Gene Collier: Mark of Greatness?

Fourth 15-1 team in NFL history took a shaky first step, but its chances are still Super
Friday, January 21, 2005
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The complete history of football's three 15-1 teams and the incomplete history of a notable fourth, the 2004 Steelers, bear little resemblance to each other at this writing, and the reliably skittish among Pittsburgh's frothing fan base will doubtless regard that as a bad omen.

Who, after all, do you want as the enduring image of a great team, Joe Montana or Gary Anderson? Mike Singletary or Randall Cunningham?

Such are the questions history beckons, the parameters of a Steelers legacy to be decided in the coming weeks.

These Steelers are only the fourth team in NFL history to go 15-1 in the regular season, and the fourth, like the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, '85 Chicago Bears, and '98 Minnesota Vikings before them, to reach the conference championship. But if there were an historical marker for a postseason's shakiest first step, it would definitely be erected outside Heinz Field.

All three of the other 15-1 clubs won their playoff openers handily; the Steelers won, uh, footily.
That New York Jets kicker Doug Brien missed two field goals in the final two minutes and the Steelers' Jeff Reed made a shorter one 11 minutes into sudden death are merely two facts that obscured a ton of more portentous events Saturday, but the Steelers surely know they're writing an unprecedented script here.

The '84 49ers skunked the New York Giants, 21-10, in their playoff opener, with Joe Montana running for 63 yards and passing for 309 yards, not precisely the way Ben Roethlisberger started his postseason career. The '85 Bears were more impressive, suffocating many of those same Giants, 21-0, sacking Phil Simms six times and frightening New York into a putrid 0 for 12 on third down. The '98 Vikings won their playoff opener, 41-21, against the ... wait ... the Arizona Cardinals?

That ain't right. Let me look at that again.

In their only postseason appearance in the past 22 years, the Cardinals not only got the NFC's sixth seed at 9-7 that year, they beat Dallas on the road, 20-7, before losing at Minnesota. The number of people outside the greater Phoenix-Tempe-Mesa-Scottsdale metroplex who remember this fact: eight, including five former Vikings.

In any case, the 49ers and Bears cruised into the Super Bowl amid very little turbulence. The 49ers squashed the '84 Bears, 23-0, and a year later, the '85 Bears steamrollered the Rams, 24-0. Those Bears held Eric Dickerson to 46 yards rushing on 17 carries. The Rams had nine first downs.

But in the matter of Vikings-Atlanta Falcons in the 1998 NFC title game, Minnesota turned a season in which they set a league record for points into Goatfest '99. They led, 20-7. They led, 27-17, in the fourth quarter. They lost, 30-27, in overtime to a Falcons team under the direction of Chris Chandler, who threw for 340 yards and three touchdowns. With 2:07 remaining and the Vikings about to stretch the lead to 30-20, former Steelers kicker Gary Anderson, who hadn't missed a field-goal attempt all season, failed from 38 yards away. Atlanta tied the score with 49 seconds to go.

Both 15-1 teams that made it to the Super Bowl won it, the Bears being the more dominant. By the time they had overcome a 3-0 Patriots lead to nip New England, 46-10, the Chicago defense of Singletary, Richard Dent, William Perry, Dave Duerson, et al., had limited three postseason opponents to 10 points, 2.5 yards per play, and 3 for 36 on third-down conversion. The 49ers fell behind Dan Marino's Dolphins, 10-7, but got three second-quarter touchdowns and won, 38-16.

Somewhere against that historical backdrop, the Steelers of Jerome Bettis, Hines Ward and Alan Faneca, of Troy Polamalu, Aaron Smith and James Farrior must leave their mark.
"The opportunity is incredible," Bettis was saying the other day. "You don't get this kind of opportunity very often in your career."

No opportunity they ignored against the Jets, such as the opportunity to tackle a punt returner and Roethlisberger's opportunities to throw that thing to someone in the same uniform, can compromise what they're capable of Sunday.

The Steelers' offense gained nearly 400 yards; its defense allowed only three points over most of five quarters; its quarterback, in spite of near fateful missteps, hit on six of his final eight passes for 52 yards and a touchdown.

They can bark that underdog's lament right up until game time Sunday, but this team hardly has the look of the doomed.

Otis Wilson and Richard Dent apply pressure to Patriots quarterback Tony Eason in Super Bowl XX. Of the 15-1 teams, these Bears might have been the most fearsome, allowing only 10 points in three postseason games.
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(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.)