From the moment the Pittsburgh Steelers clinched a playoff spot and were slated to play the Kansas City Chiefs, the media has universally forecast an easy win for the Chiefs. But when Ben Roethlisberger met with the media before practice on Wednesday and threw his own particular brand of shade at the universal disrespect, it got some members of the media to dig their heels in even more, while others saw it as a genius move that put Steeler Nation into more of a frenzy.
All of a sudden, comparisons to the 2005 Steelers were made and how the unlikely 6th seed went on to win the Super Bowl. As much as I'd like to compare this team to the eventual Super Bowl XL Champions, it's not close. That was a veteran laden team that was a 6th seed only because of a tie-breaker. Only two teams in the league had a better record, they were coming off only the 4th 15-1 season in NFL history and had been a championship contender since 2001. It showed, as they blew through the playoffs to win that 6th Lombardi Trophy.
However there is a team that the 2021 Steelers are reminiscent of: The 1989 Steelers.
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1989 was not a season of beauty for the Steelers. It was downright ugly as they started off 0-2, with a 51-0 loss at home to the Cleveland Browns and a 41-10 Week 2 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Fans and the media were already making predictions on who the Steelers would take with the #1 overall pick. But Chuck Noll did not let the team lose morale and kept them from losing themselves, winning the next two and coming close to a third until a 4th quarter 65-yard TD run from Bengals' running back, James Brooks. The following week, the team would face Bernie Kosar and the Browns for the Steelers' first win in Cleveland since 1979.
The 1989 Steelers season was an up and down season that saw them get outscored (326-265) and outgained (5,549-3,996) on the season. Starting QB Bubby Brister had only 9 TDs vs. 10 INTs for the worst passing offense in the NFL. Team MVP Louis Lipps was the only bright spot in the dismal passing offense, doing the best he could with 50 receptions. 1st round rookie RB Tim Worley led the Steelers in rushing with 770 yards but fumbled it 9 times. The offensive line was a mix of young and old, with Dermontti Dawson playing at center for the first time and Tunch Ilkin at the tail end of his career. They were horrendous in pass protection all year, surrendering 49 sacks and the most yards lost in sacks.
The defense was not great but had great players. Rod Woodson was sensational in earning the first All-Pro honors of his career but it was the emergence of Greg Lloyd who brought the big play back to the defense from the LB position that had not been seen by Steelers fans in a generation.
Going into the final two weeks of the season, the Steelers were on the outside looking in. They needed a series of games to go their way over the final two weeks in addition to winning both of their games. But in a freakishly lucky series of events, every single game broke their way and they were in as a Wild Card.
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Most experts gave them no chance against their opponent, the Houston Oilers with Warren Moon on the cusp of being one of elite passers in the NFL. The Oilers had dominated the season sweep of the Steelers, including a 27-0 shutout win and were seven-point favorites. But when nobody thought they had a chance, Noll outcoached Jerry Glanville into his getting fired. The Steelers grinded out the game, rushing for 177 yards between Worley and Merrill Hoge, who bullied his way to tie the game with a forceful TD with 40 seconds left. In OT, Rod Woodson exploded from nowhere to kamikaze a sweeping Lorenzo White in an all-world play that saw him force and recover the fumble simultaneously. Gary Anderson nailed a 50-yard FG and the Steelers advanced.
The Denver Broncos, who blew the Steelers out 34-7 earlier in the season, were 10-point favorites and the Steelers again dominated the game. The Broncos simply had no answer for Hoge as #33 played the best game of his life period. The Broncos simply had no answer for #33, who owned them with 120 yards rushing and 8 catches for 60 yards. The Steelers had the Broncos on the ropes, even after another Worley TD gave the Broncos a short field to score a TD. Brister just could not deliver the knockout blow, first missing a wide open Louis Lipps for a sure TD, then failing to convert on back-to-back drives to the red zone and settling for FGs. John Elway was able to be Elway and overcome the six-point lead and the pressure got to Bubby, who was manic on the final drive and fumbled a low shotgun snap that allowed a badly outplayed Broncos team to escape with a win.
They would have faced the Browns for the right to go to the Super Bowl in Cleveland. The Browns won the division but only by virtue of a tie-breaker as they were 9-6-1 and a season away from going 3-13. The Steelers would have easily handled the broken down mistake by the lake. The '89 Steelers were essentially a little bit of experience and a QB that could handle the pressure from advancing to the Super Bowl, outplaying teams that were deemed far superior to come within a single play of reaching the AFC Championship.
So, a Steelers team with a beast mode running back, an all-world defensive player who can change games, a great kicker, a terrible offensive line, coming off a nine-win season that took a crazy sequence to get in the playoffs, facing off against huge favorites in the postseason - but this time with a Hall of Fame QB who never seems to fail in the clutch?
Maybe history can repeat itself with a slightly different outcome in the final minute?
#SteelerNation
