Stiller Playoff Football -- Debunking The Myths
Intro:� This time of year, a plethora of theories regarding Steeler playoff
football are being bandied about by the major Pittsburgh media and most fans that
are waxing philosophic with, basically, too much time on their hands.� Although regarded by the major media and
most fans as some sort of immutable laws, the fact is, most of these theories
are as mythical as winged horses, mermaids, and unicorns.�
Herewith
are the most popular Steeler playoff myths:
1.� "The Steelers have learned from their
past playoff failures".�� This tired old saw has been bandied
about by nearly every player, fan, and sports media in the Steel City.� Sadly, nothing could be further from the
truth.� There's not a single shred of
evidence that shows even the slightest bit of learning by a Billy
Cowher-coached football team.�
��� To wit:
��� - The '93 team should have learned all kinds of great wisdom
from the assbeating the Bills administered in the playoffs after the '92
season.� Instead, they meekly bowed out,
led by backup TE Adrian Cooper's admittance after the playoff loss to KC that
he "didn't feel like trying" because of his displeasure with his
contract situation.�
�� - The '94 team -- comprised of at least 45 players who were
part of the '92 and '93 playoff debacles -- was so learned and savvy that they
held Super Bowl video practices in the days leading up to the AFC Title game
vs. San Diego, and then laid an egg in lethargic fashion to the lowly Chargers.
�� - The '95 team -- comprised of at least 35
players who were part of the '92, '93, and '94 playoff fiascos -- was so
learned, astute, and full of wisdom and experience, that they allowed a
pitiful, injury-ravaged Colts team to come to 3 Rivers and come within a gnat's
eyelash of pulling off the upset.�
�� - The '96 team -- with 4 previous years of
bitter playoff failure -- was brimming with so much experience and
"lessons learned" that they had their asses beaten in every phase of
the game in New England, en route to a 28-3 whipping.�
�� - The '97 team -- with at least 2-dozen
players and the head coach that "learned" from the horrific flops in
previous AFC Title games -- laid an egg against a Denver team that they'd
already whipped in the regular season, losing once again at home against an
inferior opponent.� ��
�� - The '01 team -- with several players, and the head coach,
remaining from all the learning from the '97 AFC Title game debacle -- choked
away the AFC Title game to the Pats. �
�� - The '02 team -- with at least 90% of their roster returning
from all of the vibrant, Harvard-like learning from the '01 season -- allowed a
weak, pitiful Cleveland team to come to Heinz Field and waltz up and down the
field like a skeleton drill.�
It's quite obvious there's no more learning on a Cowher-coached playoff team than the 15-year old hoodlum that skips class, smokes pot, and never does an ounce of homework.� I myself used to fall for the "learning myth", but that went out the window after the pitiful, slop-infested 7-6 win over the Pats in Jan. '98.�
�
2.� "We have home field advantage".��� Another old wives' tale with no factual basis in regards to
the Stillers.�� As you scan the
tabular slate of Cowher playoff history, you see that the most horrific
efforts (in column 5, Quality of play and effort, relative to
opponent: 1=poor, 10=great) all occurred at HOME, not on the road.� There is indeed a home field advantage in
the NFL, but Billy Cowher's turtle-like, sphincter-tightening approach to
playoff games -- just like his father, Marty Shittenheimer -- turns this
advantage into a total non-factor.�
3.� "We have momentum from the season
finale".�� Yet another feel-good theory that
has absolutely no causal (not casual) effect whatsoever.�
���� In 2002, for example, the Stillers closed
the season by beating the Bucs and then the Ravens in the season finale.� Supposedly armed with all the momentum of a
runaway freight train, the Stillers hosted the hapless Clev Browns in the
playoffs and allowed the Browns to run up and down the field like Tommy Trojan
during a USC blowout.� In '95, the
Stillers fought hard in a meaningless finale against a Packer team that was
fighting for an improved playoff slotting, and only Thigpen's drop of an easy
lob in the EZ prevented the win.� A few
weeks later, armed with all of this so-called momentum, the team gagged and
sputtered in the 1-point squeaker over the lowly Colts.�� Ditto for the '96 finale, when the Stillers,
playing every backup and benchwarmer on the roster, fought and clawed with the
NFC West-winning Carolina Panthers, who were fighting for NFC home-field
advantage.� The Stillers lost, but only by
single digits and acquitted themselves quite well. �This momentum was so momentous that 2 weeks later they were humiliated
by the Patriots.�
���� The bitter irony from all of this, is
that Cowher's teams have actually consistently played far better in meaningless
finales than in meaningful playoff games.�
4. "Even
if we lose (in the playoffs), this season will still be a success" and
"Even if we lose, this season will have meant something".� This mantra is quite popular; unfortunately, it's also quite
imbecilic.�
���� In Major League Baseball, where the
Yankees will play with a $205M payroll while the Pirates will
"compete" with a $35M payroll, such a statement, especially if the
stands are filled near capacity, would be true.�
���� This isn't MLB, of course.� In today's parity-driven, revenue-sharing
NFL, where Pittsburgh has a perfectly equal shot at the title as mega-media
center cities like New York and Chico, 15-1 and bowing out in the playoffs
means absolutely nothing.�
���� The Stillers have a FIVE-year waiting
list for tickets.� Quite obviously, with
the parity, revenue-sharing, and 5-year waiting list, it matters little,
financially, if the team goes 8-8 or 15-1.�
What matters is the championship.�
Head coach Billy Cowher is paid over $4M per year, on par with coaches
that have actually WON the NFL championship.�
If he's content with anything less than a championship, he's literally
robbing money -- millions, mind you -- from the Rooney's.�
���� Given the choice of 15-1 and meekly
bowing out in the playoffs, or going 8-8 and catching fire and storming through
the playoffs and capturing the Lombardi Trophy, I'll gladly take the
latter.�
5.� "The opponent is tired, beaten, injured,
travel-weary�."� This is a long-time favorite that,
when examined from the Steeler perspective, is full of nothing but hot air and
smelly gas.�� The Jan. '95 Chargers; the
Jan. '96 Colts; the Jan. '98 Patriots; the Jan. '02 Pats; and the Jan. '03
Browns and Titans were all beaten, battered, decrepit, injury-ravaged, and road-weary.� And it didn�t mean a tinker's damn, as every
one of these teams outplayed, or at the very least played the equal to, Little
Billy Cowher's troops.� It's a nice luxury
to play a beaten, battered, tired football team�except when your head coach is
too dim-bulbed to take advantage of it.�
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)