I wonder if a young Ben Roethlisberger would have been traded away by Tomlin and Khan???

In 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers dominated. They went 11-5 in the regular season and a perfect 4-0 in the playoffs, finishing 15-5 overall. What made that run so special wasn’t just the record. It was how they did it.Bill Cowher was the steady hand steering the ship. A coach in his prime, leading with toughness, discipline, and belief. And at the center of it all was a 23-year-old Ben Roethlisberger the youngest quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl at the time.

 

The steelers were 27-4 including the playoffs in the first 2 years with Roethlisberger as starter.They were dominant.Don't let the 6 seed in a strong conference(with a 11-5 record)fool you.If Roethlisberger would not been out for 4 games and that Maddox would not been god awful in the 2 overtime loss,the steelers record would been better...It was almost the same team who had a 15-1 record in 2004

 

I've seen several times a team have a down year after a deep run and bounce back after that

The Steelers did this several times in the 2000s until 2010.They make the afc title game or super bowl in 2001,2004 and 2010 after missing the playoffs the year before.They did not make the playoffs in 2006 and 2009 after winning the super bowl

 

We didn’t dominate in 2005. This is false. Sure, we went on a run in the playoffs obviously since we won the SB but we were a 6th seed for a reason.

I remember distinctly because we lost to the Bengals and I thought the season was over at 7-5.

That isn’t domination. Domination is a 1 or 2 seed and

nah, I watched that whole season. We were 7-5 at one point and lost a shoot out with the Bengals. Keep in mind

We also got blown out in Indy which is why everyone was shocked when we came out passing and kept passing in the playoffs vs the Colts.

You can use revisionist history if you want but when we were 7-5 no one was screaming SB contender and how we had a dominating roster at that point.

There is no fooling anyone when you are a 6th seed. The record was the record.

When the Giants won those SB’s as a 6th seed, no one calls them a dominant roster. They got hot just like we did.

 

This.

We were a good to very good team in a conference with other good to very good teams. I don't think we were the best of the teams in the conference. But we did get "hot at the right time". And with Ben in his prime, you were in every game.

Tomlin unquestionably benefited from having Ben when he was hired (and other great players like Troy too).

Just like Cowher benefited from having guys like Woodson, Dawson, Lloyd, Lake, etc. We didn't fall ass-backward into an incredibly talented QB a few years before Cowher was hired. Instead, Noll drafted Neil O'Donnel before Cowher was hired. And while he wasn't anywhere close to what Ben was, he did deliver 4 reasonably good seasons (for the era and the system) and a great playoff run...until the end. I wonder what would have happened if we kept NOD and Erhardt as the OC.

 

We didn’t win a SB in 2006.

How many teams have repeated as SB champs the next year? Not many.

No one says “they had a SB roster last year, why didn’t they win again?”

Its hard to win SB’s.

Also, the 2 biggest plays made in SB 2008.. 2 of the 3 players (Holmes and Harrison) weren’t impact players in 2005. Harrison was on ST and Holmes was still in college. Oh, and again, the OL was TRASH in 2008.

 

exactly.

Small sample size but after that Bengals loss Steeler fans weren’t thinking SB. We were wondering if we would even make the playoffs.

When we had to play the Colts most fans were like “well, its been a great season..”

because we were absolutely embarrassed on Monday night in Indy.

That’s what made 2005 so special. We didn’t really think we had much of a shot at 7-5. Win every game and then have to go on the road and win every game when no other team had ever done it before?

and while 2004 was magical for Ben. The playoffs were the exact opposite. We thought we lost to the Jets like 3 times with those FG attempts. Pat’s embarrassed us the next week.

It was the typical “Cowher” playoff special in 2004 and if not for Ben’s shoestring tackle, it may have been happened again in 2005.

We had good rosters. Yes, we thought 2004 would end with a SB appearance based on the regular season but it was all a surprise which is what made it more special.

 

Either you except head to head , or You don't. This why I laughed at the people who right away asked what's Tomlins, and Belichicks head to head because they were the same that said it didn't matter. Hypocrites.
Either it does , or doesn't. People can't pick, and chose. If it was only one meeting, I would agree, but if its more than once
I personally think Belichick is a awesome HC, this is for the unthinking people that love to down Tomlin, people can't have things both ways . You can't say Tomlin sucks, and Belichick is great, and yet Tomlin without a HOF Qb has a winning record, and Belichick without his HOF Qb, a Qb that also won a SB without him has a losing record , and say He was great , the two thoughts don't match up. Anyway much of what I said isn't towards you.

 

LoL. Really. Same roster??
LoL. Only 13 guys on the whole freaking roster were the same. LoL 13 out of 53. Yeah that's totally the same. LoL
That's not even counting guys that were starting in one, that were just backups in the other.

 

I've heard it all now. Mike Tomlin is a better coach than Bill Belichick.

Bill Belichick won the Super Bowl 6 times with 2 totally different rosters in 00's and 10's, sans QB.

Tomlin never sniffed a Super Bowl after 2010 when the players drafted from 1998-2006 retired or moved on.

 

Teams change every season. That’s just the way it is.

Only thing ridiculous is trying to imply that a team who wins a SB is the same team 2 years later. If that’s the case why aren’t all these SB winning teams bouncing back 2 years later? Why aren’t teams moving on from expensive HC’s and hiring young unproven guys to go right back to a SB?

 

Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Willie Parker, Heath Miller, James Farrior, Larry Foote, Casey Hampton, Hines Ward, James Harrison, Jeff Reid, Aaron Smith, Brett Keisel, Ike Taylor, Deshea Townsend and Bryant McFadden.

That's a helluva core for both Super Bowl XL and XLIII teams!

Harrison didn't start but he played games in '05. Townsend was the #3 nickel CB.

 

The season doesn’t end after just 12 games. We were 15-5 winning 75% of our games including the super bowl. I'm glad Cowher and the team did not lose heart or focus at 7-5.

 

Here's a some guys drafted before Cowher was the HC. There are probably more.

• Woodson
• Dawson
• [Faneca] Faneca was drafted after Cowher was hired. Mistake on my part.
• Lake
• Lloyd
• O'Donnel (no Ben, but got them to a SB)
• Thigpen
• Foster
• Jackson
• Wolford

IMO, this doesn't mean Cowher shouldn't get credit for the success he had when these guys were on the team.

He did a good job with the roster that he was given too.

Didn't win a SB like Tomlin did. But that's becuase Ben >> O'Donnel (who was still really good for us outside of SBXXX).

Even still, he might have won a SB if we didn't have to pay that Cowboys team. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I remember that those 'Boys teams did the best job of manipulating the new cap (came into effect 2 years earlier) re: Aikman-Smith-Irving. But I admit to knowing a lot less about the cap then vs. now (and I'm still no expert).

 

How many "dominant" teams do people think can be in the league at the same time?

 

It was a very good roster but at the same time,they had very few playoffs experience.1989 was their only playoffs experience.The roster in 2008 had super bowl experience,players and also in the coaching staff

Faneca was drafted in 1998 under Cowher btw

 

They were also 7-2.You can't ignore that the steelers were 27-4 in 2004 and 2005 with Ben as starter including the playoffs.22-3 in the regular season,only 1 loss on the road in 2 years.A 3 game losing streak don't change that and they had proved after that it was a fluke

In their last 8 games,they won by 10 points or more every game,outside of the game in the playoffs vs Colts but one of the only reason why it was close at the end,it was because of one of the worst call in sports history,the non interception of Polamalu...I also believe it was the best colts team in the Manning era

 

How many of those guys were actually on the 2005 Steelers? Not too many.

My point is that very few players of real significance on that Super Bowl XL team were not drafted by Bill Cowher.

We ran into a peak Dallas team in the 1996 Super Bowl. We had the ball and were driving for the lead with five minutes to go in the game… until that interception happened. Still, I was very proud of that team.

 

The problem for Tomlin isn't because he was in the Super Bowl with the core and culture that Cowher had built.Tomlin did a very good year in 2008 and 2010

It's that we haven't done anything special since then... The Killer B era was a massive disappointment.

 

I think the other two best teams in the AFC at this time were the Pats and the Colts. All three of these teams won a SB after Ben was drafted (2004) and Tomlin was hired. The Broncos were also very good IIRC, but didn't win a SB so I won't include them here.

Let's take a look at all three years we had Ben before Tomlin became the coach (seasons: 2004, 2005, 2006).

• Patriots: Regular season 36-12 (14-2 / 10-6 / 12-4). Playoffs: 6-2 (3-0 / 1-1 / 2-1) [1 SB, 3 playoff appearances, 1 bye]: Total 42-14 (0.75)
• Steelers: Regular season 34-14 (15-1 / 11-5 / 8-8). Playoffs: 5-1 (1-1 / 4-0 / 0-0) [1 SB, 2 playoff appearances, 1 bye]: Total 39-15 (0.72)
• Colts: Regular season 38-10 (12-4 / 14-2 / 12-4). Playoffs: 5-2 (1-1 / 0-1 (haha!) / 4-0) [1 SB3 playoff appearances, 1 bye]: Total 43-12 (0.78)

All of these teams were very good in this stretch.

I don't think any of them were dominant over this span. I'd probably say that they were pretty even.

The Steelers have the best season of the three, but their record got worse every year and they missed the playoffs once while the other two made it every year. If you had to pick a team that was the "worst" of these three (very good) teams, you'd probably have to pick the Steelers. But they were still an excellent team. And Ben's accident was obviously a huge reason for the bad 2006 season.

I might be wrong, but I think I remember reporting at the time that we were the first team to miss the playoffs after winning a SB in a long time when we did it (edit, I did check this and it was 3 of the previous 10 years...probably the rate gets lower the further back you go becuase it was probably pretty stable pre-UFA).

The Colts won the most games and were the most consistent. I really didn't like Manning as a player, but I like him now. I appreciate that he seems to be able to make fun of himself.

The Pats won the second most games and are the only team of the three to win a playoff game in each of the three years. It's not on here, but they also won the SB the year before this sample starts...no SB hangover for them.

I think the Pats were clearly the most dominant team over Ben's entire career. But in this sample, these three teams are all very good and there isn't much separating them.

In real time: Checking "SB Hangover" Idea. the 10 SB winners before our first win with Ben.

1. Steelers 2005: missed playoffs next year
2. Pats 2004: made playoffs
3. Pats 2003: made playoffs (won SB)
4. Bucs 2002: missed in 2003
5. Pats 2001: missed in 2002
6. Rats 2000: made in 2001
7. Rams 1999: made in 2000
8. Broncos 1998: missed in 1999
9. Broncos 1997: Made in 1998 (repeated)
10. Packers 1996: Made in 1997 (lost SB)
11. Cowboys 1995: made in 1996

So before we missed the 2006 playoffs after winning the SB in 2005, the SB winning team had missed the playoffs in 3 of the previous 10 seasons. I thought it was going to be less because it seemed like people made a big deal out of it when we missed. I guess it's just that I heard about it more since I care about the Steelers (and not the other teams on the list).

 

Joel, go back and read the post your quoting. It wasn't talking about the 2005 Steelers.

Do you not count Cowher's first trip to a SB since most of his best players (including the QB) were drafted when Noll was the coach? I think anyone who would try to take that away from Coach Cowher would be making a silly argument.