Super blowouts
They might not have been 30-point defeats, but the Steelers team that won a fourth Super Bowl title in six years in 1979 lost big twice during the regular season.
On Oct. 14, 1979, the Steelers lost to the Bengals, 34-10, at Riverfront Stadium. It was 34-3 until John Stallworth caught a touchdown pass from Terry Bradshaw with 7:39 remaining. Playing without an injured Lynn Swann, the Steelers turned the ball over nine times.
One month later, in San Diego, they fell behind 21-0 and lost to the Chargers, 35-7. Bradshaw threw five interceptions while the only touchdown of the game for the Steelers came on a 2-yard run from Rocky Bleier.
“I thought maybe it was over, like it was over in the ’80s,” Rooney, Jr. said.
Not yet it wasn’t. The Steelers won the next week in overtime against Cleveland and the final three regular-season games after that to finish 12-4. They won their three postseason games by an average of 15 points per game and capped off the Super ’70s with a 31-19 victory against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV.
“Chuck was always great in handling those situations,” said Woody Widenhofer, the defensive coordinator under Noll from 1979-83. “He was never too high after a win and never too down after a loss. He was the catalyst for us in coming back from both of those losses.
“We had great leadership from coaches and players on that team. We had a lot of smart guys who had a lot of pride. Those guys would never take a loss like that in stride.” and almost beat Denver in a divisional round game before falling, 24-23, at Mile High Stadium.
One of the more amazing things about Bill Cowher’s 15-year tenure as head coach was he suffered only one 30-point loss over a span of 240 games. It was a 37-7 loss to Dallas in the 1997 season opener at Three Rivers Stadium.
“That says it all right there,” said Carnell Lake, who has the unique perspective of playing for Noll and Cowher and coaching under Mike Tomlin. “As long as you don’t make that a habit you’re going to have really good teams. You can look around the league and there is usually one team every week that has a deficit like that.”
The 1997 team won 12 of its final 15 games and played host to the AFC championship game. The Broncos beat the Steelers, 24-21, to advance to the Super Bowl.
“I think that’s been the hallmark of the Steelers,” Lake said. “It’s the pride we take in our preparation, the kind of guys we have on the team. We don’t take that lightly. And we don’t dwell on that game. You can go back to my time with Chuck Noll. My rookie year we lost to the Browns 51-0. And we wound up making the playoffs that year. Good organizations, good teams are able to recover.”
Even though the 34-3 loss in Philadelphia was the worst of the Tomlin era by margin of defeat there have been others that rivaled it.
In 2011, fresh off an AFC championship and an appearance in Super Bowl XLV, the Steelers went to Baltimore and got shellacked, 35-7, in the season opener. That team finished 12-4 and made the playoffs.
In 2013, the Steelers lost to the Patriots, 55-31, in early November. The margin of defeat was only 24 points, but it might be considered by some as the most humiliating loss in franchise history. The 55 points and 610 yards remain the most ever allowed by the Steelers. That loss dropped the Steelers to 2-6, but they won six of their final eight games and almost made the playoffs.
The following season the Steelers went to Cleveland in October and lost, 31-10. It was 31-3 before the Steelers scored a meaningless touchdown with 2:36 remaining.
Now Tomlin and many of the same players are faced with another ugly loss to overcome. Veteran defensive end and team captain Cam Heyward relishes these moments because he believes they reveal the character of a team.
“It’s a rude awakening, but it’s an awakening,” he said. “I love that reality has set in. The only thing that’s guaranteed is we’re not going to go 16-0. It’s not going to define our season.”