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The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers Win A Record Sixth Super Bowl

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The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2005, but followed that up with two years that were, at best, adequate. Head Bill Cowher had retired after 2006, and while his successor Mike Tomlin won the AFC North the first time out, in 2007 the Steelers lost a home playoff game in the first round to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
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An organization that has a long history of excellence in the Super Bowl era—they were tied with the San Francisco 49ers for most Super Bowl victories at five apiece–strives for more and it usually delivers.

The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers were all about defense, with coordinator Dick Lebeau overseeing an aggressive 3-4 scheme led by linebackers James Harrison and James Farrior, and strong safety Troy Polamulu. These three players were just the focal point of a unit that included linebacker Lamarr Woodley and would end the season as the best in the NFL.

Offense was more of a concern. Ben Roethlisberger had Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward as targets, but he only threw 17 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. Willie Parker was a good runner, but not a 1,000 yard back. The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers offense finished 20th in the NFL and were below the league average both running and passing.

The offensive problems showed in a 2-1 start. The Steelers only scored 10 points in a win over lowly Cleveland and just six in a loss to a good Philadelphia Eagles team. It set up a game on Monday Night Football with the Baltimore Ravens that would usher in a new era in the NFL

Pittsburgh and Baltimore have bad blood for each other that predates 2008, but the Steelers-Ravens rivalry—about to become the best in the NFL—hit its high point thanks to a series of games and division races that began this season with the arrival of new Baltimore coach John Harbaugh and rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, to go with the rugged defense led by Ray Lewis.

Though the Ravens had struggled badly in 2007, they were showing some signs of life under Harbaugh and in an AFC race where the New England Patriots had already lost Tom Brady for the season and Peyton Manning seemed to be struggling in Indianapolis, a lot of observers were looking at this Monday Night battle as one that might provide a frontrunner.

Pittsburgh wasn’t healthy—Parker was out for the first of what would be a five-game absence, and Flacco threw a four-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to put the Ravens up 13-3. In the third quarter, Roethlisberger threw a 38-yard strike to Holmes to get the Steelers back in the game and then Woodley scooped up a fumble on the Baltimore seven and scored to give Pittsburgh the lead.

The Steelers led 20-13 when Flacco led a 76-yard drive that tied the game with under four minutes to play. Baltimore won the coin toss in overtime, but couldn’t capitalize. Roethlisberger could, quickly leading a drive for a 46-yard-field goal by Jeff Reed that won it for Pittsburgh.

One week later, Pittsburgh took care of unfinished business from the previous January, and beat Jacksonville on the road. Trailing 21-20 with 6:33 left, Roethlisberger engineered an 80-yard touchdown drive that culminated with an 8-yard scoring pass to Ward. Pittsburgh was 4-1 and in control of their season.

The Steelers were set for the Manning brothers to come to town. It started with Eli and the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants. On October 26, Pittsburgh led the Giants 14-9 in the fourth quarter. But Roethlisberger was making mistakes—four interceptions in all—while Eli wasn’t. The Giants cut the lead to 14-12 and then Pittsburgh gift-wrapped the tying points when a punt was snapped out of the end zone. The Giants won 21-14.

Then it was Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in another home game for a national audience. Again, the Steelers had a fourth quarter lead. Again Roethlisberger was mistake-prone, throwing three interceptions. Again, a Manning led a final drive to beat them, this time by a 24-20 count. Pittsburgh was 6-3 and in a dogfight for the AFC North

The Steelers responded by winning four games in a row. They included a hard-fought 11-10 win over San Diego, where Roethlisberger overcame the lack of a running game by throwing for 308 yards and setting up a Reed field goal with 0:15 left to win it. Then the Steelers went to Foxboro and destroyed the Patriots—who still produced an 11-5 record with backup quarterback Matt Cassel—breaking open a 10-10 halftime tie and winning 33-10.

Pittsburgh was 10-3 and Baltimore was 9-4. It was time for another head-to-head battle, and with the Steelers controlling the tiebreaker, this one could clinch the division on a Sunday night in Baltimore.

It was a physical defensive war. The Ravens led 9-6 in the fourth quarter and Roethlisberger was pinned on his own eight-yard line. He led a 92-yard touchdown drive that ended with a third-and-goal touchdown pass to Ward. It was about as clutch a drive as Big Ben could have authored. At least for now.

The Steelers had clinched the AFC North, and though a subsequent 31-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans cost them the #1 seed, Pittsburgh would still get a first-round bye.

San Diego was the opponent in the second round. The Chargers had finished 8-8, but had won four in a row to end the year and steal a terrible AFC West. Then they beat the Colts in an overtime thriller in the first round. San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers kept the momentum going with a 41-yard-touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson. Holmes answered with a punt return for a score, and when Parker later rushed in from three yards out, it was 14-10 Steelers at the half.

Pittsburgh’s superior running game took over in the second half. San Diego rushed for 15 yards as a team. Parker rushed for 146 by himself, and the lead grew to 28-10 early in the fourth quarter and ended 35-24.

The AFC Championship Game opponent would be a familiar one. After getting into the playoffs as the #6 seed, Baltimore had first beaten Miami, then upset #1-seed Tennessee. Yep, it would be Round 3 of Steelers-Ravens, this time with a Super Bowl trip as the prize.

Pittsburgh controlled the game early, but settled for field goals on two early drives. Roethlisberger then found Holmes on a 65-yard touchdown pass, but Baltimore drove for a Willis McGahee touchdown run that left it 13-7 at half.

The Steelers couldn’t shake the Ravens in the second half, even after taking a 16-7 lead. Baltimore again got a drive and again finished with a McGahee touchdown rather than settling for a field goal. The Ravens defense held and when Flacco got the ball back with about five minutes to go and only trailing 16-14 there was obvious tension in Heinz Field.

Polamulu made what was, to that point, the play of the season. The roving strong safety intercepted a Flacco pass on the Baltimore 40 and took it to the house. It all but sealed a 23-14 run. The Steelers were going back to the Super Bowl, and it was the first time under Tomlin.

Kurt Warner’s Arizona Cardinals had captured the attention of America. After a mediocre 9-7 season was enough to win the NFC West, the Cardinals won a home playoff game with Atlanta. The Cards then stunned a favored Carolina Panthers team with a blowout road win. Then they denied the Philadelphia Eagles a Super Bowl shot with a 32-25 win.

Pittsburgh drove to the one-yard line in the first quarter, but again had the problem of not cashing in. Reed kicked an 18-yard field goal. The teams traded touchdowns, but at 10-7, Warner had Arizona on the move in the closing moments of the first half. He threw towards the end zone. Harrison, the newly minted Defensive Player of the Year, picked off the pass and broke into the clear. As the big linebacker lumbered to the end zone, the clock ran out, so it was touchdown or bust. Harrison made it. A 100-yard INT return to close the half gave the Steelers a 10-point lead.

A quiet third quarter saw only a Reed field goal—another short one, from 21 yards, so it was still a game at 20-7 entering the final period. Then the fireworks ensued.

Warner led a drive and flipped a 1-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald. Then Pittsburgh, backed up on the ensuing possession, committed a holding penalty in the end zone and the lead was down to 20-16, with Warner getting the ball back. He responded by rifling a 64-yard touchdown pass to Fitzgerald and with just 2:30 left, Arizona suddenly had the lead.

Roethlisberger got the ball on his own 22-yard line, needing a field goal to force overtime or a touchdown to win a Super Bowl. He hit two passes to Holmes to get some room. Then he threw right to Holmes again, and the receiver shook loose all the way to the six-yard line. On second-and-goal, Roethlisberger looked for Holmes for one more time and the receiver made a terrific catch in the corner of the end zone.

The Steelers had the lead, though trailing 27-23, Warner got the ball to the Pittsburgh 44 with 15 seconds still left, enough time for at least two, and perhaps three plays. But Woodley came up with a sack and fumble that Pittsburgh recovered.

Any doubts about whether Mike Tomlin was the right man for the job were dispelled. The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers were back. The franchise that had been the first to win three Super Bowls (1978) and the first to win four (1979), was now the first to get to six, a honor they still hold to themselves six years later.

1979 Pittsburgh Steelers: The First Team To Four Super Bowl Wins

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The 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers were already the greatest dynasty of the still-new Super Bowl era that began thirteen years earlier. The Steelers were the only team with three Super Bowl victories to their credit, and in ’79 they added another.

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Terry Bradshaw was still at the height of his playing days, years away from being an annoying Fox-TV pregame commentator. Franco Harris was a powerful running back, and Rocky Bleier, a Vietnam war hero turned football player, chipped in valuable carries of his own. The receiving tandem of Lynn Swann and John Stallworth was one of the best in the game.

And we haven’t covered the offensive line, anchored by future Hall of Fame center Mike Webster, or the legendary “Steel Curtain” defense, with linebacker Jack Lambert, defensive back Mel Blount and a ferocious front four led by Mean Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood. There was no reason to think the Steelers couldn’t go all the way again.

An overtime escape at New England, coming off a division title run of their own, to start the season keyed a 4-0 start. The second of those wins was the biggest. The old AFC Central division was the Steelers, Bengals and Browns, along with the Houston Oilers (today’s Tennessee Titans). Houston had made the playoffs in ’78 and reached the AFC Championship Game behind running back Earl Campbell, who joined Dallas’ Tony Dorsett as the league’s bright young stars in the backfield.

Campbell had been shut down on an icy field in the previous years’ playoffs and on this September day, the Steel Curtain showed it wasn’t all about the weather. Campbell was held to 38 yards and Oiler quarterbacks Dan Pastorini and Gifford Nielsen were intercepted a combined five teams. Pittsburgh won 38-7 and sent a clear message about who the team to beat still was.

That Sunday the Steelers hung 51 points on the Cleveland Browns and beat their division foe in a shootout, but this win was sandwiched between road losses to the Philadelphia Eagles, a good team, and the Bengals, a not-very-good-team. At 5-2, there was no reason to hit the panic button, but Chuck Noll’s defending champs weren’t looking the part at this stage of the schedule.

Dallas came to Pittsburgh in late October for a Super Bowl rematch. The Steelers won it 14-3, thanks to a terrific running effort from Harris, while Dorsett was contained to 73 yards.  Another big test came out in San Diego on November 18. The Chargers’ were challenging the Steelers for the top seed in the AFC playoffs and with quarterback Dan Fouts they had the ability to put a lot of points on the board in a hurry.

That’s what they did on this day, although the 35-7 Steeler loss was more about a terrible day from Bradshaw, who threw five interceptions, then it was about the Charger attack. In either case, San Diego now had the inside track to homefield advantage in January, a big deal for an offense that would likely be grounded in bad weather in the north.

The AFC Central was still up for grabs when Pittsburgh brought their 11-3 record to the Astrodome to face 10-4 Houston. The Steelers held the tiebreaker, but could avoid having to fight to the final week with a win in this Monday Night game. They didn’t get it. Campbell finally broke through against the Steel Curtain, rushing for 109 yards and that was the difference in a tight 20-17 Houston win.

Pittsburgh was still able to clinch the division the following week with a 12-4 record, but with the Chargers also at 12-4, it meant another possible trip west for the AFC Championship Game.

Before thinking about AFC Championship Game opponents, Pittsburgh had to get ready to play AFC East champion Miami. The Dolphins were only six years removed from their own glory days when they won three straight AFC titles, two straight Super Bowls, one of which produced the only perfect season of the Super Bowl era.

But while names like quarterback Bob Griese, running back Larry Csonka and offensive lineman Larry Little were familiar, the team wasn’t as good. At 10-6, it was a nice playoff-caliber club, but the Steelers were Super Bowl-caliber and they played like it.

Bradshaw was 21/30 for 230 yards, while the defense held Miami to 25 yards rushing. The final was 34-14 and based on what had happened the day before, Pittsburgh already knew they’d been spared a road trip. Houston’s safety Vernon Perry had intercepted Fouts four times, the Oilers pulled a 17-14 upset and were coming to the Steel City for an AFC Championship rematch.

The weather wasn’t icy and slick this time, but Campbell didn’t have much more luck running this year then he did the previous season. The Steelers held him to 15 yards on 17 carries. But this year’s Houston team didn’t roll over.

Houston had talent in other areas of their team, notably two excellent outside linebackers in Robert Brazile and Ted Washington, along with a very good secondary, as Fouts would attest to. Perry continued his astonishing postseason play by picking off Bradshaw and taking it 75 yards to the house to give Houston the early 7-0 lead. After the teams traded field goals, Bradshaw got in gear and rifled touchdown passes to tight end Bennie Cunningham and Stallworth to send Pittsburgh to the halftime with a 17-10 lead.

Houston was driving for the tying touchdown in the third quarter when the play by which this game is remembered took place. Pastorini lofted a third-down pass toward the back right corner of the end zone for tight end Mike Barber. He caught it, tried to drag both his feet and get them inbounds. Did he do it and maintain possession?

The officials conferred. As NBC, then the network of the AFC, showed repeated replays, even instant replay couldn’t tell anything conclusive. The ruling was an incomplete pass. Houston had to settle for a field goal. And even though there was a lot of game left, it all effectively ended there. Pittsburgh got a field goal of their own and then tacked on an insurance touchdown. They were going back to the Super Bowl, with a ticket to Pasadena.

There wouldn’t be a rematch with the Cowboys in Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach’s final year. As enticing as that sounded, top-seeded Dallas had been stunned by the 9-7 Los Angeles Rams in the divisional playoff on a tipped pass from Vince Ferragamo to Billy Waddy. The Rams then shut out Tampa Bay, who was the #2 seed, in an ugly 9-0 NFC title game.

Los Angeles had been a consistent contender throughout the 1970s and had a Super Bowl-worthy team several times, even if they kept coming up short. It’s ironic that the most mediocre of their 1970s playoff teams would be the one to make a Super Bowl.
Los Angeles still gave Pittsburgh fits. They scored an early touchdown, kept the Steeler offense under control and led 13-10 at half.

They would intercept Bradshaw three times before it was over, and an upset bigger than any Super Bowl game since Joe Willie Namath guaranteed the 18-point underdog Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts in 1968 seemed in the offing. Even when Pittsburgh reclaimed the lead at 17-13, the Rams came right back and scored on a halfback pass from Lawrence McCutcheon to Ron Smith.

One thing Bradshaw was doing was gunning the ball and his mistakes hadn’t made him gun shy. Trailing 19-17 and the game in the fourth quarter, he stepped back and rifled a deep post to John Stallworth. It was over the receiver’s wrong shoulder, but Stallworth reached back, caught it and stayed on the dead run into the end zone for a 73-yard scoring play.

It would be easy to say that play broke the Rams’ back, but the record says otherwise. Ferragamo led his own team right back down the field, but Lambert came up with an interception to kill the drive. Now it was Franco’s time to take over and Harris eventually plunged over from the 1-yard line for a clinching score in a 31-19 game.

Bradshaw’s 309 passing yards made him game MVP for the second straight year, but a heckuva case could be made for Stallworth, whose spectacular catch saved the game, or Lambert, who’d been in the middle of things all day on defense and made the key pick.

What mattered to the Steelers though is that they won their fourth Super Bowl before anyone else even got to three. The tradition has continued and with championships in 2005 and again in 2008, Pittsburgh is the only franchise with six rings.