Hypo-Steelers/Eagles SBs
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:06 pm
A shame the two never met for all the marbles! 2001, '04, and '08 are the seasons in which both PA teams were in the 'final four'. If both teams meet in each of these respective Super Sundays, who do you think wins in each case? Though the Birds just missed out on the NFCCG in '79, let's count that very season as well - Vermeil's bunch hypothetically getting thru TB and LA to a SBXIV date with the 'Burgh, the very team they beat four months earlier.
Here are my takes...
1979 - Steelers were the better team that year in the first place. They weren't full-strength in that close loss at the Vet though they had more-than-ample replacements as was, pretty much, the case all through that title campaign. I'm thinking Vermeil makes that 'uptight', strict-bed-check mistake one year earlier in the two weeks leading up...and against a very experienced SB-winner?? Not by a blowout, but not quite a close Steeler victory just the same.
2001 - 13-3 Pittsburgh was the stronger team though the special teams were a notable Achilles heel. Eagles just 11-5 but by the time the playoffs began, they were pretty much that strong-contending team they'd be each of the next three-straight years. A good game but Steelers by a TD, ten points at the most.
2004 - A stretch of a what-if in that the Steelers didn't even come close vs NE. But let's just say the Pats all get the flu right before the game and the 'Burgh advances. Despite hammering the Eagles at Heinz during that regular season, the Steelers despite still winning kind-of sleepwalked for the remainder. And they really should have lost that divisional to the Jets! I think the Birds get their way this time. A seven to ten point victory as well. Big Ben's rookie-ness would have been a detriment for we all know how he struggled a year later in his actual first SB rodeo.
2008 - Going into the CCs, and feeling confident enough of a hattrick over the Ravens, I was pretty worried of having to face the Eagles. That September, despite losing Westbrook early in the game, they still prevailed in a more-lopsided-than-the-score-indicated 15-6 result while sacking us NINE times! Had Eagles got thru the dessert, which they almost did, they would have been a dangerous opponent as well. But, thinking about it, it was that Cardinals passing game (especially Warner-to-Fitzgerald) that matched up so well vs that defense thus making SBXLIII what it truly was. The Eagles' passing game didn't offer up quite the firepower. The Andy Reid-led squad still keeps it close (and they are arguably the best 9-win team ever), but the 'Burgh with help of that (at least statistically) juggernaut of a D gets revenge and pulls it off.
Here are my takes...
1979 - Steelers were the better team that year in the first place. They weren't full-strength in that close loss at the Vet though they had more-than-ample replacements as was, pretty much, the case all through that title campaign. I'm thinking Vermeil makes that 'uptight', strict-bed-check mistake one year earlier in the two weeks leading up...and against a very experienced SB-winner?? Not by a blowout, but not quite a close Steeler victory just the same.
2001 - 13-3 Pittsburgh was the stronger team though the special teams were a notable Achilles heel. Eagles just 11-5 but by the time the playoffs began, they were pretty much that strong-contending team they'd be each of the next three-straight years. A good game but Steelers by a TD, ten points at the most.
2004 - A stretch of a what-if in that the Steelers didn't even come close vs NE. But let's just say the Pats all get the flu right before the game and the 'Burgh advances. Despite hammering the Eagles at Heinz during that regular season, the Steelers despite still winning kind-of sleepwalked for the remainder. And they really should have lost that divisional to the Jets! I think the Birds get their way this time. A seven to ten point victory as well. Big Ben's rookie-ness would have been a detriment for we all know how he struggled a year later in his actual first SB rodeo.
2008 - Going into the CCs, and feeling confident enough of a hattrick over the Ravens, I was pretty worried of having to face the Eagles. That September, despite losing Westbrook early in the game, they still prevailed in a more-lopsided-than-the-score-indicated 15-6 result while sacking us NINE times! Had Eagles got thru the dessert, which they almost did, they would have been a dangerous opponent as well. But, thinking about it, it was that Cardinals passing game (especially Warner-to-Fitzgerald) that matched up so well vs that defense thus making SBXLIII what it truly was. The Eagles' passing game didn't offer up quite the firepower. The Andy Reid-led squad still keeps it close (and they are arguably the best 9-win team ever), but the 'Burgh with help of that (at least statistically) juggernaut of a D gets revenge and pulls it off.