With the Pittsburgh Steelers 2014 season being over, why not take a look back to some of their greatest victories? With the Divisional Playoffs round happening this weekend, let’s look back at their 2005 Divisional Round win over the Indianapolis Colts.
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Frankly this is my favorite non-Super Bowl Steelers victory of my lifetime. The Steelers were heavy underdogs coming into this game. The 2005 Colts went 14-2 and earned the number one seed in the AFC after starting the year 13-0. They were the favorites to go to the Super Bowl. However, the 11-5, sixth seeded Steelers had other ideas.
In Ben Roethlisberger’s second year in the NFL, the Steelers came out passing against the Colts, who clearly expected a heavy dose of Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis. The Steelers scored two passing touchdowns in the first quarter to jump out to a 14-0 lead. The Steelers defense, led by Joey Porter and James Farrior, held the powerful Colts offense to only three points in the first half.
In the third quarter Jerome Bettis scored a one-yard touchdown to extend the Steelers lead to 21-3. It appeared the Steelers were on their way to an AFC Championship matchup with the Denver Broncos. But the Colts were not about to give up on what had been a great season.
Peyton Manning connected on a 50-yard touchdown to Dallas Clark just :53 seconds into the fourth quarter. All of a sudden the Colts were back in business. After a 13 play Steelers drive that stalled at the Colts 42 yard line, Peyton Manning had the ball again.
After a Colts first down, Troy Polamalu intercepted a Manning pass over the middle at midfield with five minutes remaining in the game. That interception was the ballgame. The Steelers were going to run out the clock and the Colts would not have enough time to score 11 more points. Unfortunately, when Polamalu rose off the ground after the diving interception his own knee forced a fumble and somehow referee Pete Morelli decided that Polamalu did not maintain possession of the ball, thus handing it back to Peyton Manning, who inevitably drove the field and scored on an Edgerrin James 3-yard run. Reggie Wayne then caught a two-point conversion and just like that the Steelers 18-point lead had been cut to three with 4:24 remaining in the game.
The Steelers next possession went nowhere and they were forced to punt the ball back to Manning. However, the Steelers defense stepped up in a huge way. Joey Porter sacked Manning on third down to force a fourth and long. On fourth down both Porter and Farrior got to Manning and sacked him on the Colts two-yard line. The game was finally over with a minute to play. The Steelers were going to score a touchdown with the Bus to seal the victory.
Not so fast though. On the Steelers first play, they gave the ball to Bettis. He ran up the middle in the goal line formation and as he neared the end zone he attempted to go horizontally to score a touchdown. Unfortunately, the ball met Gary Brackett’s helmet and the football popped out of the Bus’s hands. Colts corner Nick Harper received a perfect bounce as he scooped up the fumble and began running towards the Steelers end zone. The game that had been over, tickets booked to Denver, was now in serious doubt.
Thankfully, Big Ben immediately ran backwards once he saw the Bettis fumble. With no speed on the field for the Steelers, Harper may have gone the distance had it not been for “The Tackle”. Roethlisberger was able to make a shoestring tackle on Harper to preserve the Steelers lead.
After a few Manning completions to get the Colts into field goal range it appeared this game was destined for overtime. Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt had never missed a playoff field goal attempt in the RCA Dome. With 21 seconds left and a 46-yard field goal attempt on the way, Bill Cowher figured he should try to ice the kicker. Why not? He had a timeout in his pocket, it couldn’t hurt. Vanderjagt knew the mind game Cowher was trying to play, so he pointed at the Steelers coach as if saying, “nice try”.
The cocky Vanderjagt then stepped up to send the game to overtime. Thankfully for the Steelers, his 46-yard field goal attempt went nowhere near the goal posts and the Steelers could finally just kneel the ball and advance to the AFC Championship. Jerome Bettis’ legacy was not ruined but a fumble on his last NFL rushing attempt. The awful Polamalu call would not haunt Steelers fans forever. The sixth seeded Steelers officially went into Indy and beat the mighty Colts.
What a game! Here is the only YouTube video I could really find with highlights (apparently after nine years it’s hard to find a game highlight video). Also here is the ESPN game recap.