Steelers' decade -- win at Indy changed everything

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Tuesday, December 22, 2009

This column is part of the Trib’s series on the Decade in Pittsburgh Sports.

There was no shortage of memorable Steelers games this decade -- good and bad — but if you were to ask me to choose just one, I wouldn't hesitate:

Steelers 21, Colts 18 (Jan. 15, 2006).


[Getty Images]

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is hit by linebackers Joey Porter, right, and James Farrior for one of Pittsburgh's five sacks.

It wasn't just the most impressive win of Bill Cowher's career and as entertaining as any game this side of Super Bowl XLIII. It also was the game that spurred the Steelers toward greatness.

I'm not sure this team wins any Super Bowls this decade if it doesn't go into the RCA Dome that day, in a divisional-round playoff game, and take down a juggernaut.

Nobody, but nobody, thought the Steelers would win. Indy had flirted with a perfect season and had embarrassed the Steelers, 26-7, seven weeks earlier.

By pulling the upset, the Steelers' core group of players -- the ones who had failed repeatedly in the biggest situations -- experienced a profound boost of self-worth.

But that's not just me talking. I recently asked Jerome Bettis about the significance of the win.

"Going into that game, the question for us was, 'Are you a championship team?'" Bettis said. "Years past, the answer was no. This time, the answer was yes. I think it set up the opportunity for us to be great. The Broncos game (AFC Championship) was a formality. We knew we'd beat the socks off those guys."

For Bettis, of course, the Colts game nearly turned into a nightmare of Buckner-ian proportions when he fumbled at the Colts 2 with 1:20 left.

Ben Roethlisberger's subsequent tackle of Nick Harper will never be forgotten, though the Steelers still had to survive some tense moments before Mike Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard field goal at the gun.

I remember asking Hines Ward what had gone through his mind as Harper raced the other way.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, I just don't want it to happen to Jerome, have it end like this.'"

No, a much better ending was in store, followed by a few more that year and another batch in 2008 -- and I believe that all of them can be traced back to 21-18.