to an NFL team, theoriginal Baltimore Colts which had come over from the AAFC along with theCleveland Browns andSan Francisco 49ers, but had folded after the1950 NFL season due to financial difficulties despite strong fan support. Dallas, and the state of Texas in general, was a trueexpansion market that was untapped, and the NFL owners liked the appeal that Dallas offered due to the aforementioned following of football in the state.
The NFL owners voted 10–1 to award the assets of the Yanks to the Dallas group led by Giles Miller as opposed to the Baltimore group, which became theDallas Texans. The lone holdout was Steelers founder and ownerArt Rooney.[9] Rooney, anIrish Catholic, was more tolerant ofAfrican Americans than the other owners (most of whom wereProtestant and had their own discrimination towards Catholics) and was concerned about theracism that existed in theSouthern United States at the time and the subsequentcivil rights movement that would take place later in the decade. Rooney's assumptions would be later proven correct: while the Texans struggled on the field, it also struggled at the gate partly because two of the team's best players,George Taliaferro andBuddy Young, were both black, which made fans in Texas automatically turn away from the team simply because of prejudice.
The Texans folded after the1952 NFL season and their assets would be sold toCarroll Rosenbloom to form thenew Baltimore Colts, which currently play inIndianapolis.
After the failure of the Texans, the NFL had no plans to return to the state in the foreseeable future. However, in 1959,Lamar Hunt, the son of oil tycoonH. L. Hunt, approached the NFL about putting another expansion team in Dallas. The NFL said no, stating that the league was not expanding at the time. He then approached theChicago Cardinals about buying the team from ownerViolet Bidwill Wolfner, who ultimately decided to keep the team and whose sonBill Bidwill remains the owner (the Cardinals did move toSt. Louis, Missouri for the1960 NFL season; the team currently is based inPhoenix, Arizona; the Cowboys and Cardinals were divisional rivals from 1961–66, and again from 1970 to 2001). Due to these rebuffs, Hunt formed theAmerican Football League with his own Dallas team, the AFL's incarnation of the Dallas Texans.
In response, the NFL suddenly reversed course and awarded an expansion team to Dallas for the 1960 season that ultimately became the Cowboys. The plan worked: although the Texans were by far the better team on the field and won the1962 AFL Championship, due to the Cowboys being part of the more-established NFL, the Texans took their AFL Championship north toKansas City, Missouri, where they remain as theKansas City Chiefs.
In the meantime, the Cowboys started play in the NFL in 1960. Their first game was against the same Steelers team that voted against putting an NFL team in Dallas eight years earlier, with the Steelers coming away with a 35–28 victory at theCotton Bowl, en route to an 0–11–1 first season for the Cowboys. The following year, the two teams met again in the season opener at the Cotton Bowl and the results would be different: the young Cowboys beat the veteran-filled Steelers 27–24, the first victory for the Cowboys in franchise history.
The two teams would head in opposite directions the rest of the decade, with the Cowboys competing for the NFL championship in 1966 and 1967 (both losses to theVince Lombardi-ledGreen Bay Packers, the latter matchup in theIce Bowl) while the Steelers would be among the NFL's worst teams, culminating in a 1–13 record in 1969 that saw the team win its season opener against theDetroit Lions, then lose every game afterwards in the first season of Hall of Fame head coachChuck Noll. The Cowboys defeated the Steelers 10–7 atPitt Stadium in week 12 of the1969 season, the final meeting between the clubs before theAFL-NFL merger.
The Steelers would be moved to the newly formedAmerican Football Conference as a result of theAFL–NFL merger for the1970 NFL season while the Cowboys would be placed in theNational Football Conference. The Cowboys would split the first twoSuper Bowl matchups of the decade while the Steelers started improving and would eventually become the dynasty of the decade.[10]
Around this time, both teams would have firm identities. Both were strong on defense with the Steelers' famedSteel Curtain defense, called a "Stunt 4–3", while the Cowboys boasted theDoomsday Defense, based around Landry's "Flex" 4–3 defense. On the offensive side of the ball brought key differences, as the Cowboys had Hall of FamequarterbackRoger Staubach and his aerial attack, as well as his reputation for fourth-quarter comebacks, earning him the nickname "Captain Comeback". The Steelers meanwhile, were powered offensively by the running game, led by Hall of Famerunning backFranco Harris.
The teams met in September 1972 atTexas Stadium, with the Cowboys prevailing 17–13. The Steelers would go on to win the AFC Central division and qualify for the playoffs for the first time. In the postseason, Pittsburgh defeated theOakland Raiders 13–7 onFranco Harris' "Immaculate Reception", but lost the AFC championship game to the eventualSuper Bowl championMiami Dolphins 21–17. Dallas qualified for the playoffs as the NFC wildcard team, where they defeated theSan Francisco 49ers in the divisional round 30-28, but lost the NFC championship game to their division rivals, theWashington Redskins, 26-3.
The two had their first postseason meeting inSuper Bowl X, with both teams vying to tie the Packers andMiami Dolphins for their second Super Bowl Championship. The Steelers won this game, 21–17, after safetyGlen Edwards intercepted a Staubach pass in the end zone to seal the victory. The hostility was evident in the third quarter when Steelers kickerRoy Gerela missed his second field goal, a 33-yard attempt. After the miss, Cowboys safetyCliff Harris mockingly patted Gerela on his helmet and thanked him for "helping Dallas out", but was immediately shoved to the ground by Steeler linebackerJack Lambert. Lambert could have been ejected from the game for defending his teammate, but the officials decided to allow him to remain.[11]
After the Cowboys wonSuper Bowl XII, the two would meet again inSuper Bowl XIII, considered one of the greatest Super Bowls ever played and consisted of a combined 20 players, coaches, and front-office administration that ended up in thePro Football Hall of Fame, an NFL record. The Steelers would once again come victorious, holding off the Cowboys 35–31. By this point, both teams would have rabid fan bases established nationally due to prominent television exposure.
The two would meet in the regular season in 1979 atThree Rivers Stadium, a 14–3 Steelers victory that many thought would be preview of Super Bowl XIV. While the Steelers did go on to winSuper Bowl XIV that season, theLos Angeles Rams crashed the party, having upset the Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs 21–19 in Staubach's last game en route to meeting the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV.
Age eventually caught up to both teams once the 1980s hit, though both remained competitive into the middle of the decade. The highlight of the decade for this rivalry would come in the 1982 season opener atTexas Stadium, when the Steelers ended the Cowboys NFL-record 17-year season-opening winning streak with a 36–28 victory against the Cowboys.
By the middle of the decade, both teams were rebuilding. The1986 NFL season would be the first year since the1965 NFL season that both teams missed the playoffs, which would happen for two more years before the Steelers clinched awild card spot in 1989. During this time, the Steelers, with a mix of aging veterans and younger players, remained competitive in the AFC Central while the wheels fell off completely in Dallas. In 1988, both Tom Landry and Chuck Noll appeared on the cover ofSports Illustrated together, asking if both coaches had lost their touch. Though both teams had young future Hall of Famers inMichael Irvin andRod Woodson, the Cowboys and Steelers would finish 3–13 and 5–11, respectively, for 1988. New Cowboys ownerJerry Jones fired Landry after the season. Noll would retire just three seasons later after missing the playoffs by just a few games each year after his breakout 1989 wild-card spot and two playoff thrillers, a 26–23 overtime victory in Houston and a 24–23 loss at Denver.
The Cowboys would return to prominence in the 1990s, winning three Super Bowls, while the Steelers would return toAFC Championship contention under head coachBill Cowher. The rivalry resumed in the 1990s, but unlike the 1970s matchups that were dominated by Pittsburgh, Dallas got the upper hand this time around. The Cowboys swept all four matchups between the two teams in the decade.
The possibility of Cowboys–Steelers III forSuper Bowl XXIX existed, as both teams advanced to their respective conference championships. Such a matchup would be a rematch from Week 1 of the regular season, which the Cowboys won 26–9; notably, this was the first game to air onFox as part of the national late-window following Fox's acquisition ofbroadcasting rights. The Cowboys were the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, while the Steelers behind their "Blitzburgh" defense was the favorite to win theAFC. However, the favored Steelers were upset by theSan Diego Chargers 17–13 while theSan Francisco 49ers, who had lost in the NFC Championship game the previous two years to the Cowboys, beat the Cowboys 38–28.
Fans would only have to wait another year for Cowboys–Steelers III in the Super Bowl, as both teams advanced toSuper Bowl XXX. Like the previous two matchups, the game was close, but this time favored the Cowboys, who won 27–17 after Steelers quarterbackNeil O'Donnell threw two interceptions to CowboyscornerbackLarry Brown, who would be namedSuper Bowl MVP for his efforts.
The Steelers have won two of their three Super Bowl appearances sinceSuper Bowl XXX (XL andXLIII, but lostXLV), while the Cowboys have not been back to the NFC Championship game since the aforementioned Super Bowl.
Since the NFL realigned in2002, all interconference opponents, including the Cowboys and Steelers, play each other every four seasons. The teams split the four meetings since, with the Steelers winning in 2004 and 2008, and the Cowboys winning in 2012 and 2016. In the fifth meeting since realignment, 2020, the Steelers regained the upper hand by defeating the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, 24-19. The Cowboys then won atAcrisure Stadium 20-17 in 2024.
| Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Season-by-Season Results[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1960s (Cowboys, 9–7)
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1970s (Steelers, 4–1)
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1980s (Steelers, 2–1)
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1990s (Cowboys, 4–0)
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2000s (Steelers, 2–0)
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2010s (Cowboys, 2–0)
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2020s (Tied, 1–1)
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Summary of Results
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