Here's something of a year in review of the Steelers, with major stories about them from the pages of the Cold, Hard Football Facts. It pretty much goes in order from stories over the summer to the most recent pieces we wrote about them.
Steelers fans were not happy when listed their franchise a mere No. 8 in our all-time rankings, which looked at teams throughout their entire history. But as we noted in the piece: "If the franchise had not been so inept through its first four decades, had it just managed two championships over that time, we might be talking about the NFL's all-time greatest franchise." The fact that the team is on the verge of winning an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl merely confirms that they're probably the best franchise of the modern era.
(For the record, we might try to piece together a new all-time franchise rankings of teams in the Super Bowl Era only.)
We whiffed badly when we gave Pittsburgh a grade of D in our off-season Fillability Index. The organization seemed to do little to shore up its poor Defensive Hogs of 2007. But clearly, as evidenced by the team's No. 1 ranking – and utter dominance – on our
Defensive Hog Index this year, they did something right.
Well, back over the summer, we had perennial powerhouse Pittsburgh playing in the postseason – but as a wildcard. Here's the worst part – as a wildcard behind Cleveland. Hey, even potentates of pigskin muff up every now and then. And we're proof.
Ben Roethlisberger has been a CHFF favorite since he followed up an unprecedented 15-1 rookie season with a Super Bowl title in 2005. He officially joined the list of best quarterbacks back in September, when he finally surpassed the minimum 1,500 pass attempts required for "official" NFL records.
Harris Interactive ranks the popularity of NFL teams each year and has found that the Steelers have consistently been one of the league's five most popular teams nationwide over the past decade.
We sized up the two marquee players from the Class of 2004 on the eve of their big regular-season battle and found that it's no contest. Ben wins.
The AFC North, and its predecessor, the AFC Central, have pretty much been dominated by Pittsburgh since its creation in 1970. Of course, considering the state of the division, that's not saying much.
The Steelers, and their defense in particular, made a huge statement in early November that reminded us of a classic Monty Python movie scene.
No team in history has produced more 100-yard rushing performances than the Steelers have (starting with Byron "Whizzer" White in 1938), and no team has won more often when they do produce a 100-yard rusher.
This is a great piece we put together with the help of pro football researcher Coach T.J. Troup, loaded with tons of info about NFL legend and Steelers defensive coordinator LeBeau. As we've always said, Steelers fans love Dick!
(Ed. note: Yes, that's Big Wally and the Chief Troll drinking Iron City beer and waving Terrible Towels at the Heinz Field. Beautiful place to watch football. The fans are kinda hard-core, too, in case you didn't know.)
