January 20th: This Date in Steelers History

by Michael Bean on Jan 20, 2011 2:20 PM EST

Only a handful of NFL franchises have had much happen in their history on today's date, January 20th. Why? Simple. Most teams aren't still alive and contending for Conference Championships and Super Bowls at this stage in the season. Let's take a quick look at two years in which the Steelers had a memorable 20th day of the first month. One was epic and a fitting end to a decade of dominance; the other merely provided a false sense of optimism that the Steelers were finally going to win that elusive fifth Lombardi after more than two decades since winning their fourth.

January 20th, 1980

The Pittsburgh Steelers finish off the dynastic decade with their fourth Super Bowl triumph over the Los Angeles Rams, 31-19. L.A. was over-matched from a talent standpoint in SB XIV, and from the outset it showed. While the Steelers were championship tested, the Rams were somewhat lucky and happy just to be in the big game, as they had limped into the playoffs with a pedestrian 9-7 record. Terry Bradhsaw earned SB MVP honors for the second consecutive year for his 309 yards and two TDs performance. Tim Gleason (maryrose) wrote about the game and his memories of it here on BTSC about this time in '09 as the Steelers were preparing to play in SB XLIII.

January 20th, 2002

Behind the play of their nasty defense and a fairly balanced offense, the Steelers rebounded from an opening week loss and breazed through their regular season schedule. The Steelers, still searching for 'one for the thumb', finished 13-3 and the No. 1 seed in the AFC Playoffs. After having the first weekend of the postseason off, the Steelers hosted the Baltimore Ravens, winners of the previous year's Super Bowl. The game was never close. Pittsburgh scored the first 20 points of the contest before Baltimore added a Matt Stover field goal just before half. The Ravens tried to make a game of it in the second half, scoring a third quarter TD to cut the deficit to 10. But the Steelers iced the game in the fourth thanks to a 32-yard strike from Kordell Stewart to second-year WR Plaxico Burress. Unfortunately Pittsburgh's season would end the following weekend with a loss to the Patriots, the first of two AFC Championship losses to New England in the early years of the past decade.

Random quick question before signing off for now -- is January 20th the latest date that a Divisional Round game has been played? Me thinks so, but perhaps one of you can confirm or deny that guess based on my initial research of the date's historical significance in Steelers' lore.

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The Jan 20th 2002 Divisional Game was played late because of 9/11.

I was working a Froggy’s Restaurant in Downtown. It was a painful loss.

by WV Steeler Fan! on Jan 20, 2011 3:06 PM EST reply actions

ahhhh

good call.

Freel free to email me anytime at behindthesteelcurtain@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, complaints, etc, or to just say what's up. -Michael Bean (Blitz)

by Michael Bean on Jan 20, 2011 3:09 PM EST up reply actions

Painful, yes

The combination of Kordell at QB, a disjointed offense and Belichek outcoaching Cowher multiple times was tough to swallow in the early part of the decade.

Cowher was great as an emotional leader but you would have to admit that he is not a great Xs and Os guy compared to others. I like him but his team’s struggles in the big games says something about his abilities as the ultimate decision-maker and guiding light of a football team. His window of opportunity is closing if he wants big money and control in his next job as an NFL coach.

"Franz" in NoCal

by franz on Jan 20, 2011 3:24 PM EST reply actions

agreed

And something I’ve also been thinking about is the difference in how many free agents opted to walk away during the Cowher years compared to now under Tomlin, when just about every last guy has less than market rate deals to stay in Pittsburgh.

Freel free to email me anytime at behindthesteelcurtain@gmail.com with questions, suggestions, complaints, etc, or to just say what's up. -Michael Bean (Blitz)

by Michael Bean on Jan 20, 2011 3:29 PM EST up reply actions

good points

There was a time when I felt Coach Cowher could not properly motivate his team to win the big one after the disappointing playoff losses when we seemingly had a superior team. As time passed however, I came to realize that he was missing a key cog throughout most of his Pittsburgh coaching career – a good QB. In retrospect, I think it was amazing how many times he made to the finals and even a SB with the likes of Neil O’Donnell, Kordell, & Tommy Maddox at QB. Sometimes in playoff football, the defense will take away almost everything and challenge the QB to beat them, and none of those guys could! Look at their collective body of work after leaving Pittsburgh! None of them accomplished anything close to the success they experienced here – the team carried them rather than vice versa.

After he got Ben, he won a SB in 2 years. Ben is the first QB since Bradshaw that we can count on to carry the team when the going gets tough. Its really hard to get to the SB, much less repeat, without a top-notch QB!

by rockncoal on Jan 20, 2011 4:56 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

I Agree!

Coach Cowher did not have a franchise quarterback until Ben. I argue this point all the time. People here (Dayton) are convinced that Ben is just an adequate QB who benefits from a top notch defense.
I point out that Pittsburgh had a top notch Defense since 1992! How come the Steelers did not win the Super Bowl in 94, 95, 97, and 01. Simple. We had The “QB that shall not be named” and Slash Stewart. Both (in the Steelers offensive scheme) were adequate, not great.
Now with Ben (his philandering aside) we have a quarterback that got us close and played well in 04 and carried us through in 05 and 08. Now we are on the brink again in 10.

I can not wait til Sunday!

by Steely McBeem on Jan 20, 2011 7:17 PM EST up reply actions

This is a great point

is it the coach or QB, I think you need both. We’ll see how good tomlin really is once ben is gone.

"Did you really expect Joe to have it as easy as you think it would be against James "I want to stomp of your children’s testicles" Harrison and Lamar "I’ll kick your grandmother" Woodley? I sure as hell didn’t." - Malor

by tannofsteel84 on Jan 23, 2011 12:55 AM EST up reply actions

Don't forget the Special Teams

They were amazingly bad at the absolute worst times.

by 703Steeler on Jan 20, 2011 5:14 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks for the post. Brings back lots of memories to me as a 10 year old

who thought his team would always be in the SuperBowl or close to it… Then came the 80s.

by RobertM on Jan 20, 2011 5:38 PM EST reply actions

1/20/80

Was my first Steelers game. I will never forget TB hitting Stallworth deep twice. I fell in love with football that day and knew I had to be a part of the game. It was a large part of the reason why I became a teacher/coach. So yeah, this is a pretty special day for me.

by HandsofSweed on Jan 20, 2011 5:42 PM EST reply actions

Mine too.

That was the first football game I remember watching. I would have been 6 years old then.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jan 20, 2011 6:20 PM EST up reply actions

Guess I should say I was 6 years old. Would have been makes it sound like I died. :)

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jan 20, 2011 6:21 PM EST up reply actions

I'm relieved to hear that -

but after all this is the internet, and anything goes…

"You learn more in failure than you do in success." - Mike Tomlin

by Rebecca Rollett on Jan 20, 2011 7:03 PM EST up reply actions

Theodoric of York advises that "methinks" is one word.

And I’m waiting for the opportunity to post our thoughts on the AFC Championship game in “Olde English.”

by Billy52 on Jan 20, 2011 7:36 PM EST reply actions

sounds like fun

I think I have a fun word to use but i will save it till after the game.

"I don't mind being a symbol but I don't want to become a monument. There are monuments all over the Parliament Buildings and I've seen what the pigeons do to them."

"Canada is like an old cow. The West feeds it. Ontario and Quebec milk it. And you can well imagine what it's doing in the Maritimes."

Tommy Douglas

by Cold_Old_Steelers_Fan on Jan 21, 2011 12:16 AM EST up reply actions

Sweet! I'll get out my lexicon

of Shakespearean insults to describe despicable acts by the opposing team!

"If you're not getting better, I don't care what business you're in, you're a dead man. I try to look critically at the mistakes that I make and try to learn from them, like our team does." - Mike Tomlin

by Rebecca Rollett on Jan 22, 2011 9:23 AM EST up reply actions