Football fans whose team doesn’t make the Super Bowl are often forced to find other things to root for. Maybe it comes down to pulling for a particular player, maybe it’s hoping a rival team loses. Maybe, as in the case of Cowboys fans and Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, it’s wishing good things for a guy who used to wear the star. Sometimes it’s about simply preserving your team’s place in history.
But then there are records you’d be just as happy to see someone else’s name etched next to.
Aaron Donald and the Rams defense likely got a sudden (if temporary) wave of silver-and-blue fans during the third quarter of Super Bowl LVI when the NBC broadcast team put up the following graphic:
Burrow ya es el QB mas sackeado en un #SuperBowl junto a Staubach. pic.twitter.com/5D1O0bVo93
— Pick 6 (@Pick6NFL) February 14, 2022
Heading into halftime, Joe Burrow had been sacked twice. But in one particularly ominous stretch of the third quarter, Cincinnati’s offensive line gave up a staggering five sacks in nine dropbacks.
If Burrow got dropped one more time in the final 17 minutes of play, he would take over a Super Bowl record that Cowboys legend Roger Staubach had held all to himself for 46 years.
The Carolina Panthers surrendered seven sacks in Super Bowl 50, but only six were on starting passer Cam Newton; Ted Ginn Jr. went in the books as being sacked once, too. In Super Bowl XX, the Bears recorded seven sacks as well, but they were divided between Patriots quarterbacks Steve Grogan and Tony Eason.
No, until this past Sunday, only the Cowboys’ Staubach had been taken down seven times in a single Super Bowl.
Super Bowl X featured Dallas as the first NFC wild card squad to make the title game, their postseason run highlighted by Drew Pearson’s famous “Hail Mary” catch against Minnesota three weeks prior.
Pittsburgh, with a league-best 12-2 regular-season record, was anchored by their ferocious “Steel Curtain” defense, a unit that placed an astonishing eight of 11 starters in the Pro Bowl that year.
The Steelers defense got off to a hot start that afternoon in Miami, sacking Staubach on the very first play from scrimmage and foreshadowing a long day in the pocket for the Cowboys captain.
Pittsburgh got to him again on back-to-back plays late in the second quarter to push the Cowboys out of field goal range; Dallas nevertheless held a 10-7 lead at intermission.
Only one player has ever collected more than three sacks in a #SuperBowl…#Steelers stud L.C. Greenwood, who dropped Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach four times in Super Bowl X. pic.twitter.com/WmYv20w8cX
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) February 13, 2022
Carrying that slight edge into the fourth quarter, though, the Cowboys offensive line finally caved. Staubach went down twice in one early three-and-out series; Pittsburgh broke through the line again on fourth down to block a punt out of the end zone and score a safety.
By the time Staubach was caught again, he was trying to engineer a comeback, down 15-10 with under six minutes to play. His seventh and final sack came with just over two minutes left and the Cowboys down 21-10. On the next play, Staubach would find receiver Percy Howard for a touchdown that made the score 21-17, the eventual final. (The Cowboys would get the ball again, but Staubach was all out of miracles, ending the game with an interception in the end zone.)
Seven sacks on the biggest stage of the season. It was a dubious record that Cowboys fans were happy to finally share with someone, and one they would have loved to let go of entirely.
And they nearly did, as Burrow found himself in the grasp of Donald one last time as he tried to conjure up a bit of late-game magic at SoFi Stadium in the waning moments of Sunday’s game.
AARON FRICKIN' DONALD.#RAMSHOUSE #SBLVI pic.twitter.com/KbmZYWmjN9
— NFL (@NFL) February 14, 2022
Burrow managed to flick the ball away just before hitting the turf. If Donald had gotten home one second sooner, Los Angeles would have notched a new-record eight Super Bowl sacks.
But, as it turned out, had Donald been a second later, it could have been a different ending altogether to the drama-filled night.
Ja’Marr Chase already was behind Jalen Ramsey on a go route when Ramsey fell on the fourth-and-1 game ender. If Burrow had a sliver more time … pic.twitter.com/uQfgqZ88P4
— Jay Morrison (@JayMorrisonATH) February 14, 2022
In the end, the Rams won the Lombardi Trophy. And Joe Burrow put his name in the Super Bowl record book, right next to Heisman winner, two-time Super Bowl champ, and Hall of Fame legend Roger Staubach, albeit in a category both men- and their teams’ fans- would just as soon forget.
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