Editing Super Bowl XII (section)

===Fourth quarter===
Dallas drove to the Denver 35 on their next possession, but Staubach was strip-sacked by Tom Jackson, and Carter recovered the fumble at the Broncos' 45 on the second play of the quarter. However, Weese was incomplete on his next three attempts, one on a pass to Upchurch in the end zone, and Denver punted.

The Broncos forced a Cowboys punt, but Martin stripped the ball from Weese on third down, and Kyle recovered it on the Denver 29-yard line. On the next play, the Cowboys scored on a 29-yard [[halfback option play]]: Staubach pitched the ball to Newhouse, who ran left and then threw a pass to wide receiver [[Golden Richards]] for a touchdown, putting the game away for Dallas with a 27–10 lead. Newhouse became the first running back in Super Bowl history to throw a touchdown pass. Most notable about the trick play was that Denver's defense was not fooled by it, as Richards was properly covered by Foley. Incidentally, Newhouse had practiced with the play for weeks, but had not managed to complete the pass once in practice (which unlike the play in the game was done with Newhouse rolling to his right). Loaded up with stickum (legal at the time), Newhouse accomplished a tight spiral to Richards that he caught in stride for the score.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/star-on-and-off-field-robert-newhouse-truly-loved-by-all-351201|title = STAR: On and off Field, Robert Newhouse Truly Loved by All}}</ref>

Denver, now playing for pride, reached the Dallas 25-yard line on their next possession, but turned the ball over on downs after a sack on Weese by linebacker [[D. D. Lewis (linebacker, born 1945)|D. D. Lewis]], a delay of game penalty, and back-to-back incomplete passes. The Broncos then forced the Cowboys to punt, but a roughing the kicker penalty on Denver linebacker [[Rob Nairne]] gave Dallas a new set of downs, enabling them to run out the clock and end the game.

Staubach finished the game with 17 out of 25 pass completions for 183 yards and a touchdown, with no interceptions. Dorsett was the leading rusher of the game, with 66 rushing yards and a touchdown. He also caught 2 passes for 11 receiving yards. In addition to his 29-yard touchdown pass, Newhouse also contributed with 55 rushing yards. DuPree was the leading receiver of the game with 4 receptions for 66 yards. Hughes had an interception and a Super Bowl record two fumble recoveries.

Before being taken out of the game, Denver's starting quarterback [[Craig Morton]] completed just 4 out of 15 passes for 39 yards and was intercepted 4 times. His 21-yard completion to [[Haven Moses]] on the Broncos' opening drive was the only pass he completed that both resulted in positive yardage and did not end in a turnover. Morton's passer rating for the game was 0.0, the lowest in Super Bowl history.<ref name="Worse Super Bowl than Peyton Manning in XLVIII">{{cite web|title=Canzano blog: Who had a worse Super Bowl than Peyton Manning?|date=February 3, 2014|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2014/02/canzano_blog_so_you_think_peyt.html}}</ref> Upchurch recorded 125 total offensive yards (94 on kickoff returns, 22 on punt returns, and 9 receiving yards).

The Cowboys' superb defense played a critical role in the game. White and Martin were named co-Most Valuable Players; this award is usually bestowed on an offensive player. The voters actually wanted to name the entire 11-man starting defensive lineup as co-MVPs, and asked the NFL if this was acceptable. The league said no, and so two players were picked for the award. The unheralded Hughes and Kyle of the Cowboy secondary each had superb games to play an important role in the victory. The two men came up with five turnovers between them, leading directly to 17 of Dallas' points.

The game was the 8th Super Bowl in 10 years (following the first two won by Green Bay) in which the winning team scored enough to win before the losing team put up any points on the board (the exceptions were the two lost by the Cowboys to this point, [[Super Bowl V]] and [[Super Bowl X]]).  Conversely, this feat has only occurred five times since ([[Super Bowl XV|XV]], [[Super Bowl XVIII|XVIII]], [[Super Bowl XXXV|XXXV]], [[Super Bowl XLVIII|XLVIII]], and [[Super Bowl LIX|LIX]]).

In 2015, on the occasion of [[Super Bowl 50]], ''[[Slate (website)|Slate]]'' webpage writer Justin Peters watched all the games over a two-month period. He considered Super Bowl XII to be the worst Super Bowl ever. Morton was a large part of the reason for Peters, who felt the Broncos' quarterback was lucky to have only been intercepted four times in the first half, and a total output that amounted to only one completion for positive yardage that was not followed by an immediate turnover. Nor had the Cowboys impressed him, in large part due to Herrera's missed field goals in the second quarter. "Blowouts can at least be fun to watch sometimes", he concluded. "This game was nothing but pain."<ref name="Worst Super Bowl ever">{{cite news|last=Peters|first=Justin|title=Every Super Bowl, Ranked|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/the_completist/2016/02/every_single_super_bowl_ranked_from_best_to_worst.html|newspaper=[[Slate (website)|Slate]]|date=February 4, 2016|access-date=February 12, 2016}}</ref>