O’Donnell Was Dallas’ Mvp

Neil O’Donnell overthrew receivers. His passes also were high, and some were wide. He was wildly inconsistent through the first three quarters. Then …

The fourth quarter.

It was as if O’Donnell suddenly morphed into Joe Montana. He was brilliant for an eight-minute stretch. Hit 10 of 11 passes. Rallied the Pittsburgh Steelers from a 13-point deficit to within three points of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Steelers had the ball and they had momentum and they had a chance to hijack a victory from the Cowboys. The blue-collar team was about to beat the team with the bad-guy image. Good was about to beat Evil.

Then …

Neil O’Donnell turned back into … Neil O’Donnell.

He was intercepted. The Cowboys had a blitz on, and O’Donnell threw to a receiver he thought would be there. The receiver wasn’t there, though. Nobody was there except Larry Brown. Who plays for the Cowboys.

Brown intercepted the pass. Returned it 33 yards to the Steeler 6-yard line. Two plays later, Emmitt Smith scored.

Evil beat Good.

At the end of the first half, O’Donnell hit his final four passes to pull the Steelers to within 13-7.But still, it was a game. The oddsmakers were wrong.

This would not be a blowout. As inconsistent as O’Donnell had played, the Steelers’ defense had kept them in the game.

The Steelers knew they’d be in a heap of trouble if Emmitt Smith busted loose. They never let it happen. Smith ran 23 yards the first time he touched the ball, but the Steelers shackled him after that. He gained only three yards on his final six carries of the first half and wasn’t all that effective in the second half.

Emmitt did score twice in the second half. O’Donnell gets an assist for each touchdown.

On the Steelers’ second possession of the second half, on a third-and-eight play from the 48 with the score 13-7, O’Donnell dropped back to pass. The blitz was on.

O’Donnell wasn’t.

He threw to his right. The only guy anywhere near the ball, just like later on, was Larry Brown. There wasn’t a Steeler receiver within 15 yards of the ball. Brown made the interception. Returned it 44 yards.

Two plays later, Emmitt ran it in from the 1.

Brown wound up the game’s MVP. That was easy. No other Cowboy really came close to deserving it.

Without Larry Brown’s two interceptions, the Steelers probably would have won this Super Bowl.

“I don’t think offensively we ever lost confidence we’d get it done, and we didn’t get it done until we absolutely had to with the turnovers,” Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman said.

The Cowboys won this game, becoming the first team to win three Super Bowls in four seasons, but there was not the dominant feel to it that there was in the Cowboys’ victories in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVII.

The difference in this game was, really, Neil O’Donnell and Larry Brown.

“We didn’t get the ball on turnovers and they did,” Steeler coach Bill Cowher said. “Neil got us here. Without Neil O’Donnell we wouldn’t be playing now. We didn’t get to the top of the mountain but it was a great run along the way.”

It was a great run right until O’Donnell’s second interception.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Bob Sansevere St. Paul Pioneer Press