Team has penchant for upsets, odd wins
It has been hard to count out Steelers since Immaculate Reception in 1972
Max Starks was there in 2005 when the Steelers went back to Indianapolis to play the No. 1-seeded Colts in an AFC divisional-round playoff game. Two months earlier, they had lost to the Colts, 26-7, a game in which Peyton Manning threw an 80yard touchdown to Marvin Harrison on their first play from scrimmage, rocking the already raucous RCA Dome.
Nobody was giving the Steelers much of a chance to flip the script the second time, either. They were the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs and going against a Colts team that started the season with a 13-game winning streak and finished 14-2.
What’s more, the skeptics were noting the Steelers were only playing the Colts because they had knocked out Carson Palmer, the league-leader in touchdown passes, on the second play of their wild-card playoff victory in Cincinnati.
So, on the second play of the game, Ben Roethlisberger threw a 36yard pass down the sideline to Heath Miller, leading to a touchdown. Two series later, he threw a 6-yard touchdown to Miller for a 14-0 lead, and the Steelers never looked back (well, Roethlisberger turned and looked back three times trying to tackle Nick Harper).
“We’ve seen teams take it for granted before,” said Starks, the team’s former starting tackle. “We’ve seen people buy into the press clippings or read just the numbers. You can’t measure that thing beating in your chest. There’s no quantifiable number you can put for that.”
Nearly 15 years later, the Steelers will try to do the unthinkable again when they go back to Kansas City and try to flip the script against the Chiefs, who beat them, 36-10, three weeks ago in Arrowhead Stadium. There is little to suggest it can happen.
The Chiefs have scored 30 or more points nine times this season. The Steelers have scored fewer than 20 points nine times this season. The Chiefs have been to the past two Super Bowls. The Steelers have been embarrassed the past two times they’ve been in the postseason.
“Some people get lost in this because they feel like the Steelers don’t deserve to be there,” Starks said. “But we’ve always been that team in the past where we’re going to find a way. If we find a way in, you need to be on your screws. All it takes is for somebody to step up in the right moment and create a new name for you.”
The victory against the Colts, which helped propel them to the Super Bowl, wasn’t the only time the Steelers won a game that nobody was expecting. Here are a few other examples:
• Dec. 31, 1989, AFC wild card, Steelers 26, Oilers 23 (OT)
The Steelers (9-7) finished third in the AFC Central Division, tied with the Oilers, a game behind the divisionchampion Cleveland Browns (9-6-1). But the Oilers beat the Steelers twice during the regular season, including 27-0 in Week 7 in the Astrodome.
Gary Anderson, who had connected on just 6 of 15 career attempts from at least 50 yards, hit a 50-yard field goal 3:26 into overtime to send the Steelers to the AFC championship in a season in which they had lost their first two games by a combined 92-10.
The Steelers forced overtime when running back Merril Hoge scored on a 1-yard run with 46 seconds remaining. The winning field goal was set up when cornerback Rod Woodson forced and recovered a fumble by Oilers running back Lorenzo White.
“They say the third time is the charm, and we like charms,” said former Steelers coach Chuck Noll.
• Dec. 30, 1984, AFC divisional, Steelers 24, Broncos 17
The entire league — especially the television networks — was salivating at the thought of a conference championship showdown between the NFL’s two hotshot quarterbacks, Denver’s John Elway and Miami’s Dan Marino.
The Dolphins (15-2) already had defeated the Seattle Seahawks a day earlier to advance to the AFC championship. All that was left was for the No. 2-seeded Broncos (13-3) to beat the Steelers, who were 10-point underdogs, and create the marquee matchup.
“All we were thinking about was, after we win this, we’ll be in Miami playing Dan Marino and playing in the AFC championship,” said former Broncos safety Dennis Smith.
It never happened.
Safety Eric Williams intercepted Elway and ran 28 yards to the Broncos 2, setting up Frank Pollard’s winning 1-yard touchdown with 1:56 remaining to register the huge upset. The Steelers (9-7) upset the Los Angeles Raiders on the road in the season finale to win the division and gain entry into the postseason.
“I never saw a stadium go from being so loud to mausoleum quiet,” former tackle Tunch Ilkin said.
• Dec. 23, 1972, AFC divisional, Steelers 13, Raiders 7
The victory — the first in franchise history — wasn’t a complete surprise. After all, the Steelers were 113 and the Raiders were 10-3-1, though they had won their final six games of the regular season.
It was the manner in which the Steelers accomplished the victory,
thanks to what is considered the greatest play in NFL history: The Immaculate Reception.
Franco Harris’ incredible catch-andrun touchdown off a deflected pass on 4th-and-10 with five seconds remaining was the beginning of one of the most dominating stretches by a team in NFL history. But it may also be the reason the franchise is the way it is, the way it seems to deliver victories when nobody believes it can.
That one play may be responsible for sparking an inherent belief the Steelers are never out of any game. It may have also sent a warning they are never to be discounted, no matter if the odds are stacked against them like deck chairs on the Queen Mary.
It has happened before. Can it happen again?