Since the Steelers have the wrong kind of home field advantage this postseason, we'll take a look back at some of the highlights and disappointments of playoffs past ...

Today: January 28, 1996 -- Super Bowl XXX vs. Dallas

SUPER TRY: Steelers lose to Cowboys, 27-17

(reprinted from the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on January 29, 1996 - no byline)

In the end, there was the game.

After a bountiful decade, followed by 16 dry years, there was the game.

Dallas and Pittsburgh -- a self-anointed America's team met the indefatigable black and gold who rose, like their city, out of the ashes of decline.

They played the game.

After $1,200 third-hand tickets, the $1.2 million per half-minute commercials, the fortnight of marketing hysteria, it came down to 60 minutes of playing time in a place called Tempe, in a ritual called Super Bowl XXX.

There will be other seasons.

For now, it remains to the Pittsburgh Steelers to assess what this season has meant. It has been a team that, like the region from which it draws an unceasingly loyal legion of fans, has gotten up off its back again and again. Let history and bookies note: they covered the spread.

For fans, there will be memories of close games and the high hopes. The recurring off-season nightmare might well be a man in a white-and-blue uniform with the number 24 pasted on it, running down the sidelines twice with Neil O' Donnell passes that weren't meant for him, taking away a victory that many will say was meant for us.

And so they played the game and went home, 27-17 losers. The victory party will be held in Dallas this year. And in years to come, Pittsburgh will look for other chances to add a fifth Lombardi trophy to its case.

No longer locked irretrievably into glories of the past, the Steelers, like their city, still look very new this morning.

Post-Gazette coverage

• Front page: Super Try
• Ed Bouchette's game story
• Play of the Game: O' Donnell throws where no Steelers tread
• Home crowd parties and prays
• Bruce Keidan: A win was so close, if only ...
• Bob Smizik: Steelers defense all heart
• Gene Collier: Cowher dares to come up a champion
• Ron Cook: O' Donnell just couldn't deliver
• Cowboys' Brown picks off MVP honors
• Mike Tomczak: We couldn't make a big play
• Texas native Bam lowers boom on Cowboys
• Deion dances away from tacklers
• Cowboys releived but subdued
• Bob Batz: Hitting pay dirt comes with a price
• Reg Henry: Dressed in their Super Sunday best
• Ron Weiskind: NBC trio plays a winning hand
• Big game doesn't attract big stars
  

VIDEO (can't find the game, but oddly the pregame is all there)

Since the Steelers have the wrong kind of home field advantage this postseason, we'll take a look back at some of the highlights and disappointments of playoffs past ...

Today: January 27 -- AFC Championship vs. New England Patriots

 

A week removed from a dramatic Divisional Playoff win over Oakland in which the words "tuck rule" entered the NFL lexicon -- the Patriots had become one of the top stories of the 2001 NFL season, led to the AFC title game by a young, late-round pick from Michigan the year prior.

But Tom Brady was a non-factor in this game -- in fact he was knocked out of it in the second quarter, replaced by Drew Bledsoe, whom he had famously supplanted earlier in the season.

Instead it was New England's special teams -- and the Steelers total lack thereof -- that were the decisive factor in sending the Patriots to the Super Bowl and the Steelers home with their second home AFC Championship loss in four years.

Troy Brown returned a punt 55-yards to Patriot paydirt in the first quarter, Bledsoe found David Patten for a score in the second, and then a blocked Kris Brown field goal attempt was returned for an 84-yard touchdown and the Steelers found themselves in a 21-3 halftime hole that they could not escape from.

Kordell Stewart led to scoring drives in the second half that culminated in Jerome Bettis and Amos Zereoue touchdowns and got the Steelers to within four points, but threw picks on the Steelers final two possessions, ending the chances of a comeback and effectively his career in Pittsburgh.

Post-Gazette coverage

• Front Page: The Steelers Lose
• Steelers squander Heinz Field edge
• Patriots line shuts down Bus
• Play of the game: Special teams gaffe costs Steelers
• Ron Cook: Steelers failed in every area
• Bob Smizik: Special teams will take the blame
• Bledsoe finds opportunity in lost season
• Brown's return produces big trip for New England
• Notebook
• Chuck Finder: Simms convinced to talk special teams

VIDEO

Last few minutes of the game:

[This feature ran in the paper on Sunday as part of a weekly package that will lead up to the draft, but didn't make it online; I'm re-posting it mostly to promo that a similar feature will appear this Sunday as well on the defensive line]

HISTORY OF THE DECADE: A look at the Steelers' success and failure at running back in the draft and free agency since 2003 ...

2: 1,000-yard seasons since 2003 by a draft pick (Rashard Mendenhall)

3: 1,000-yard seasons since 2003 by an undrafted free agent (Willie Parker -- above)

DRAFT

With Rashard Mendenhall likely on his way out the door and Chris Rainey already having been shown it, the Steelers retain only two of their own draft picks in the backfield: Jonathan Dwyer and Baron Batch.

Dwyer, a sixth-round pick in 2010, seemed to finally exhibit some of the promise ascribed to him when he was labeled a 'steal' on his draft day. The Steelers seem to like 2011 seventh-round pick Batch as a third-down back, but he's been injury prone.

Beyond that, the Steelers picks over the past 10 years reads less like a who's who and more like who's that? Frank Summers or Noah Herron ring a bell? Cedric Humes or J.T. Wall?

FREE AGENTS

Although they clearly caught lightning in a bottle in 2004 by signing undrafted free agent Fast Willie Parker, the Steelers have fared better with running backs acquired in free agency than those drafted.

Issac Redman -- another UFA -- was a part-time starter this season and will figure into the team's plans heading into next season as will UFA fullback Will Johnson.

Traditional free agents have given the Steelers reasonable production, most notably from Mewelde Moore, signed from Minnesota in 2008. Moore had 908 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns in the Steelers' Super Bowl XLIII winning season and was the team's third-down back throughout his tenure.

Green Bay castoff Najeh Davenport's power was a respectable complement to Parker's speed in 2006-07, and ex-Eagle Duce Staley was headed toward a career-year in 2004 (830 yards in 10 games) before injuries ended his regular season and ultimately his career.

Since the Steelers have the wrong kind of home field advantage this postseason, we'll take a look back at some of the highlights and disappointments of playoffs past ...

Today: January 23 -- A day of two championships -- A bitter loss in bitter cold, A near collapse against the Jets

Januray 23rd, 2005: AFC Championship vs. New England Patriots

 

With the mercury having plunged to 11 degrees at kickoff, the 2004 AFC Championship was the second coldest home game in Steelers history.

It only felt like the coldest to the then-record 65,242 fans who watched the upstart Steelers -- arguably the story of the 2004 season, having won 15 consecutive games with the rookie quarterback with the tongue-tripping long last name -- go down to the Patriots 24-3 at halftime.

Ben Roethlisberger was terrible in the first half throwing two interceptions -- one on the third play of the game, the other returned by Rodney Harrison 87-yards for a touchdown -- and the Steelers defense could not stop the Patriots.

Roethlisberger settled a little in the second half, but it was largely too little too late, as New England was never in any real danger of not advancing to their thrid Super Bowl appearance in four years, and the last one they've won since the eruption of the Spygate scandal in 2007.

Post-Gazette coverage

• Front Page: The Dream Dies
• A cold reality settles over Steelers Nation
• Ed Bouchette's game story
• Bob Smizik: Don't blame Cowher for this defeat
• Gene Collier: Givens takes Steelers out
• Ron Cook: Truth Hurts
• Bettis wants to take time with decision
• If this is it for the Bus, it was a fun ride
• End of the line for Burress?
• Secondary Burns
• Brady -- Business as usual 
  

January 23rd, 2011: AFC Championship vs. New York Jets

A week after mounting a furious comeback against their arch rivals to advance to the AFC Championship, the Steelers nearly suffer a meltdown of their own with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

The Steelers jumped a 24-3 first half lead, but would not score again as the Jets put together two second half touchdown drives -- one after sacking Ben Roetlhlisberger in his own end zone for a safety.

But despite pulling to withing five points with under three minutes to play, it was too little, too late, for the Jets as the Steelers converted three late first downs, putting the game out New York's reach and advancing to their eighth Super Bowl appearance on a 24-19 victory.

• Ed Bouchette's game story
• Gene Collier: Steelers spell relief S-U-P-E-R
• Running game took flight against Jets
• Ron Cook: Win a rush for Mendenhall
• Steelers fans toast Myron Cope
• Football fans find ways to defeat cold
• Celebrating fans keep revelry under control