Reasons for Steelers Super Bowl drought: Part one
By Eric Hassel
In the first part of a three-part series, we will explore the reasons behind the Steelers decade long drought of Super Bowl wins.
In the part upon which we are about to embark, we will look at our last ten draft classes and their impact on the team over that period of time. For each draft class, we will not delineate statistics for every pick, rather we will talk about whether or not the draft class contributed to our success.
It seems like an eternity ago when our beloved Steelers hoisted the Lombardi trophy. That’s because it hasn’t happened in over a decade. Our last Super Bowl victory was a thrilling 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII all the way back in 2008.
So why haven’t we won a Super Bowl in ten years? Well, the simple answer is this: We have not won enough games to advance and win a Super Bowl. Okay, the article is finished; no need to read any further, except we haven’t discussed the reasons behind our ten-year hiatus from the ‘big game’. Let’s first reacquaint ourselves with the events that led to our victory in Super Bowl XLIII. As a reminder, all statistics and biographical information courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.
After the crushing 29-31 home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2007 Wild Card round, hope was renewed the following season, as it always is in Pittsburgh with the dawn of a new season.
Although the offense would end the 2008 season ranked 20th in scoring, the defense would finish with the 1st ranking in both points and total yards allowed. Make no mistake: we needed every bit of that first ranked defense to pull out a win in Super Bowl XLIII.
On his way to being voted the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year, James Harrison engineered one of the greatest defensive plays in Super Bowl history by returning an interception 100 yards for a TD. Who knows what the outcome would have been had Harrison not read the play, intercepted the ball and returned it for a TD. Maybe we still would have been victorious; maybe not.
That play notwithstanding, it also took arguably the greatest offensive play in Super History to take the lead. Santonio Holmes engineered his own magic by hauling in an unbelievable corner of the endzone pass from Ben. The defense closed out the game and we won our sixth Lombardi, but it felt like it was a battle; it took herculean efforts on both sides of the ball to secure victory. I don’t know about you, but that game left me with this thought: If we have to rely on the big play(s) to win a Super Bowl, what happens if we don’t get the big play(s)? Do we still win? Do we lose?
So why haven’t we won a Super Bowl in a decade? Let’s explore three areas of concern that, in my opinion, have had a detrimental impact on our ability to bring home that seventh Lombardi trophy. As was stated at the beginning of our discussion, this series will delve into our success or lack thereof in the draft over the last decade.
Full disclosure: I acknowledge the draft is something of a “roll of the dice” even though there is a lot of time and effort spent on scouting; however, you have to nail the first three to four rounds, as far as I’m concerned, to say that you had a successful draft. With that in mind, here we go: