A Closer Look at the Steelers QBs Since Terry Bradshaw (Part 2)

Wolfpack,

You bring up some interesting points. FWIW, here’s my take on why Cowher succeeded immediately upon taking over a mediocre Noll team:

1. Although Noll had legendary drafts in the early mid 70s, his drafts for the most part were mediocre in the late 70s, and also in the early to mid 80s. I don’t know why that is exactly. Loss of scouts? The rest of the NFL probably had caught up to the Steelers? Law of averages? I don’t really know the reasons.

2. I think a lot of the Noll players that Cowher inherited in 1992 were just entering or were in their prime.

This would include Noll drafted players such as Rod Woodson (1987), Greg Lloyd (1987, hampered by injury previously), Hardy Nickerson (1987), Dermontii Dawson (1988), Carnell Lake (1989), Jerry Olsavsky (1989), Carlton Haselrig (1989), Eric Green (1990), Neil O’donnell (1990), Barry Foster (1990), Justin Strzelczyk (1990), and Ernie Mills (1991).

Cowher’s first draft class in 1992 included Leon Searcy, Levon Kirkland, Joel Steed and Darren Perry.

That’s an impressive core of players that all had 5 years of experience or fewer entering Cowher’s rookie HC year. Think about how many Pro Bowls that group totalled in their careers.

3. Cowher/Lebeau/Capers implemented a style of defense (zone blitz) that was new to the NFL.

4. The AFC central division was much less competitive than it had been in the 80s. In the mid to late 80s, you had the Kosar led Browns, the Esiason led Bengals and then the Moon led Oilers. But by 1992, only the Moon led Oilers were any good. And even though I thought that those Oiler teams could/should have been very formidable, history showed that those Oilers never really won a meaningful game. They couldn’t beat the very mediocre Brister led Steelers in the 1989 playoffs at home, they were blown out against the Bengals in the 1990 playoffs, they blew a 21-6 lead against the Broncos in the 1991 playoffs, they blew that 35-3 lead against the Reich led Bills in the 1992 playoffs, they lost to a very ordinary Chiefs team in the 93 playoffs, etc.

So in summary, I do think that some things fell in place for Cowher (weak division, young nucleus of talent coming into their own) and I also think that he deserved some credit (92 draft, zone blitz) as well for turning it around.

But I don’t think that the Steelers overachieved under Cowher. As I listed above, the team had talent. They didn’t have 70s talent, but they had talent.

This is how my view of Cowher and the 90s Steelers evolved over the years.

In 1992, when they lost to Buffalo, I wasn’t upset. Even if Brister was the qb, the team would have lost to Buffalo. Buffalo was the better team for the most part. I was happy with the energy that Cowher had brought to the team that year. Honestly, I thought that that year the Steelers really were not deserving of having the #1 seed in the AFC playoffs. But I thought that the future was bright.

In 1993, I was very upset when they lost to KC in the playoffs. Of course there was the dropped pass on 3rd down by Jeff Graham late in the game, who made a habit of dropping passes which could have helped salt away the clock, followed by the blocked punt, etc. But I chalked the loss up to a maturation process that the team probably needed to go through. Heck, in 1972, the Steelers should have beat the undefeated Dolphins in the playoffs, but they didn’t when they allowed the Dolphins to execute a fake punt.

In 1994 though, there was no excuse for losing to the Chargers. They were playing at home, they took a quick 7-0 lead, and they were clearly the better team. The Steelers should have won that game by double digits. It should never have come down to that 4rth and 3 at the end. Of course, Neil O’donnell still could have won the game at the end, but he locked onto Foster on that final play, and never looked for other options even though he had time and it looked like there was no real window to get Foster the ball. This was when I first started to seriously question O’donnell as a championship caliber qb.

In 1995, the Steelers were not as good as the 94 version, but they lucked out when they got to play a Bills team without Bruce Smith followed by a decimated Colts team in the AFCCG. (If you remember, Marshall Faulk was out, as was their 2nd string rb, Zach Crockett.) While they handily beat a declining Bills team, they really should have lost to the Colts. After that pitiful display against an undermanned Colts team, I really didn’t expect the Steelers to beat the much mightier Cowboys in the Super Bowl, although I did think that Barry Switzer was a moron. But as we all know, that game was there for the taking. If the Steelers hadn’t started that game so slowly (we were lucky not to be blown out actually) and if O’donnell had played better (even his completions were often due to his wr making great catches), we could have won the Super Bowl.

In 1996, I didn’t blame the Steelers for losing to the Patriots. I think every Steeler fan should have known that Tomszak wasn’t going to lead us anywhere. In addition, Bettis was hurt and Rod Woodson was not the same player coming back from his ACL.

In 1997, I thought that the Steelers and the Broncos were evenly matched going into the AFCCG. But basically, Elway made the necessary plays while Stewart didn’t. But after the 94 and 95 fiascos, I really didn’t expect the Kordell led Steelers to beat the Elway led Broncos.

In 2001, the Steelers laid another egg in the AFCCG. I know people will reference Spygate, but the Steelers lost because of special teams miscues and they couldn’t beat essentially a rookie qb in Tom Brady (he was actually in his 2nd year, but he didn’t play his rookie year). And of course, Kordell had two chances to lead the Steelers to the tying td at the end of the game. We know how those drives turned out.

In 2002, the Steelers could have beaten the Titans, but they were not a championship team, not with that pass defense and with Kendrell Bell hobbling.

In 2004, I don’t fault the Steelers for losing to the Pats. 15-1 and the regular season victory over the Patriots aside, Big Ben was a rookie qb and he was playing like it in the playoffs. They were lucky to have beaten the Jets the previous week.

In 2005, of course they won the Super Bowl. This was the first year that I saw a Cowher coached team play fearlessly in the playoffs, at least until the Super Bowl. I’m not sure if we played poorly in the Super Bowl because of Cowher or because Ben was choking in the spotlight in only his 2nd year.

So in sum, while I do credit Cowher for turning it around when he took over, I also think his teams choked in 94, 95 and 01. And they had a decent chance to win in 97, although I wouldn’t label that game a choke. And while upsets happen, Cowher’s teams missed out to too many favorable opportunities to be a coincidence.

The only saving excuse for Cowher is if you rationalize that he never had a championship caliber qb until he got Ben. When Ben had gained some experience, Cowher’s team played pretty well in the 2005 playoffs. But whose fault is that? Cowher never tried to acquire a top notch qb. He chose to let O’Donnell lead the team. When O’donnell left, he entrusted the team to journeyman Tomszak. When Kordell struggled, he brought in Kent Graham. Kent Graham!!! Then he tried to bring in Scott Mitchell in 2001. Scott Mitchell!!! Rumors are that he didn’t want to even draft Ben, and only did so when Rooney overruled him.

Sorry for the long post.