"Cowher has won four division titles since 1992, but this may be the season in which the Steelers lose their stranglehold. He has done a masterly job the past few years, replacing stars with unproven fighters and keeping the Steelers on top. As with the pipes in Three Rivers Stadium, though, sooner or later all that patchwork is going to give."
-- Sports Illustrated Pro Football Preview, September 1, 1997.

The Pittsburgh Steelers entered the 1997 season with many more questions than usual. Never before had an offseason brought so much personnel change. The Steelers had struggled to maintain a core unit of players since free agency hit the league in 1993, and now they were feeling the effects at full force. It seemed like it would only be a matter of time before the team reverted back to its pre-Cowher losing ways.

The final image of the previous season was New England's Curtis Martin running 78 yards through a cloud of fog on the way to a 28-3 playoff drubbing at Foxboro. It was a fitting end to a disappointing season. Rather than repeat as AFC champions, the Steelers stumbled into the playoffs by losing five out of their final ten games. They managed to defeat Indianapolis at home in the first round, but the Patriots were too much for the Steelers in the divisional round.

The 1996 team felt like it was being held together by duct tape. Pittsburgh's strategy was to try to limit any major personnel changes in hope that they could string together another Super Bowl run. For instance, the team replaced departed QB Neil O'Donnell with veteran QB Mike Tomczack rather than playing younger talents Jim Miller and Kordell Stewart. They used their draft choice to select an offensive lineman who they knew would be a project at best rather than use it to replace someone in their weakening secondary. The duct tape held up well for the first half of the season, but by the time December rolled around, it was quite obvious that the team was not championship caliber.

Woodson skipped town after 1996.

When the offseason hit, a slew of free agents left the team. The Steelers lost their three top cornerbacks - Willie Williams, Deon Figures, and team legend Rod Woodson. The Woodson departure in particular was a very sad ordeal. The Steelers wanted Woodson (who was beloved in Pittsburgh) to play safety for less money, but he insisted that he was still one of the top corners in the NFL. It was only after two failed seasons in San Francisco that Woodson would realize that the Steelers were right. Many fans are still bitter towards Woodson to this day.

The team also had to choose whether or not to re-sign Chad Brown, who had a breakout season replacing an injured Greg Lloyd at the outside linebacker spot. If they would have re-signed Brown, it would have meant the end for Lloyd, who was perhaps just as much of a legend as Woodson and who was considered the heart and soul of the defense. The Steelers decided to stick with Lloyd, and Brown went to Seattle. The decision would come back to haunt them.

Other key players from the Super Bowl squad left via free agency, among them defensive end Ray Seals and wide receivers Ernie Mills and Andre Hastings. Others like DE Brenston Buckner, RB Erric Pegram, and PK Norm Johnson were waived or traded. The front office didn't do a real great job of replacing any of those guys. Their big free agent signings were CB Donnell Woolford, WR Courtney Hawkins, and DE Nolan Harrison. They tried to fill needs via the draft too, selecting CB Chad Scott and WR Will Blackwell with their first two picks (only years later would the record show that the 1997 draft was one of the worst in team history). To make matters worse, defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau also left town to take the head coaching job in Cincinnati, a move that Sports Illustrated declared would sink the Steelers. The makeup of the 1997 team would certainly look different.

However, the biggest change for the new season was going to be at quarterback. After two years of playing the "slash" role, Kordell Stewart was finally going to take over behind center. There was a ton of focus around this move. Many fans were excited because of Kordell's athleticism, while just as many fans wondered if a "college QB" could play in the NFL. The Steelers had so much faith in Stewart that they gave him a new four-year deal worth $9 million along with a $2.6 million signing bonus, all of which just added to the pressure on him to perform well.

As the Steelers prepared for their opening regular season game - a Super Bowl XXX rematch with Dallas at Three Rivers Stadium - no one was really sure what to expect from the 1997 season. Many "experts" predicted a third or fourth place finish in the AFC Central. This was going to be the year that Bill Cowher's luck finally ran out.

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In the spring of 1997, I was a sophomore at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. It was the first year I could access the Internet from my dorm room and I immediately became hooked. The web was growing at an exponential rate, and I wanted to be a small part of it. I loved the Steelers and I loved to write, so I decided I would start a web site dedicated to my hometown team.

I taught myself how to write HTML because in those days they didn't have fancy web page editors (and if they did, I hadn't heard of them yet). I signed up for a free web page on GeoCities.com, which gave me a very generous 2 MB of space with which to work. I created a Steelers web site with news, previews, and all the pictures that my 2 MB of space could hold.

(Ironically, I still often write straight HTML for this site. I just got so used to it that I was unable to get fully comfortable using tools like Dreamweaver. I often feel like an old math teacher who refuses to use a calculator because he thinks that his old slide rule still does the job just fine).

I had started off my college career as a print journalism major (with an emphasis on sports journalism of course), but then I realized two important things. First, doing the beat report on games (which is what most sports journalists do) was really not that fun. I covered the men's soccer team for the university newspaper and it was impossible to make an interesting article out of Fordham 1, Duquesne 0. Second, journalists struggle to find work and make money. For all the guys who make it big and get to argue with each other on ESPN, there are 1000 guys who end up finding a new career.

I ended up switching to computer science just in time for the big dot-com boom of the late 90's. I was happy with my decision, but I still loved to write. Starting this web site fulfilled that need for me. I couldn't wait for the season to begin so I could start dishing out my weekly views on the games.

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The hatred of the Dallas Cowboys dated back to the 1970's when the two teams met twice in the Super Bowl, and it carried over into the 1990's when Dallas became the reigning dynasty/criminal kings of the NFL. The crowd at Three Rivers Stadium was all set for the Steelers to start the season on a good foot with a win against an aging Cowboys squad, but things quickly went awry. Troy Aikman torched the Steelers defense for a career high four touchdown passes while Kordell and the offense were unable to put points on the board until the 4th quarter. The final score was a 37-7 blowout. The highlight for the fans ended up being the rather unclassy cheering of a play that saw Cowboys CB Deion Sanders nearly break his neck (Michael Irvin would later take time out of his busy crack-smoking schedule to rip into the fans for that one). Although Cowher's teams had traditionally started slow, this was a particularly disappointing loss not only because of the opponent, but because it gave credence to all the critics who said that the Steelers were entering a rebuilding era.

Pittsburgh showed slight improvement the following week, squeaking by the Washington Redskins thanks to a 134-yard effort from RB Jerome Bettis. At 1-1, the Steelers entered a bye week and began preparations for their first big matchup of the season - a Monday night showdown at Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Jaguars entered the league in 1995 as part of the AFC Central division and showed more immediate success than any other expansion team before them. They advanced all the way to the AFC Championship Game in 1996, and with young stars like QB Mark Brunell and WR Jimmy Smith, they appeared ready to unseat the three-time defending division champion Steelers. They also had found success playing the Steelers at home. They pulled off shocking upsets in Jacksonville in both 1995 and 1996. This nationally televised week 4 game was billed as the moment that the torch would be passed to them.

The Steelers dropped a heartbreaker in Jacksonville.

After two weeks of preparation and all kinds of hype, the Steelers came into the game looking sluggish. They committed uncharacteristic turnovers and dig themselves a 17-7 halftime hole. But the Steelers showed resiliency and mounted a comeback in the second half. This would be one of two season-long trends started in this game (the other being weekly Bill Cowher-Josh Miller screaming matches on the sidelines).

By the time the final moments ticked away, the Steelers were down 23-21 but had a chance to win the game on a long field goal attempt. Veteran center Jim Sweeney snapped the ball low and kicker Norm Johnson, who had been surprisingly re-signed after the kicker brought in to replace him got hurt, was unable to get any air under the ball. Jacksonville not only blocked the kick, but defender Chris Hudson scooped up the ball and ran it all the way back for a touchdown.

For Jacksonville, it was their most dramatic win ever. For Pittsburgh, it was an extremely frustrating loss with a sour ending. Cowher was so angry when the kick got blocked that he got thisclose to pulling a Woody Hayes and tackling Hudson on his way to the endzone. Also lost in the frenzy of the botched field goal was the fact that Jacksonville had kicked the go-ahead field goal minutes earlier thanks to a stupid personal foul call on Nolan Harrison, the former Oakland Raider who just couldn't leave his Raider blood behind when he signed with Pittsburgh.

The whole Jacksonville mess just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but fortunately the Steelers would rebound. They blew out the Tennessee Oilers at home in week 5 to get back to .500. Stewart was starting to feel more comfortable in the starting role, even earning an NFL Player of the Week for his 244 yard, 3 TD effort against the Oilers. However, when the Steelers traveled to Baltimore the following week for another divisional matchup, Stewart quickly regressed by throwing three first-half interceptions, all of which led to Ravens touchdowns. Down 21-0 and watching their season start to slip away, the 1997 Steelers dug deep.

On the opening kickoff of the second half, Blackwell faked a reverse and ran 97 yards for a touchdown (by far the signature moment on the career highlight film of Will Blackwell). Stewart recovered too and began throwing a barrage of touchdown passes. Before the Ravens knew what hit them, the Steelers had taken a 35-32 lead. Stewart then iced the game on a brilliant 74 yard touchdown run, then kissed his head coach on the sideline (a moment which unfortunately started a rumor concerning Stewart's sexuality).

The national spotlight shined brightly on Stewart.

The Steelers had pulled off the greatest comeback in franchise history. More notably, the win catapulted Stewart into stardom. He had already been touted as one of the league's big superstars. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated and was in roughly five different national commercials all before the season even started. The NFL is not like other sports. The true football greats don't have to dazzle fans the way Michael Jordan did, but that has never stopped the league from trying to push exciting athletes like Bo Jackson and Michael Vick. They know that is what draws in advertisers and casual fans. Stewart was promoted as the guy who was changing the quarterback position, making it possible for running QB's to find a home in the NFL. Before the Baltimore game, it was mostly just hype, but after the replay of Stewart's 74 yard run was shown over and over again (including on David Letterman, where Stewart was invited to be a guest), the eyes of the football world were squarely on the third-year passer from Colorado.

The Steelers would run their record to 5-2 with wins over bottom-feeders Indianapolis and Cincinnati. That set up a huge rematch with the Jaguars (also 5-2) at Three Rivers Stadium in week 9.

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"We need to vote for this plan in order to keep our teams here in Pittsburgh because there is no Plan B," Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy told a group of us at Duquesne. It was late October, about a week before Election Day. McClatchy and Dan Rooney were campaigning for a plan called the Regional Renaissance Initiative. The main thrust of the plan was to increase the sales tax by half a cent in Allegheny County and its surrounding counties in order to pay for new stadiums to house the Pirates and Steelers.

Government-funded stadiums were all the rage in the 1990's. When Art Modell left Cleveland in 1995 over not getting a new stadium, it became clear that any team which had an old stadium was a candidate to skip town. The NFL saw the Rams and Oilers also find new homes in towns which were willing to build them stadiums, and the Steeler Nation knew that Three Rivers, built in 1971, was on its last legs. The Rooney's were pushing hard for a new stadium, and they needed the voters' help to get it.

I am personally opposed to the idea of the government interfering in anything that should be left to private business, but for whatever reason, I voted for the initiative. I even used my new web site to promote it. Looking back, it was a foolish plan. I don't know why I voted for it. Perhaps it was just the fear of losing my beloved Steelers.

I ended up being in the minority. The Regional Renaissance Initiative was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls. It was a huge disaster which left the Steelers with very few options. Threatening to move really seemed like the only logical way they were going to get a new park. Would Dan Rooney really be willing to abandon Pittsburgh? What would his father have thought? Could the Steelers still compete without a new stadium, considering all the free agents they kept losing to big signing bonuses? These were all questions that would need to be answered, but those questions could wait. The Steelers still had half a season to complete.

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The Steelers weren't a first-half team that year, but they were a team who thrived when they were faced with a deficit. They came out firing in the second half, scoring two touchdowns (one of which was the result of a 98-yard drive). That gave the Steelers a 14-10 lead, but they lost the momentum when Bettis fumbled at his own 20 yard line, setting up a go-ahead touchdown. Bettis almost never fumbled during his career, but he always seemed to pick the absolute most inopportune times to do it.

Down 17-14, the Steelers mounted yet another comeback. Johnson kicked a field goal to send the game to overtime, where Kordell began the march to victory. Stewart was 4-4 for 50 yards passing on the OT drive. Ultimately, the Steelers found themselves at the Jaguars 17 yard line. Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey called for a shovel pass to the Bus. Jacksonville never saw it coming, and Bettis rumbled through their secondary for the game-winning touchdown. It was a thrilling win that gave the Steelers control of the AFC Central. It was a big moral victory as well. The Jaguars had come in with aspirations of unseating the kings. The Steelers showed the football world that they weren't ready to be unseated.

Lloyd was starting to lose it.

The game also featured a bizarre incident in which Lloyd nailed Jaguars WR Keenan McCardell away from the play (and behind the referee's back). McCardell was understandably not very happy about being assaulted for no apparent reason. Lloyd claimed that McCardell had called his house that week and left threatening messages on his answering machine. McCardell denied it, and I have to admit that I sided with Keenan on that one. Think about it - why would McCardell even do that? And even if he did, what did he say? "I'm gonna kill your family Greg.... By the way, this is Keenan McCardell of the Jaguars. That's M-C-C-A-R-D-E-L-L. Just look for the green #87 jersey on Sunday."

Out of the many infamous stunts that Lloyd had pulled over the years - counting out wide receiver Al Toon as he lay on the field with a concussion ("Just like rasslin' -- one, two, three, he's out," said Lloyd), jumping on a referee's foot in a game against Houston, drilling NFL golden boy Brett Favre in a pre-season game, telling Joe Namath to go to hell (my personal favorite), kicking offensive lineman Brian DeMarco in the groin, threatening to hurt Dan Marino and then actually doing it, dropping the F-bomb live on NBC - the McCardell incident was perhaps the most outlandish. The man who Jerry Glanville once called "the nastiest player in football" now looked like a crazy old man.

To complicate matters, Lloyd's play on the field suffered considerably in 1997. The injury he had suffered the previous year essentially ended his career, or at least the effective part of it. Lloyd was nearly invisible on the field except when he was jumping offsides, which seemed to happen quite a bit that season. It was a huge disappointment for the Steelers, who had not only chosen Lloyd over Chad Brown, but who had also designed a special defense to utilize him better on 3rd downs (the short-lived "penny" defense). It would end up being his final season in a Steelers uniform.

The Steelers were riding high from their big win over division-rival Jacksonville, but the momentum they had gained from that win started to sway. The team split their next four games. They rolled over Baltimore and Cincinnati, but dropped games to Kansas City and Philadelphia. The losses were discouraging, not because of the opponent - the Chiefs had the best record in the conference that year - but rather how the Steelers played. They came out flat and uninspired, leaving many fans to ponder whether or not their season had peaked with the win over Jacksonville.

The Nation had even more reason to worry when the team traveled to Tempe in week 14. The Steelers struggled against the lowly Cardinals for the better part of four quarters. The defense sacked rookie QB Jake Plummer 10 times, but Plummer kept on battling. With the game tied at 20 late in the 4th quarter, the scrappy rookie led a last-minute drive which ultimately set up a 46 yard field goal attempt by Oscar-winning kicker Joe Nedney. Fortunately for the Steelers, Nedney missed the kick. In overtime, Stewart hit Yancey Thigpen on a couple of long passes and Bettis rumbled into the endzone for the game-winning score. It was another typical 1997 victory. The defense played well, Bettis rushed for 142 yards, Stewart and Thigpen made plays in the clutch, but most significantly, the Steelers battled back from what looked to be a sure loss.

(Note: The game against the Cardinals also marked a very significant step in my evolution as an NFL fan. Since the game was in Arizona, it was slated to begin at 4:00. Earlier in the day, the local NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh broadcast the Jacksonville-Baltimore game, which was important to Steelers fans since the Jaguars were still running neck-and-neck with the Steelers in the AFC Central race. My dad, my brother, and I watched the entire game, which the Ravens (a bad team that year) kept close all the way to the end. Baltimore scored a touchdown with just over a minute left in the game, but they still needed the two-point conversion to tie the score. Ravens QB Eric Zeier lined up to take the snap, when all of a sudden --- "Due to contractual obligations, we now switch you to coverage of the Steelers-Cardinals game." We were outraged, especially because the Steelers game wasn't even going to begin for another ten minutes. They switched us over so that we could be forced into watching boring pre-game banter between the two announcers. My dad defiantly declared that this was the last straw, and that next season he was getting a satellite dish with the NFL Sunday Ticket package so that we could watch ANY game we wanted to. Sure enough, that is exactly what he did, and almost a full decade later, we still spend every Sunday watching an array of NFL games on his Direct TV package.)

After defeating the Cardinals, the Steelers ran their record to 9-4, but the next two games were against arguably the two best teams in the AFC: Denver (home) and New England (away). The Broncos were up first. John Elway was in the middle of a huge resurgence, thanks in large part to RB Terrell Davis, who was probably the single best player in the league that year. Denver flexed their muscle early, jumping out to a 21-7 first half lead. The Steelers defense ranked as one of the best in the NFL that year (with much of the credit going to new defensive coordinator Jim Haslett), but they had developed a bad habit for digging the team into an early hole. They also had holes in the secondary. Donnell Woolford, the former all-pro in Chicago, turned out to be a huge free agent bust, and the Steelers were eventually forced into starting rookie Chad Scott and safety Carnell Lake at cornerback. That made for trouble against quarterbacks as skilled as Elway.

Once again, the Steelers were down, this time by two touchdowns. The loud speaker at Three Rivers blared the song "Tub Thumping" by the band Chumbawamba. It was a popular song that fall, and it really should have been the team's theme song. It went something like this:

"I get knocked down, but I get up again,
You're never going to keep me down!"

Granted, the song was about getting drunk, but the lyrics were certainly applicable to this team. The Steelers were about to get up again.

Denver could not stop Stewart.

Stewart found Thigpen on a 69 yard TD bomb, and then went back to his favorite receiver for a 21 yard score. The Steelers tied the game at 21 and never looked back. Stewart ran one in to give the Steelers their first lead, and then they iced the game with a clock-eating drive that ended with another Stewart touchdown run. It was Kordell's best game as a pro. He accounted for five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing), while throwing for over 300 yards. Thigpen also had a big day with 175 yards and 3 touchdowns. The defense meanwhile held Davis to just 75 yards on the ground. Best of all, Jacksonville lost to New England. The Steelers were now in position to take the division.

Although the final score of 35-24 didn't indicate it, the Broncos game was one of the most hard-fought wins the Steelers have ever had during the Cowher era. They beat a great team with a legendary quarterback (Elway was a paltry 17 of 42 passing), and they once again came from behind to do it. The Comeback Kings were rolling along, but the following week in New England would see the team pull off its biggest miracle since the Immaculate Reception.

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On one hand, it was distressing that the Steelers kept putting themselves in situations where they had to find a new way to come from behind in order to secure a win. On the other hand, it made for one exciting ride! Ask most Cleveland fans about their most memorable season. Rather than pointing to the dominate teams of the late 1980's or the solid 1994 team, they would probably single out the 1980 campaign, when the Browns won so many games by the skin of their teeth that they earned the nickname "Cardiac Kids". Cleveland wasn't the best team in football that year, but the way they won games made everyone believe that anything was possible as long as you believed in them. The 1997 Steelers were approaching that status.

At Three Rivers Stadium, it was like someone had sent bolts of electricity through all the seats. The crowd had always been loud and into the game (and they still are today), but in my 20 years of attending home games, I'm not sure that I have ever seen the crowd get as into the games as they were that year. In the Jacksonville game, the Steelers stuffed Jaguars RB James Stewart on a huge 4th and goal play from the one yard line. Stewart later admitted he didn't hear the correct play call because the crowd was so noisy. The Denver game was another perfect example of how the fans propelled their team. The crowd never stopped believing in the Steelers, even when they were down by two touchdowns. We were rewarded with yet another comeback, and as the final minutes ticked away, the fans literally shook the stands in Three Rivers in excitement (see the video clip link at the end of this article). Heinz Field is a great place - the seats are closer to the field, the walkways are wide, and the bathrooms are so large that no one has to pee in the sink anymore - but it has never matched the level of intensity of old Three Rivers, and 1997 was its final great hurrah.

I really enjoyed that season. Looking back at my game recaps on this site, I kept getting more excited by the week. After one of the games, I wrote, "Holy God!! This has been one of the most absolutely unbelievable seasons in Steelers history!" I started getting readers emailing me with subjects like, "Can you believe this?!?!" Perhaps it was the elation of seeing a team with so many question marks before the season perform so courageously in the face of adversity. After all, grittiness is an attribute that we like from our sports teams. How far could this team go? For many of us fans, the sky was the limit because no game was ever over until the Steelers had found a way to snatch victory.

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On Saturday, December 13, 1997, the Steelers traveled to Foxboro for a late-season matchup against the AFC East leading New England Patriots. Both teams had their divisions nearly wrapped up, but each wanted the #2 seed in the AFC (behind Kansas City) and the treasured playoff bye week that came with it.

The Patriots were the defending conference champions and had slaughtered Pittsburgh on the same field in the 1996 playoffs. Coach Bill Parcells had left to take over the New York Jets, and Bill Belichick was still several years away from transforming New England into a dynasty. The 1997 team was coached by Pete Carroll, who would later lead USC to multiple national championships, but who was mediocre at best as an NFL head coach. Tom Brady was still attending classes at Michigan, so the Patriots were led by the enigmatic Drew Bledsoe, a quarterback who had the talent of Dan Marino but the screw-up capability of Joe Pisarcik.

The Steelers opened the game by spotting New England 14 points. It's hard to picture it now, but it was just so typical by that point in the season that no one really even panicked. Everyone was certain that the Steelers would claw their way back into the game, and they did just that by cutting the lead to 14-13. Another comeback seemed destined until a bizarre 4th quarter play shifted the momentum back to New England. Bledsoe threw an ugly pass to one of his receivers, but somehow RB Dave Megget snagged the ball out of the air and dodged baffled Steelers defenders on his way to a 49 yard touchdown.

The Patriots took an 8-point lead and got the ball back with just over two minutes left in the game. It appeared that the Steelers had run out of chances. New England had 3rd and 7 at midfield, and Pittsburgh was out of timeouts. A first down meant that the Patriots could simply take a knee to end the game. Even if the defense held, New England would have pinned the Steelers deep in their own territory with the challenge of driving the length of the field, scoring a touchdown and completing the two-point conversion all with no timeouts with which to work.

Did that really happen!?!

It seemed hopeless, but then it happened - a moment which would later be referred to by the self-pitying Boston fans as "the pass". Rather than run it up the middle to set up the punt, Carroll decided to try to get the first down and end the game. It wouldn't have been a bad idea if someone other than Drew Bledsoe had been at the controls. The embattled Patriots quarterback was pressured by Steelers CB Chris Oldham (who was the most underrated Steelers player of the decade). He panicked and tried to hit Meggett on a screen pass when DE Kevin Henry stepped in front of the pass, picked it off, and rumbled down the field in front of 60,000 horrified Patriots fans. Henry didn't make it into the endzone (he actually tried to lateral the ball but it was ruled a forward pass). However, his play gave the Steelers excellent field position and a chance to possibly tie the game.

The next sequence of plays were even more amazing. The offense converted a 4th and 7 when Thigpen made a brilliant diving catch near the sideline (probably the best catch of his career). On 3rd and goal, Stewart ran a play-action and hit TE Mark Bruener in the endzone. On the two-point attempt, Stewart went back to Thigpen who made a sliding catch that tied the game with just 38 second left on the clock.

The Steelers won the overtime coin toss but were soon faced with another huge obstacle - 3rd and 15 deep in their own territory. However, after all that had already occurred, 3rd and 15 was easy. Stewart hit Courtney Hawkins on an innocent-looking screen pass that ended up going for 41 yards. That set up Norm Johnson, who kicked the 31 yard game-winner.

According to the dictionary, the definition of the word "unbelievable" is as follows: "too unrealistic or improbable to be believed". In sports we often overuse this word to describe a play or a series of events, but what transpired in the final two minutes of that game was quite simply completely unbelievable. The Steelers were finished. There was NO WAY they were coming back. New England had the game LOCKED up. I still remember sitting dejectedly on the couch with my buddy, eagerly waiting for the result to be official so I could change the channel. When Henry intercepted that pass, my buddy screamed out, "Run fatass, run!!!" We could not believe what was happening.

The improbable victory essentially gave the Steelers the division title and the #2 seed in the AFC. They still had one final game left at Tennessee, but due to an odd tie-breaker rule, the only way the Steelers could lose the #2 seed was by allowing the Oilers to beat them by at least 65 points! (it was an appropriate peculiarity for that season). That was not going to happen, so the Steelers rested their starters and geared up for the post-season.

The aftermath of "the pass" was messy in Boston. The phrase "shades of Bill Buckner" began surfacing in reference to Bledsoe's ill-fated pass. The Patriots would win their division and their first playoff game, but they would have to once again face the Steelers for the divisional round. Thanks to Kevin Henry, this time the game would take place in Pittsburgh.

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The 1997 Steelers were not short on talent. The team sent six players to the Pro Bowl, and that list didn't even include Kordell Stewart, who had become essential to the team's success. WR Yancey Thigpen had a career year, breaking John Stallworth's team record for receiving yards in a season. RB Jerome Bettis had a great second year with the team. He rushed for over 1600 yards and was named team MVP. Center Dermontti Dawson continued to dominate the opposition and was widely considered to be the best at his position. Kicker Norm Johnson, who was sitting at home during the pre-season, set an NFL record for consecutive PAT's.

On defense, Carnell Lake's move from safety to cornerback helped make up for the loss of Woodson and earned him his 4th all-pro selection. LB Levon Kirkland blossomed into a star, which helped fill the void left by departed linebackers Kevin Greene and Chad Brown. NT Joel Steed, a veteran who had always performed solidly, had a breakout season and became the key cog in the Steelers run defense.

Pittsburgh had managed to field a team of stars despite the swinging door of NFL free agency that had cost them so much talent. It was truly amazing that the team could remain competitive. After the run they made in 1997, the Nation just assumed that the team would always be competitive no matter what its personnel looked like. Little did we know that the bottom was about to drop out.

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More than 61,000 pumped up Pittsburgh fans packed into Three Rivers Stadium for the playoff game against New England in January of 1998. The Steelers hadn't lost at home since opening day and were looking to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the third time in the past four seasons. The Patriots were looking not only to return to the Super Bowl, but also to avenge the week 16 loss at Foxboro.

Bledsoe picked up right where he left off in the first game, tossing an early interception to Scott. That set up a 40 yard touchdown run by Stewart, who rolled out on the play, got a good block, and then went untouched behind the New England secondary. It was the longest run in Steelers post-season history at the time, but it ended up being the only big play of the day for the offense. New England's defense clamped down, but so did Pittsburgh's. All that the Patriots could muster were two Adam Vinatieri field goals.

As the game wore on, Pittsburgh managed to hold off New England and win the field position battle despite some questionable punting from Miller (he had a 12-yard punt in that game that drew merciless booing from the crowd and more ire from the head coach). Still, it felt like their one-point lead was flimsy at best. All the Patriots needed to do in order to take the lead was to get into field goal range. After all, they had the guy who would become the greatest clutch kicker in NFL history. Late in the 4th quarter, the Steelers drove all the way down to the New England one yard line, where they were faced with 4th down. Cowher made a gutsy call to go for it, but it failed. The Steelers, used to coming from behind all season, would have to do things the old Steelers way and depend on their defense to secure the win.

Bledsoe had a miserable time against Pittsburgh in 1997.

The Patriots offense had one final chance to drive for the game-winning field goal starting at their own one yard line. They got about 30 yards down the field before Steelers LB Mike Vrable (who ironically would star on New England's Super Bowl teams years later) stripped the ball out of Bledsoe's hands. Just like that, the game was over. The Steelers had beaten New England for the second time in three weeks and were now just one win away from an improbable Super Bowl berth.

To this day I still cannot believe that the Steelers won a playoff game by the score of 7-6. It seemed like a score out of the 1940's. There was no inclement weather or any other factors that hindered scoring other than two very staunch defenses. In the end, the Steelers came out on top. Meanwhile, Denver had upset Kansas City, so that meant that the AFC Championship Game would once again be coming to Pittsburgh.

John Elway had played his first game as a pro in Three Rivers Stadium, and now in his 15th season he would be trying to get the Broncos back to the Super Bowl. That would be the big storyline for the game. Elway had become famous for his 4th quarter comebacks, but he had gained even more notoriety for losing three Super Bowls - all by lopsided scores - in the 1980's. Denver muddled along through the early part of the 1990's assuming that Elway's best days were behind him. They even drafted UCLA star Tommy Maddox to be his successor, but Elway kept on playing. Now he would get one last chance to finally be a winner.

It made for a nice story for the national media, but The Nation could have cared less about Elway. The Broncos were not well-liked in Pittsburgh, especially after they whined about Cowher's enthusiasm after the first game (the Denver media called him a "golden retreiver"). But regardless of the opponent, all we wanted was a chance to return to the Super Bowl, where the Steelers had blown a chance to win two seasons earlier. This team wasn't as talented as the 1995 squad, but it had destiny on its side. All of the comeback wins and exciting moments had led to this point. All the Steelers needed to do in order to advance to their sixth Super Bowl was to beat Denver, a team that they had defeated once already.

With much media hype and a crowd that was at its absolute loudest, the Steelers and Broncos kicked off the 1997 AFC Championship Game. Denver got on the board first with a Terrell Davis touchdown run. Davis, who had been shut down in the first game, became the first runner all season to rack up 100 yards against the Pittsburgh run defense. Still, anyone who had watched the Steelers all season knew that being down 7-0 was where the Steelers felt most comfortable.

The offense tied the game when Stewart ran for a 33 yard score. The play was similar to the bootleg run the previous week, and this one featured tremendous blocking from Dawson. It's not very often that the center can pull outside to block downfield on a designed running play. The Steelers then took the lead on a short Bettis touchdown. Jason Elam kicked a field goal to cut the Steelers lead to 14-10, but all the momentum was in Pittsburgh's favor.

Perhaps it was because things were going so well that Kordell decided to get greedy. With the Steelers driving again, Stewart launched a pass down the middle of the field to Thigpen, who was blanketed by double-coverage. The Broncos not only intercepted the pass, but they stole the momentum as well. Elway then did what Elway always did best. He led two touchdown drives in the final 1:47 of the first half. Granted, there were some questionable pass interference calls on each of the drives, but the defense still had no excuse for letting that happen. At the two minute warning the Steelers were up 14-10. At halftime they were down 24-14.

There was no reason to throw in the towel though. This team had come back from much worse deficits than 24-14. Sure enough, the Steelers began driving on their first possession of the second half, reaching the Denver five yard line. They were going to score a touchdown or at least kick a field goal. Either way the Broncos lead would be cut to one score. On second and goal, Stewart threw an awful pass right into the middle of three Denver defenders. LB Allen Aldridge came down with the interception, and the offense walked off the field with nothing.

Romo believed that Kordell was a fraud.

After the play, Denver LB Bill Romanowski stared down Stewart and smacked his helmet as if to say "how stupid can you be?!" Romanowski was a first-class jerk, not to mention the fact that he was an unstable maniac who took horse pills to make him run faster. That being said, it's understandable where his little outpouring of emotion originated. Romo was a veteran who had won Super Bowls with Joe Montana and was about to win more with John Elway. He was no doubt sick of the media worship that Stewart had been getting that season. Romo saw Kordell as a less-than-mediocre quarterback whose athletic abilities to make plays masked his inefficient passing skills. He knew Stewart was no Montana/Elway. He wanted Stewart to be exposed as a fraud, and he felt that the ill-timed interception at the goal line accomplished that.

The Steelers were able to bounce back from anything that season. They were down by 21 points in Baltimore. They trailed Jacksonville at home late in the game. They survived nearly losing on a last-second field goal in Arizona. They somehow came back to beat New England after being down by 8 points with no timeouts left. They overcame a two-touchdown deficit against this same Denver team in December. But for whatever reason, Stewart's interception was the one setback that the 1997 Steelers were unable to overcome.

The Broncos didn't score any points in the second half, but their defense kept the demoralized Steelers from moving the ball. Pittsburgh finally got a late touchdown with about three minutes left in the game to cut the lead to 24-21. Maybe if they could force Denver to punt, they could pull out one more comeback. But it didn't happen. With the fans going crazy trying to disrupt Elway on 3rd down (I have personally never screamed that loud before), he coolly found TE Shannon Sharpe for a first down which ended the game (Sharpe would later cite the play as the biggest catch of his career). There would be no more miracles. The 1997 season was over.

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After the season, the Steelers began to fall apart. Thigpen left via free agency to go to Tennessee. Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey became the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Starting OT John Jackson signed with San Diego. Greg Lloyd was released.

The Steelers had lost players before and had always recovered, but this time it was more than just that. Some of the younger players who had shown promise in 1997, like WR Charles Johnson and CB Chad Scott, failed to live up to expectations. However, the most shocking decline came at the quarterback position. Kordell Stewart had thrown for 3000 yards and had made huge plays with his feet. Even after he threw the costly interception in the AFC Championship Game, his future still looked bright. Here is what I wrote about Kordell on the day that the season ended:

Kordell Stewart came out and had a great season. Yes, he threw a lot of interceptions. Yes, he was often forced to make comebacks due to his poor starts. But he still had a 3000 yard season. He still led the team all the way back to the AFC Championship game. He still made this one of the most exciting seasons in Steelers history.... Now, there's no denying that he screwed up big-time on Sunday, but that's no reason for everyone to start hating him. He's young and he's still learning. He's already done more than was expected of him. Give him time for the future, because he's going to be a superstar in this league.

But Stewart never became a legendary quarterback. The 1998 season was a miserable one for the Steelers. They got off to a 7-4 start, but their wins were rocky at best and some of their losses were downright sickening. Eventually the team would drop its final five games. When Stewart cried on the sidelines in a game at Tampa Bay, he forever distanced himself from blue-collar Steelers fans. They would never be able to root for him again. Bill Romanowski was right - Stewart was a fraud. Although he would have one more good season (in 2001), it proved to be nothing more than a fluke. Kordell had so much promise and could have been the poster boy for the NFL in the late 1990's. To this day he probably wonders if it all turned on that interception against Denver.

The 1997 season ended up being the last shot at glory for the early Cowher teams. The Steelers suffered through three straight non-playoff seasons before they returned to prominence in the 2000's. Meanwhile, the Rooney's did get their new stadium via the Plan B which McClatchy claimed did not exist. Heinz Field ensured that the team would remain in Pittsburgh for many years to come.

None of the players from that memorable season still play on the team today, but their performance holds a special place in team history. In the fall of 1997, the Pittsburgh Steelers thrilled their fans with exhilarating comebacks and last-second nail-biters. They won some huge games and they fell short of their ultimate goal, but we should always be thankful that they made it such a fun ride.