'83 NFL season - expectations, retrospect

[BD Sullivan]

Browns had their typical schizo 9-7 season: L 1, W 3, L 1, W 1, L 2, W 1, L 1, W 3, L 2, W 1

[74_75_78_79_]

'Twas 35 years ago today that Steelers get utterly destroyed at Pontiac, 45-3!!

Fifteen years and two days later...coin-flip which set forth that 5-game collapse! Which of the two is worse?

[BD Sullivan]

'Twas 35 years ago today that Steelers get utterly destroyed at Pontiac, 45-3!!

Fifteen years and two days later...coin-flip which set forth that 5-game collapse! Which of the two is worse?

Gotta be 1998 since they managed to recover in 83 to make the playoffs--before then getting routed by the Raiders. In 98, they entered the Lions game with a 7-4 record n then didn't win another game. How much of a hangover they had from that Lions loss is debatable, but still...

[74_75_78_79_]

'Twas 35 years ago today that Steelers get utterly destroyed at Pontiac, 45-3!!

Fifteen years and two days later...coin-flip which set forth that 5-game collapse! Which of the two is worse?

Gotta be 1998 since they managed to recover in 83 to make the playoffs--before then getting routed by the Raiders. In 98, they entered the Lions game with a 7-4 record n then didn't win another game. How much of a hangover they had from that Lions loss is debatable, but still...

Very true it’s ’98 considering what would happen in the immediate future. Yes, Steelers still made playoffs in ’83 along with they then making the AFCC the following year. Could it be if not for Terry, it would have been a complete (also 0-5) collapse (from the playoffs) as well?

I say the coin-flip loss “set forth” that closing skid but I’m thinking it would have happened anyway. Despite beating the Jags one week prior and GB on Monday Night two weeks before that, the ‘cracks’ were already starting to show throughout that 7-4 start: barely beating Balt & Chi those first two games, 21-0 loss at Miami, loss at O’Donnell’s Bengals, and finally they getting swept by Titans; all signs indicating that ‘Act 1’ of the Cowher Era in the ’Burgh was coming to a close. The 9-4 finish (beginning of ‘Act 2’) would come very soon enough just two years later.

EDIT - "...getting swept by Oilers..."