McMillen and Wife Steelers Message Board

1978 Steelers 27 vs Chiefs 24

K.C. picks off Bradshaw's first pass to set up FG, but Terry responds by engineering three consecutive TD drives, each of them time consuming and perfectly balanced. Lynn Swann rips apart K.C.'s secondary with 5 catches for 80 yards in the first half alone and the Steel Curtain does its part by forcing a drive-ending interception (Jack Ham) at the Steeler 3-yd line. The Steelers head to the locker room with a commanding 20-3 halftime lead in what looks like a laugher. But credit Marv Levy's Chiefs for refusing to fold. Kansas City fights back ferociously in the second half, scoring two touchdowns in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter against the suddenly sleepwalking Steelers, courtesy of a Bradshaw fumble and INT on back-to-back possessions. Thankfully, Donnie Shell's late-game 17-yard "scoop and score" of a K.C. fumble (forced by Robin Cole) seals it for Pittsburgh. 

Really good game from Jack Ham. 7 outstanding plays. Joe Greene really good too. Supposedly Joe was supposed to be on the decline but not in this one. Joe forced the pick to Ron Johnson and was stopping the run cold.

(04-27-2017, 08:17 AM)Guest Wrote: [ -> ]Really good game from Jack Ham. 7 outstanding plays. Joe Greene really good too. Supposedly Joe was supposed to be on the decline but not in this one. Joe forced the pick to Ron Johnson and was stopping the run cold.

Agreed. Ham was still in top form in '78, and while Joe Greene had definitely slowed a little, he still had games (or at least parts of games) that he dominated up until 1980. As an example, watch Greene manhandle Houston's O-line and maul Pastorini and Campbell in the '79 AFC Championship.

In 78 it seemed like the steelers favored running out wide more than up the middle. Not their best rushing performance in this one. Seemed like Webster started out dominating dt parish and then parish started winning the matchup.

Kind of ironic than in the SB seasons of 1978-1979, the Steelers played everyone in the AFC West EXCEPT the Raiders (SEA/SD once, KC twice, DEN three times).

KC went 2-12 and the Raiders 11-3, yet the Chiefs made the trip to Three Rivers despite a 5th place finish (in the era of 5th place schedules)?

(06-06-2017, 11:57 AM)Guest Wrote: [ -> ]Kind of ironic than in the SB seasons of 1978-1979, the Steelers played everyone in the AFC West EXCEPT the Raiders (SEA/SD once, KC twice, DEN three times).

KC went 2-12 and the Raiders 11-3, yet the Chiefs made the trip to Three Rivers despite a 5th place finish (in the era of 5th place schedules)?

Yeah, I think it has to do with the schedule rotation they used in those days. I don't understand it, bit there's some good info from Pro Football Reference here: 

History of the NFL’s structure and formats, part two

Bradshaw threw a ton of INTs

(03-05-2018, 04:10 AM)Rollers Wrote: [ -> ]Bradshaw threw a ton of INTs

Well, yeah... and water is wet. 

They pretty much all threw a lot of picks back then. You look at the top QB's in '78 and they all had way more INTs than would ever be acceptable by today's standards. 

Back then, unless you name was Staubach, if you threw 1 or 2 more TDs than INT's you were doing pretty well. 

Here are the 1978 passing leaders (by QB rating)
1. Roger Staubach, 25 TD, 16 INT
2. Terry Bradshaw, 28 TD, 20 INT (Terry won league MVP)
3. Dan Fouts, 24 TD, 20 INT
4. Bob Griese, 11 TD, 11 INT
5. Archie Manning, 17 TD, 16 INT
6. Brian Sipe, 21 TD, 15 INT
7. Craig Morton, 11 TD, 8 INT
8. Gary Danielson, 18 TD, 17 INT
9. Jim Zorn, 15 TD, 20 INT
10. Joe Ferguson, 16 TD, 15 INT

Terry had 20 picks in '78, which sounds like a lot until you realize Tarkenton had 32 and Stabler had 30.

And the 1979 leaders -- 5 of your top 10 QBs threw 20+ INTs. 
1. Roger Staubach, 27 TD, 11 INT
2. Joe Theisman, 20 TD, 13 INT
3. Dan Fouts, 24 TD, 24 INT
4. Ken Stabler, 26 TD, 22 INT
5. Ken Anderson, 16 TD, 10 INT
6. Jim Zorn, 20 TD, 18 INT
7. Steve Grogan, 28 TD, 20 INT
8. Terry Bradshaw, 26 TD, 25 INT
9. Ron Jaworski, 18 TD, 12 INT
10. Archie Manning, 23 TD, 20 INT

Your gunslinger-types all had lots of picks. It was just the nature of the game then. Terry threw the most INTs in one season of his entire career in '79... yet he was still the scariest QB in the league, partly because he also led the league in 4th quarter comebacks (5 + the Super Bowl).

Don't forget, there are bonus highlights from This Week in Pro Football on the left side of the game description!