What is the Steelers greatest mistake of all time?

The Packers did score a TD on the drive after the fumble. The Packers got the ball on their own 45 from the fumble and scored 8 plays later.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/gametracker/playbyplay/NFL_20110206_PIT@GB

 

I was thinking the same thing. The fumble was the absolute backbreaker.

 

Worst NON MOVE Passing on Marino...hands down...no question about it.

Passing on Montana...not even close...Joe was not the commodity that Dan was coming out...Joe was a 3rd round pick...thats like saying biggest mistake was not drafting Tom Brady.....every team in the league let him fall...

HACK

 

I recall that, but looking back, anyone who saw Joe's comeback in the Cotton Bowl should have known he was going to be great. I was just a kid then but even I saw it.
Reason I point this out for the Steelers was that Joe was, like Marino, Unitas, etc. a local kid whom they had ample opportunity to nab in a position they would address in round #1 just a year later.

 

you both know, in football so much was about where certain QB's land and what coach and system they land in matched to their skillset.


marino,montana,brady, even ben.

think about this: would marino been as good under noll and his system? would Montana have fit better? would brady have been that good under cowher? would ben have fit well under bellacheat? how about under don coreyell(sp?)?

the mentality and skills have to match up with the proper way a coach wants a scheme to function. how would Montana do under haley? how would ben do under belacheat? how about jim Kelly? dan faust? air Coryell (sp?)? bill walsh? noll? cowher?

what i'm getting at is the qb's with the right mindset and right core of skills, to run the right offense have to match up for the magic to happen. Montana would have been good under the noll,system. screens. good run game. deep shots. slants crossing routes. swing passes. planned dumpoffs. we can speculate all day about these guys but in the end, not every great qb would fit with every coach in every system.

 

I am going with thinking they could run a well oiled machine for a forum such as TTF has done. It's insulting to look back over the years and realize when it came to supporting their fans the organization failed miserably.

TTF deserves so much credit along with the moderators for having somewhere for fans to come they can be proud of.

Hats off to the men and women from this board that make it possible so we can boast about our love for the Black and Gold

Bman

 

I was thinking something similar myself.

For my money, I think Montana would have done better here than Marino. Maybe not 49er-good, but good in the team he would have walked into.

 

Love the last 3 posts.

The other thing is, as I pointed to early, is that if one of these "what if" should have happened, then it creates a butterfly effect.
Put Unitas on the team in the 1950's, and he probably leads them to an NFL championship game, but the team of the 1970s almost certainly never come together with the players and coach that they did.

Put Montana on the team in the early 1980s, and maybe it is the Niners who draft Marino and put him in the West Coast offense.

Put Marino on the team in 1983, and the great defensive teams of the 1990s, likely never come together either, because the team doesn't draft high enough to take Rod Woodson. Maybe Noll coaches longer like Shula did and Cowher goes to coach elsewhere.

You know what, you can certainly find mistakes. But, all in all I'll take history exactly the way it happened. I've got nothing to complain about from 41 years as a Steelers fan, and I never will.

 

I made a similar point earlier in the thread. Despite no Unitas, no Montana, no Marino...things turned out pretty well. I wouldn't really change anything, except maybe letting Rod Woodson go.