Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

After winning two  Super Bowls,  the 1976  Pittsburgh Steelers were 1-4 after five weeks.   Worse yet, Terry Bradshaw was injured in the fifth game and would not return until the late in the season.  What happened was one of the most remarkable streaks  in NFL history.  Coach Chuck Knoll  put rookie Mike Kruzak at quarterback; depended heavily on the running of Franco Harris and Rocky Bleir, and a great defense.  The Steelers won nine consecutive  games for a  10-4 finish.  The way they did it was almost unbelievable:

Pittsburgh:

--shut out five opponents,
--held two teams, Miami and Cincinnati, to a field goal,
--held Cincinnati  to two field goals,

--gave up 16 points to Houston in a 32 to 16 win at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh yield 28 points in nine weeks. In the AFC Central, both Pittsburgh and the Cincinnati Bengals had  10-4 records.   Pittsburgh won both games, went to the playoffs, and the Bengals did not.  In football, there are better places than home for the holidays.  As you might expect, both the  games against Cincinnati  were their biggest victories of the season.


Week 6 at Pittsburgh. As stated Pittsburgh was 1-4 and the Bengals were  4-1.

The Steelers passed sparingly and Franco Harris carried 41 times for 143 yards and two touchdowns.  The defense sacked Bengals quarterback Kenny Anderson  five times for 32 yards in losses.  The Bengals gained only 75 yards passing the entire game.  Pittsburgh 23 Cincinnati 6.

Week 12 at Cincinnati. The Bengals were 8-3 to the Steelers 7-4.  Franco Harris gained 87 yards rushing and Rockey Bleir 97.  The Steelers scored their touchdown after a fumble recovery at the Bengals 24.  Mike Kruzak threw a 13 yard pass to Lynn Swan.  Rocky Bleir ran for seven yards and Harris carried four yards for the score.  The Bengals got only nine first downs.

Terry Bradshaw returned to lineup for the last two regular season games.  In the playoff at Baltimore,  the Steelers beat the Colts 40 to 14.  In the process they lost both Franco Harris  and Rocky Bleir from injuries.  Without these two,  Pittsburgh lost the AFC Title game at Oakland 24 to 7.

For the Steelers 1976 was the year of the Brown's Turkey Jones planting Terry Bradshaw's head into the Cleveland turf. I attended the week 6 Bengals at Steelers game. The Steelers started the game slowly until a Cincy LB leveled a cheap shot at starting QB Mike Kruzcek. The Steelers Jack Lambert went ballistic, the fans went crazy and the Steelers won the game. A season ending nine game winning streak gave the team the Central Division title.

Many of the seventies Steelers believe the 1976 team was the best of the decade. One can only wonder how the team would have fared at Oakland had Franco and Rocky Bleier not been injured in the playoffs' first round. The Raiders were a formidable team that had rallied to defeat the Steelers in game one but it was a far different Pittsburgh team by season's end. Whatever the case, what likely would have been a classic AFC championship game became a mismatch.

1976 was a "what might have been" season for the team.

I dunno ... The Steelers obviously missed the RBs but they also blew their load against the Colts in the divisional. The Raiders were more ready to play and ran roughshod over the Steel Curtain in the championship game, similar to the 1973 playoff matchup.
The Raiders fans were ecstatic after winning a game they should have lost the week before. There is no way that 76 Steeler team was better than their 75 champion, especially without Bradshaw. Their defense was awesome but they played against some bad offenses as well ...