And a great start to the list, even if some of it brings up bad memories.

I have to disagree with your statement about why the Steelers lost the Tennessee game…“because we lost the coin toss.” Not quite. If you man-up and play some defense and force the opponent into a three and out, you should be giving the ball back to the offense in favorable field position. And whether or not the Steelers were playing good defense that day or not isn’t exactly relevent; the defense failed on that particular possession, and it went a long way in causing the loss. Saying that the game was lost purely because of the overtime rules just doesn’t hold a lot of water.

Sorry to be argumentative (again?!?), but it irks me when someone claims that an overtime game was lost because of the coin toss.

OK…back to the discussion at hand…

Damn. Good job on bringing up some painful memories, and doing it at such a time that is allows us to cherish what we have now.

And it’s been statistically proven that whatever team wins the coin-toss has a much greater chance of scoring and winning the game. Peter King sounds like a boring, old square some of the time, but he made a believer out of me on this subject.

We also lost that game in Tennessee partially because of Plaxico “Don’t call me Rambo” Burress. Two minutes left to go, we’re tied and in Tennessee territory, and Tommy Maddox places a perfect throw right into Plax’s breadbasket, and he drops it. We end up having to punt, it goes into overtime, and the rest is history.

For a guy so valued on the market, Plax really did have a knack for dropping big passes in big games.

nedney’s post game interview entailed him saying he was going to hollywood & retiring from football because of how his DIVE sold the penalty. and THAT’S when i started hating the titans. still get fired up thinking about it

although it’s not really a slam dunk in my mind.

- That 89 season was special in my mind because of what maryrose alluded to: the team started abysmally and improved as the year went on. Noll’s teams also had a tendency to raise their level of play in the playoffs, something Cowher’s teams rarely did. This was not really appreciated in the 70s because of all the talent on the roster at that time, but was apparent in the 80s (see 84 and 89 playoffs).

Hoge was a rb possessed in those 89 playoffs and Brister seemed like a leader. Maybe the Steelers would have been smoked by SF if they had made it to the Super Bowl, but who knows? Like I said, Noll’s teams had a pretty good track record in the playoffs and the his Steelers may have been able to match up with Montana (they were responsible for their only loss during the 84 season for example). And as maryrose said, that team had only gotten better as the season progressed.

- The 93 loss against KC was painful, but that loss was typical of that season. The 93 team was talented, more talented than the 92 team and as talented as the 94 team IMO. But yet they only finished 9-7 that year. Something was missing from that team that year. I heard gossip that their were some locker room issues that year. Who knows?

- The 02 loss was also typical. That team had no pass defense. It was exposed at the beginning of the season and was just as leaky in the playoffs. The team made Holcomb look like Dan Marino the previous week, although they came away with the win. I have no doubt that the Raiders would have carved up the Steelers the following week if the Steelers had beaten the Titans. You just can’t win in the playoffs with a porous defense. And that was probably the worst pass defense I’ve ever seen a playoff edition Steeler team have.

If we’re going to see skewed results based on average blog reader age. I know the one I remember best (and worst) is the Tennessee game. There may be exceptions but I’d guess the recent ones will skew the results. But who says blog polls have to be fair?

If I can make any suggestions, it would be to try and make sure that you incorporate years that each member here might remember. That is hard in a count down, but if that means adding a 4th instead of going by 3’s, so be it. I just think it would be more entertaining for everyone during the post.

That friggin Titans loss killed me. I forever hated the Titans and all Ref’s after that moment. Still, worst moment is yet to come, and I am sure we all have the same one, but damn, that was a heart breaker.

Great idea though!

You people have short memories. In 2002, Tommy Maddox was our starting quarterback. Tommy Maddox! Realistically, who thought we could win the Super Bowl with Tommy Maddox? I still like the guy a lot, but going into the playoffs that year, I knew that we were a long shot with such a weak quarterback (yes, I know he was a first round pick, but so was Ryan Leaf).

In 1993, we had Neil O’Donnell and Barry Foster…. okay okay, they’re Steelers footnotes today, but at the time, they looked pretty capable. The pair definitely looked capable of winning the Super Bowl during that season.

Plus, in 1993 we had a F-ing terrific defense. One of my favorite. Kevin Greene, Greg Lloyd, Levon Kirkland, Chad Brown, Carnell Lake … and Hall of Famer Rod Woodson.

1993 was a great year for the Steelers, and it was easily the most heartbreaking loss (of these three). I still hold a small grudge against the Chiefs for that loss, despite their recent trend of failure.

89’ still haunts me. I am right this is the Worley fumble right? We all know he would fumble. He always did.

Besides the fact that the defense allowed 34 points, burress dropped a sure 1st down pass late in the 4th quarter that would have but the Steelers in FG range

was very, very painful! Having such momentum after a big Cleveland win set the stage for a great Titan game. Coming back the way we did v. Titan, having the game go into OT…I started to believe maybe this could be the year!!

Then to have Nedney miss!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG were gonna win this game….wait a minute…roughing the kicker????!!! What the……..!

Very, very painful!!!!

Infact, I might have to continue my shock therapy sessions to forget how painful that loss was…thanks alot MR :)

89 was disappointing, but they had backed in and were playing over their heads. It would have been a tremendous upset against Elway, but alas he was Elway and came backm to win. The 2002 team was alot of fun. It was so great to have an NFL calliber qb who could anticipate a break and release the ball before the receiver was open. But the pass D was no good. They didnt stop McNair all day, maybe, maybe, they woulda won the next week?? The 93 team, however was a team that was clicking at the right time, after an up and down season, and injury problems. Barry Foster and Eric Green were both out. They had exposed the Bills in a Monday night beat down (still one of my favorite Steeler games). Cowhers Steelers arrived that night as a legit contender. The one play that sticks out to me was a dropped pass on 3rd and 5 by Dwight (hands of) Stone. Flat out drop. If he catches it , they run 3 more plays run out the clock. No punt, no punt block, no 4 shots at the end zone for Montana,(took all 4). The next week would have been a third date with a phenomenal Houston team. What sucks is that Montana somehow beat Buddy Ryans 46 defense, giving the Bills home field for the AFC title game where the Chiefs fizzled and the Bills went on to get dusted by the Cowboys. So part of my bizarre rationale is that, the 93 loss not only ended the Steelers season, but, was instrumental in a Cowboys superbowl win, since the Oilers were in my mind the toughest team in football that year, and would have hosted and beaten the Bills, and then the “Boys” for the first acf sb victory since 83.

I remember when Joe Montana went to KC. There was some talk of bringing him here …home to finish his career as a Steeler. The same was said about Tony Dorsett. As a matter of fact Tony reportedly asked Noll along the sideline during a game…“Bring me home Chuck….Bring me home.” Noll smiled. Anyway, I knew we were in trouble when Montana had a little time to work with. We were! That Titans game is another bitter, painful memory because for me playing the Titans is like playing the Oilers. The Steelers of the ’70s won those.

I saw a montana interview where he said he wanted to come to Pittsburgh , after the Niners, but they weren’t interested. Imagine the 93-96 Steelers with Joe Montana rather than O’Donnell. Almost as bad as thinking about the 84- ???? Steelers with Marino instead of Gabe Rivera.