Steel City Blitz
The Pittsburgh Steelers now lead the Cleveland series 82–64–1, but until the super days of the seventies, the Browns were far ahead. Former Browns player Chuck Noll knew what it was like to be on the winning side. During his playing days with the Browns, they owned the Steelers.
When he was named the Steelers head coach in 1959, Noll knew the challenge he was facing. Everybody connected with the team did! They were perennial losers.
His approach would not be one of a disciplinarian. “The are two things to know and to teach”, he offered. “It’s the function of the coach to get the players to perform to the best of their ability. You don’t have to scare a guy. You can’t have him more scared of his coach than his opponent.”
Coach Noll lost his first three games against his former team, but the Steelers also lost six of the first 22 games he coached. His first win against the Browns was a 28-9 victory in 1970. It was the first time the Steelers had beaten their rivals since 1966. It brought about a triple deadlock at the top of the AFC Central with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Cleveland all at 5-6.
It produced just a glimmer of the progress the team were making under Coach Noll. They slipped away to finish the season 5-9 while Cincinnati’s 8-6 took them into the playoffs.
Four years later Pittsburgh won their first of three Lombardis as the Steelers steam- rolled their way through the Super Seventies.
When the 1979 season arrived, Coach Noll had begun to address the win loss ratio. His Steelers had won 13 of the 20 contests played between the rivals as the Browns superiority began to fizzle out.
Both teams, joined by the Houston Oilers, were vying for the division title as their week 13 contest took on a huge significance.
The (9-3) Steelers vs the (8-4) Browns; November 25, 1979
The Browns received the opening kickoff before Brian Sipe led his team 75 yards in eleven plays for the first score. The drive finished with Ozzie Newsome beating Mel Blount to the ball in the endzone for a 21-yard touchdown. Don Crockroft’s conversion put Cleveland 7-0 ahead.
The Steelers gifted their opponents a short field when Larry Anderson fumbled the kickoff return. The bouncing ball was recovered at the 3 by Cleveland. The Steelers held them to a 20-yard field goal before Matt Bahr replied with a field goal from 45 yards.
The second quarter began with the teams exchanging field goal attempts. Cleveland saw success with an attempt from 32 yards before Bahr missed one from 39 yards. He atoned for that miss when succeeding with his next attempt from 34 yards.
As the Browns running game struggled, Sipe was finding success in hitting his receivers. He led his team 63 yards, finishing with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Dave Logan.
Just as the game was running away from the Steelers and with the two-minute...
