Cowboys – Steelers rivalry The Cowboys – Steelers Rivalry is a rivalry in the National Football League . As such , the two teams only meet during the regular season every four years when the AFC North play the NFC East , and aside from occasional preseason matchups the only other way the two teams would meet would be the Super Bowl . However for the first decade of the Cowboys existence Pittsburgh and Dallas were heated division rivals , in fact the first Dallas Cowboys NFL game was against the Pittsburgh Steelers . Both teams also boast the most numerous Super Bowl matchup in history with three Dallas - Pittsburgh championships , more than any other Super Bowl pairing ( Dallas - Buffalo , San Francisco - Cincinnati , and Washington - Miami having been played only twice ) . The all - time series is currently tied at 15 - 15 . Similarities between the two regions . Both Western Pennsylvania ( Including all of the Pittsburgh metro area ) and the entire state of Texas are known to be football hotbeds at all levels . High school football in both regions draws crowds in the tens of thousands and gets regular press coverage in both regions . The local communities in both regions usually shut down local businesses for these games , which also serve as the largest social gathering for many of these communities . College football is popular in both regions , and have produced powerhouse football teams . Four of the twelve Big 12 Conference schools are located in Texas ( including the Texas Longhorns ) , while Pitt Panthers , Penn State Nittany Lions and West Virginia Mountaineers are in the Pittsburgh Tri - State Region with many fans of the nearby Ohio State Buckeyes residing in the area . In addition to these traditional powers , during the birth of the college game the Pittsburgh city schools of Duquesne University , Carnegie Mellon University and Washington & Jefferson College all qualified for multiple major - bowls in the 1920s and 1930s and ranked in the top 10 of the AP . While in Texas the Longhorns have had at least one player selected in each of the last 71 NFL Draft s dating back to 1938 , while Penn State itself had a 53 - year draft streak that ended in 2005 . Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman Ernie Stautner , who played his entire 14 - year career with the Steelers , later served as defensive coordinator under Cowboys head coach and fellow Hall of Famer Tom Landry during the Cowboys successful run in the 1970s , while the Cowboys would later draft another Hall of Famer , Tony Dorsett , the Pitt standout and Heisman Trophy winner who is a native of Hopewell Township , Pennsylvania . Both of Dallas ' 1970 ' s Super Bowl MVP ' s - - Chuck Howley and Randy White - - hail from the Pittsburgh Tri - State . Conversely , two members of the Steelers ' famed Steel Curtain defensive line ( Ernie Holmes and " Mean Joe " Greene ) are Texas natives , as is current Steelers Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton . Current Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey served as offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh before becoming the head coach of the Cowboys for two years in the late 1990s . History . Before the Cowboys ( 1952 - 1960 ) . The roots to the Cowboys – Steelers rivalry can be traced several years before the Cowboys played a game , and to another team entirely . Following the 1951 NFL season , New York Yanks owner Ted Collins sold his team back to the NFL due to financial difficulties competing with the New York Giants in the same market , as well as the All - America Football Conference 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 either the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex or Baltimore . Baltimore had previously been home to an NFL team , the original Baltimore Colts which had come over from the AAFC along with the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers , but had folded after the 1950 NFL season due to financial difficulties despite strong fan support . Dallas , and the state of Texas in general , was a true expansion 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 the Dallas Texans . The lone holdout was Steelers founder and owner Art Rooney . Rooney , an Irish Catholic , was more tolerable to African American s than the other owners ( most of whom were Protestant and had their own discrimination towards Catholics ) and was concerned about the racism that existed in the Southern United States at the time and the subsequent civil 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 and Buddy Young , were both black , which made fans in Texas automatically turn away from the team simply because of prejudice . The Texans folded after the 1952 NFL season and their assets would be sold to Carroll Rosenbloom to form the new Baltimore Colts , which currently play in Indianapolis . Early years ( 1960 - 1969 ) . 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 tycoon H . 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 the Chicago Cardinals about buying the team from owner Violet Bidwill Wolfner , who ultimately decided to keep the team and whose son Bill Bidwill remains the owner today ( the Cardinals did move to St . Louis , Missouri for the 1960 NFL season ; the team currently is based in Phoenix , Arizona ; the Cowboys and Cardinals were divisional rivals from 1961 - 66 , and again from 1970 - 2001 ) . Due to these rebuffs , Hunt formed the American 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 the 1962 AFL Championship , due to the Cowboys being part of the more - established NFL , the Texans took their AFL Championship north to Kansas City , Missouri , where they remain today as the Kansas 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 the Cotton 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 the Vince Lombardi - led Green Bay Packers , the latter matchup in the Ice 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 the Detroit Lions , then lose every game afterwards in the first season of Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll . Teams of the 1970 ' s ( 1970 - 1979 ) . The Steelers would be moved to the newly - formed American Football Conference as a result of the AFL – NFL merger for the 1970 NFL season while the Cowboys would be placed in the National Football Conference . The Cowboys would split the first two Super Bowl matchups of the decade while the Steelers started improving . Around this time , both teams would have firm identities . Both were strong on defense with the Steelers ' famed Steel Curtain defense while the Cowboys boasted the Doomsday Defense , based around Landry ' s " flex " defense . On the offensive side of the ball brought key differences , as the Cowboys had Hall of Fame quarterback Roger 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 Fame running back Franco Harris . The two would have their first postseason meeting in Super Bowl X , with both teams vying to tie the Packers and Miami Dolphins for their second Super Bowl Championship . The Steelers won this game , 21 - 17 , after safety Glen Edwards intercepted a Staubach pass in the end zone to seal the victory . The hostility was evident in the third quarter when Steelers kicker Roy Gerela missed his second field goal , a 33 - yard attempt . After the miss , Cowboys safety Cliff Harris mockingly patted Gerela on his helmet and thanked him for " helping Dallas out , " but was immediately shoved to the ground by Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert . Lambert could have been ejected from the game for defending his teammate , but the officials decided to allow him to remain . After the Cowboys won Super Bowl XII , the two would meet again in Super 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 the Pro 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 at Three Rivers Stadium , a 14 - 3 Steelers victory that many thought would be preview of Super Bowl XIV . While the Steelers did go on to win Super Bowl XIV that season , the Los 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 . Down years ( 1980 - 1989 ) . 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 at Texas 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 . The 1986 NFL season would be the first year since the 1965 NFL season that both teams missed the playoffs , which would happen for two more years before the Steelers clinched a wild 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 competely in Dallas . In 1988 , both Tom Landry and Chuck Noll appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated together , asking if both coaches had lost their touch . Though both teams had young future Hall of Famers in Michael Irvin and Rod Woodson , the Cowboys and Steelers would finish 3 - 13 and 5 - 11 , respectively , for 1988 . New Cowboys owner Jerry 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 . Return to prominence ( 1990 - present ) . The Cowboys would return to prominence in the 1990s , winning three Super Bowls , while the Steelers would return to AFC Championship contention under head coach Bill 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 for Super 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 . The Cowboys were the two - time defending Super Bowl champions , while the Steelers behind their " Blitzburgh " defense was the favorite to win the AFC . However , the San Diego Chargers upset the Steelers 17 - 13 while the San Francisco 49ers , who had lost in the NFC Championship game the previous two years to the Cowboys , broke through with a 38 - 28 victory against the Cowboys . Fans would only have to wait another year for Cowboys – Steelers III in the Super Bowl , as both teams advanced to Super Bowl XXX . Like the previous two matchups , the game was close , but this time favored the Cowboys , who won 27 - 17 after Steelers quarterback Neil O ' Donnell threw two interceptions to Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown , who would be named Super Bowl MVP for his efforts . The Steelers have remained competitive since and have won two additional Super Bowls while the Cowboys have been largely disregarded as serious playoff contenders . The regular season matchups still get hype today . The two matchups since the start of the 21st century have both been close . The Steelers defeated the Cowboys in both games and came from behind in both , winning 24 - 20 in 2004 and 20 - 13 in 2008 .