At 38 years old, Denver quarterback John Elway became the oldest player ever to be named Super Bowl MVP. As the final game of his career, he completed 18 of 29 passes for 336 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, and also scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown. Elway retired on May 2 before the following season. Denver linebacker Bill Romanowski sacked quarterback Chris Chandler for a 7-yard loss on third down, forcing Atlanta to settle for Morten Andersen's 32-yard field goal to give them a 3-0 lead. The Falcons then advanced to the Denver 8-yard line on their next drive, but failed to score when Andersen's 26-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right. Immediately after the Broncos got the ball back, Smith broke ahead of Falcons safety Eugene Robinson, caught a pass from Elway, and took off for an 80-yard touchdown reception, giving Denver a 17-3 lead (the fourth 80+ yard touchdown pass play in Super Bowl history). TV viewers did not see most of the play, as Fox was still airing a commercial at the time. Aided by Dwight's 42-yard kickoff return to the 49-yard line, the Falcons responded by driving to Denver's 11-yard line and scored with Andersen's 28-yard field goal to cut Atlanta's deficit to 17–6 going into halftime. Griffith scored his second touchdown on a 1-yard run to increase Denver's lead to 24-6. The Falcons offense advanced inside the Denver 30-yard line for the third consecutive time, and finally scored this time on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Chandler to Mathis. Mathis' touchdown made the score 34-19 (Chandler's pass on the 2-point conversion attempted was incomplete), but by then there was only 2:04 left in the game.