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ARTICLE
Friday, October 5, 2007
Another in a series of stories about
the 47 playoff games in Steelers history. Dolphins demolished by Steelers' surge By BOB
LABRIOLA Steelers.com After the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers
became the first NFL team in history to win three Super Bowls, and after doing
that by defeating the defending champion Dallas Cowboys in a 35-31 thriller, and
after getting to that point by crushing the Houston Oilers in the AFC
Championship Game on the way to a 14-2 regular season, many looked at a
star-studded roster being coached by a living legend and decided the only team
capable of beating the Steelers was the Steelers. In 1979, they gave that a run.
Beating themselves, that is. History shows the 1979 Steelers
finished 12-4, won the AFC Central Division and hosted another conference
championship game, the third time that had happened in the five years since the
NFL went to the merit-based system for determining the sites of playoff games.
They topped 30 points in nine of their 16 regular season games; Terry Bradshaw
threw 26 touchdown passes, and Franco Harris scored a dozen himself; and they
averaged almost 400 yards of offense a game. They also were minus-10 in turnover
ratio. The 1979 Steelers were somewhat
schizophrenic during the regular season. Perfect at home and still often
dominant. The beat the Oilers, 38-7; the Broncos, 42-7; the Redskins, 38-7; and
in a game referred to at the time as Super Bowl XIII˝, they handled the Cowboys,
14-3, as well. On the road, they could be a
disaster. Their first loss of the season was a four-turnover game in
Age also was becoming an issue. When
the season started, Joe Greene was 33. Dwight White, 30. Sam Davis, 35. Jon
Kolb, 32. Franco Harris was 29 and had 2,344 NFL carries on his body, including
playoffs. Mel Blount was 31, and the NFL had changed the rules on him. When the
playoffs began, Jack Ham was on the injured reserve list with a dislocated
ankle. Mike Wagner, 30, also was hobbled for the playoffs. "We'll make the changes and
adjustments we have to make, and we'll play with the kind of intensity we have
t The opponent in the AFC Divisional
Playoff round was the Miami Dolphins, and guard "The World Football
More from Kuechenberg: "I like to
think of the Dolphins as the team of the 1970s. We went to
When the ball was kicked off on
On their first possession, the
Steelers drove 62 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown run by Sidney Thornton; on
their second, it was 62 yards in nine plays capped by a 17-yard pass to
It was 20-0 before the first quarter
was over, and the Steelers defense had been on the field for less than two
minutes of game-clock time. The Dolphins never got within double digits again
and lost, 34-14. "The most disappointing thing to us
was that all game we never really challenged them," said Coach Don Shula. "We
never got down to hard-nosed football in a game that means so much to us. We got
dominated by Also in this round of the 1979
playoffs, the Houston Oilers went to San Diego, and despite having
t Perry intercepted four Dan Fouts'
passes and blocked a field goal in a 17-14 win that prevented the Steelers from
having to go to "The 16 regular season games are for
the fans," said Greene. "The playoffs are for us." Dophins 0 0 7 7 14 Steelers 20 0 7 7 34
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