JUST LIKE BROWNS OF 30 YEARS AGO, STEELERS GOT OLD ALL AT ONCE
By STEVE KING
I referenced in my previous post the 1990 regular-season opener between the Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Stadium.
The Browns won that game 13-3, but they crashed and burned after that en route to finishing 3-13, setting a then-franchise record for ineptitude — all this after having made the playoffs five straight seasons from 1985-89, including playing in the AFC Championship Game in three of the previous four years.
So what in the world happened?
That’s an easy question to answer. It’s because all those stars from those late 1980s teams — or at least most of them — got old at the same time. It would be 1994 before the Browns, after a complete rebuild, returned to the postseason.
It — a complete makeover — happens to almost all teams following a run of success — it just does — and it’s happening now to the Browns’ chief rivals, the Steelers.
Nearly three-fourths through this past year, the Steelers were 11-0 and looking to be possibly the first NFL team to finish the regular season at 16-0 since the 2007 New England Patriots, From that point on, it was a disaster, as they lost three in a row and four of their last five to finish 12-4, then got whipped 48-37 by the Browns in their playoff opener.
The lasting scene from that Browns game was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and center Maurrkice Pouncey, two of the team’s best players, sitting side-by-side all alone on the bench in stunned disbelief in an empty Heinz Field. Since then, Poucey has announced his retirement and, as was learned just several days ago, the Steelers appear ready to move on from Roethlisberger, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer whose heir apparent is Mason Rudolph.
In addition, the Steelers fired offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, the son of Ross Fichtner, the starting safety on the 1964 NFL champion Browns.
These could be the first — and undoubtedly the most significant — of a series of moves the Steelers will make this offseason as they try to re-tool if not totally rebuild for the first time in a long time.
And, if that does indeed occur, then, also with Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens being stuck in neutral with three straight one-and-done in the playoffs, and the Cincinnati Bengals still in the rebuilding stage and with quarterback Joe Burrow coming back from a season-ending knee injury, the window of opportunity could be open for the Browns to take over the AFC North.
