SUPER BOWL XXX / Cowboys 27, Steelers 17 : Steelers Cut Off at Pass

TEMPE, Ariz. —  The Dallas Cowboys may have told us so.

But never could they have told us how.

Yes, on Sunday afternoon, they bounced around Sun Devil Stadium as if it were their house.

And, yes, they behaved like such stars that maybe somebody could have driven them home in a limo.

And, OK, OK, they said they would win another world championship and darned if they didn’t, a 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.

But they missed on the part about the hero.

No one said it would be Neil O’Donnell.

He plays for the Steelers. He thought Larry Brown did too.

That is the only reasonable explanation for two perfect second-half passes to the Cowboy cornerback, whose interceptions led to two Emmitt Smith touchdowns, including the game-clincher with 3:43 remaining.

Just when the Steelers had climbed off the canvas and were on the verge of overcoming a 13-0 deficit with one of the greatest upsets and endings in Super Bowl history, their jittery quarterback shoved them clear through the ropes.

O’Donnell also carried himself into the Super Bowl history book in the chapter that documents 12 consecutive AFC losses.

The Cowboys were so thankful to limp away with their unprecedented third world championship in four years that they promised to behave the next 12 months with humility and grace.

Yeah, right.

“I’m going to tell Jerry Jones that for this third ring, I want a big ol’ diamond,” screamed receiver Michael Irvin, who caught five passes. “Big, big, big, big, big, big.”

At the other end of the postgame interview room, Deion Sanders paused while pushing his new nightclub to smile and wag his finger.

“I’m not going to say I told you so,” he said. “But you know what I’m thinking.”

Then he talked about how the Cowboys could win two more championships before his contract ends in four years. Not once mentioning that on Sunday, he was beaten for a touchdown pass.

The Steelers outgained the Cowboys (310-254), outguessed them (an on-side kick led to touchdown) and flat outworked them (they held the ball for seven more minutes).

From midway through the second quarter, the Steelers’ defense simply stuck it to the Cowboys, holding them to no more than 18 yards on any of their final eight drives of the game.

But twice, they handed it to them.

Long will they mourn that they cannot get it back.

“There’s no tomorrow, and that’s the tough thing about this,” O’Donnell said.

Linebacker Kevin Greene added simply, “This is hard, man.”

It looked as if it might get easy for them with 4:15 remaining in the game, trailing 20-17, holding the ball on their 32-yard line.

They had just completed a 52-yard touchdown drive after Deon Figures recovered Norm Johnson’s perfect on-side kick. The Cowboy defense was gasping in its huddle.

“I was getting real nervous,” Dallas defensive tackle Russell Maryland said. “It was getting real hot.”

Then on second down, O’Donnell felt a blitz and jumped. He swiveled and fired the ball into the right flat, where receiver Andre Hastings was supposed to have run a quick-out pattern.

Except, because of what both parties termed a “miscommunication,” Hastings ran the other direction.

And wasn’t Brown--standing there all by his lonesome, obviously beaten if the ball goes inside to Hastings--just thrilled.

“Well, I had to go get it,” he protested.

But not far. He took a couple of steps, ran right into the ball, and carried it 33 yards to the Steeler six.

Two plays later, Smith, who was held to only 49 yards, scored his second touchdown, from four yards away, to clinch it.

“I read it one way and Neil read it another,” Hastings said.

O’Donnell, who wandered off the field after the interception as if dizzy, said, “There is no ‘I’ in team. That’s all I want to say.”

He certainly couldn’t share the blame for the first interception, midway through the third quarter, after the Steelers had cut the Cowboy lead to 13-7.

They were around midfield, they were driving toward a possible go-ahead touchdown, and . . . the good people of western Pennsylvania are still wondering where the heck O’Donnell was throwing this one.

Receivers Ernie Mills and Kordell Stewart, lined up on the right side on a third and nine from the Steeler 47, both slanted in.

O’Donnell’s eyes did not.

“I don’t follow the receivers,” Brown said. “I follow the quarterback.”

Thus he was standing alone, five yards from anybody, seemingly out of position to do anything but talk to his Steeler buddies on the sidelines . . . when here comes the ball.

He never even had to move.

“But I had to catch it,” Brown said, protesting again.

So he did, and then ran 44 yards to the Steeler 18.

Troy Aikman rolled out and threw a 17-yard pass to Irvin, and Smith then ran the final yard to make it 20-7.

The Cowboys earned $82,000 apiece for Sunday’s victory. O’Donnell, a free agent this spring, cost himself roughly $5 million.

“It was just a game that came down to two turnovers,” said the quarterback with career postseason slate of three touchdown passes and six interceptions.

Aikman, meanwhile, is 10-1 as a postseason starter.

“He could be the best ever,” Irvin said.

Aikman certainly started the game that way, completing 10 consecutive passes at one point as the Cowboys outscored the Steelers, 10-0, and outgained them, 122-9. All in the game’s first 10 minutes.

Even before the start, it appeared the Cowboys had the edge.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue apparently was so psyched out by them that he ripped owner Jerry Jones on national TV for his maverick financial dealings.

Appearing on the ABC program “This Week With David Brinkley,” Tagliabue said, “Jerry Jones dishonors the agreement he made when he came into the NFL partnership. He takes what does not belong to him. The NFL is what we sell. It belongs to 30 teams, not the Dallas Cowboys.”

The two men met on the field before the game to discuss their differences, but the stage had been set.

The Cowboys then walked onto the field through a human tunnel composed of the world-renowned Cowboy cheerleaders.

The Steelers ran through a tunnel of supposed Steeler fans waving terrible towels. They were, however, just actors.

The Cowboys gained 43 yards on their first three plays, and it was as ugly for Pittsburgh as it was pretty for Dallas.

Willie Williams being beaten badly on the game’s second play by Irvin, and Greg Lloyd being knocked on his rear end on the game’s third play by Larry Allen.

“Everybody talked this week about us partying hard, but they all forgot that we practice hard,” guard Nate Newton said.

But the Steelers, trailing 13-0, apparently practice just as hard. They drove 54 yards to score on Yancey Thigpen’s six-yard catch in front of Sanders at the end of the first half.

Then they scored 10 points in a span of five minutes in the fourth quarter after Johnson’s field goal, the on-side kick and a one-yard run by Bam Morris to close the gap again.

“We said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a chance to win this thing,’ ” safety Darren Perry said.

Then Neil O’Donnell said, no, we don’t.

“Nothing was done to us today that we didn’t do to ourselves,” Lloyd mumbled.

As a bona fide Cowboy hater, Lloyd must now prepare for the longest year of his life.

“We are looking at one possible word to describe this team,” Newton shouted. “It’s the ‘D’ word! You figure it out!”

We’ll try.

* ANALYSIS: Don’t blame Neil O’Donnell for the Steelers’ defeat, says Bob Oates. Blame the coaches for a faulty game plan. C8

* STEELERS: On the other hand, listening to the losers after the game, the quarterback might be a good place to place the blame. C8

* SPOTLIGHT: C10

* BY THE NUMBERS: C11