When the Pittsburgh Steelers finally got “One For the Thumb” by winning Super Bowl XL in 2005, it marked the final step of a decades-long journey for the franchise, as well as the many Steelers players and coaches who were seeking to create their own legacy. This was particularly evident as the 1990's Steelers challenged for a championship, with the legacy of the greatness of Steelers casting a long shadow that was extremely difficult to get out of.
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Greg Lloyd takes the filed as the face of the Blitzburgh Steelers
The Original Blitzburgh Steelers
The Steelers went 12–4 in 1994 behind the best defense in the NFL. The 1994 Steelers originated “Blitzburgh” as they tallied a league best 55 sacks in perfecting the Dick LeBeau Zone-Blitz scheme that featured arguably the greatest 4-Linebacker starting set (Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, Levon Kirkland, Chad Brown) in NFL history. Together with 1993 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Rod Woodson and Carnell Lake in the secondary, the Steelers had a truly elite defense.
Lloyd was the face of that the 1994 defense, which set the team record for sacks until it was finally broken in 2017. “Blitzburgh” gave the Steelers defense a new identity, separate from that of the “Steel Curtain” and Lloyd was among many Steelers players that believed the 1994 team was the best one of the Steelers run in the mid-90s.
In the '94 playoffs, the Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns for a third time to advance to the AFC Championship Game as 9.5-point favorites vs. the San Diego Chargers. The Steelers looked to have a clear route to the Super Bowl on that unseasonably warm (for Pittsburgh) 60 degree day on January 15, 1995. And, thanks to Eric Green, they weren’t gun shy about believing in themselves.
Green was the Steelers’ first-round pick in 1990 at tight end that never lived up to his physical abilities and expectations. And his legacy in Pittsburgh will always be how he organized the team to make a “Super Bowl Shuffle”–type video before the AFC Championship Game. While Green deservedly received a lot of criticism following the loss, there was plenty of blame to go around.
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Steelers' Levon Kirkland was a key part of the Blitzburgh Defense
Levon Kirkland per On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers by Jim Wexell:
“We were being tremendously cocky at the time, and it backfired on us.”
“San Diego was the loss that hurt. I don’t know if we underestimated them, but I think we gave them lot of material to play us well. I think we had a better team than we did the year we went to the Super Bowl. Our defense, instead of two good cornerbacks, we had three because Deon Figures, before he got shot, played very well for us. And our blitzing package was really dominating, killing people. The offense was clicking on all cylinders, and we felt we had a pretty good team. And we felt we had a chance to go to the Super Bowl, but, man, we really motivated San Diego to play to our level and we gave away too many big plays. We kind of had to learn the hard way how to get to the Super Bowl. Every year was like a step to get to the Super Bowl, until we finally got there.”
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Greg Lloyd pressures Stan Humphries in 1995
Greg Lloyd per On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers by Jim Wexell:
“And who do you blame it on? We give all the glory to the quarterback when we win. We give all the glory to the coaches when we win. But when we lose, who gets it? Who are you going to put it on? Are you going to put it on the back of who?”
The Steelers started that AFC Championship Game off with a touchdown on their opening drive. They went into halftime with a 10-3 lead and extended it to 13-3 in the 3rd quarter. It seemed like a comfortable lead but in reality, the Steelers offense was struggling to consistently gain momentum. The run game was being stuffed (limited to 2.5 yards a carry), including being held to field goal after a first-and-goal at the 6 early in the third quarter. The Steelers defense was containing the Chargers, except for two big plays from the San Diego offense that broke the Steelers back.
The first was a broken coverage 43-yard TD to Alfred Pupunu that cut the lead to 13-10 in the 3rd quarter. The second was even more devastating, as the Chargers were in a 3rd and 14 with just over 5 minutes left in the game. The Steelers blitzed, and the Chargers gave QB Stan Humphries just enough time to loft the ball toward the end zone. Tony Martin ran past nickel cornerback Tim McKyer and hauled it in for another 43-yard touchdown and a 17–13 lead.
Rod Woodson per On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers by Jim Wexell:
“The most disappointing play in my years playing there was when Tim McKyer got beat on third-and-14. I think we had the best team and should’ve been in the Super Bowl three years in a row.”
McKyer had to be helped off the field after collapsing in tears. The 1994 season was his only one with the Steelers. Neil O’Donnell led a ferocious drive down to the 9-yard line, but the drive stalled with an incomplete attempt to Barry Foster from 3 yards out, leading to the most disappointing loss in Steelers history.
The Steelers were able to regroup the following season and reach Super Bowl XXX vs. the Dallas Cowboys, where they were 11.5-point underdogs. But after an injury to Woodson in Week 1, it was clear that the 1995 Steelers would not be as good as the '94 team, a sentiment echoed by Lloyd.
Greg Lloyd per On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers by Jim Wexell:
“The ’94 team was better than the Super Bowl team.”
After the Steelers rallied from a 13-point deficit in the 4th quarter to nearly upset the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX, the team slowly started to lose it’s core. Free agency started to nip away, losing O’Donnell, Leon Searcy, and Greene among others following the 1995 season. Injuries and age took their toll on Lloyd and Woodson, leading to the controversial decision to move on from Woodson following the 1996 season.
One final great run in 1997 came up short in another home AFC Championship Game loss, despite being carried Jerome Bettis, who that season had the greatest single season performance of his career. But a meltdown of two interceptions by Kordell Stewart in late in the 2nd quarter when at one point leading 14-10 vs. the Denver Broncos, only to go into halftime down 24-14 took the wind out of the Steeler Nation crowd. The Steelers never recovered to challenge for the win, in spite of Bill Cowher later revealing that he to believed the 1997 team was the best team of the mid-90s run.
Bill Cowher, per Heart and Soul:
"That 1997 team might have been the best team we had in my 15 seasons in Pittsburgh."
One for the Thumb, Finally
The original Blitzburgh era ended after the 1997 season as free agency and age took away long time stalwarts including Lake, Dermontti Dawson, Joel Steed, and Kirkland. It ended without that era being able to create its own legacy to stand out against the '70's dynasty teams. This would bleed over to the next generation of players, as Joey Porter would even lament how often the '70s teams were celebrated, how the fans “couldn’t let it go” and recognized that it wouldn’t happen until they managed to carve out their own Super Bowl legacy in 2005.
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Steelers Joey Porter was the face of the 2005 Steelers defense
Upon finally establishing another legacy of championship winning teams, the 2000's Steelers were able to do what the 1990's Steelers were not, by winning multiple Super Bowls. However the 2000's Steelers did have one significant advantage, the selection of a legitimate franchise quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger. Big Ben was able to make plays out of nothing vs. what O'Donnell and Stewart could do, which was evident even when he leaned more to game management early in his career.
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Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger hands the 4th game ball to Jerome Bettis upon winning Super Bowl XL
But the 1990's Steelers were no team to be taken lightly and Greg Lloyd would encapsulate the feelings of regret about those missed opportunities and how the 90's Steelers helped create a new tradition that helped the 2000's teams get over the hump.
Greg Lloyd per On the Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers by Jim Wexell:
“There are no regrets.”
“When I got here, the team wasn’t very good. We had some good players, great coach, but the team wasn’t very good. I didn’t know about losing. I didn’t come from a place where you lost. The Steelers were like 5–11, 6–10. We were the group of guys who got drafted and started playing. We got the Steelers back on track to being recognized as a championship team, a team in the playoffs, a team that can win a Super bowl. Even though Super Bowl XXX we lost, we had put the work in. They kept putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and 10 years after we played in the one that we did, Pittsburgh put it together and they won. So for that I’m grateful. For a long time I kind of regretted the fact we weren’t the guys who could bring that No. 5 in. But to have helped usher it in, it was kind of cool knowing that.”
How good were those 90's Steelers teams and is their legacy appropriate? Which Steelers team from the 1990's was the best team? Do you blame the lack of a franchise quarterback for the Steelers not winning the Super Bowl? Leave your thoughts below.
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