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 warning in the first half approaching, Bradshaw also took to the air to move the chains. Bennie Cunningham hauled in a spectacular one-handed catch that sparked a 74-yard drive before Bradshaw found Franco Harris with a 2-yard touchdown pass. The Steelers went into the locker room down 20-13.
With both defenses on top in the third quarter, it was Cleveland that found a way through. Sipe found his favorite target Logan three times for 61 yards on a drive of eighty yards that ended with his 3-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Hill.
The game went into the fourth quarter with the Steelers 14 points behind. A long Pittsburgh drive of 89 yards ended when Harris crashed through the Browns defense for 1-yard touchdown run.
The Steelers next drive was cut short when Harris fumbled to give the Browns a short field. The Browns could only mange a field goal from 40 yards, but they were still ten points in front.
With ten minutes remaining, Theo Bell’s returned the kickoff to the Steelers 37. Bradshaw took 7 plays to set up Harris for a 3-yard touchdown run to reduce the deficit to 3 points.
Just when they needed to, Pittsburgh stopped the Cleveland offense. With two minutes left in regulation time, Bradshaw guided the team downfield to enable Bahr to kick the tying field goal from 21-yards.
The game went into overtime when both teams dominated the play. The result was heading into the record book as a tie when Bradshaw stepped back to pass. Seeing no one open, he ran down the sideline before going out of bounds to kill the clock. Bahr came on to kick a field goal of 37 yards. The Steelers relief was evident as Bahr was hoisted in the air by Jack Lambert in celebration of a super Steelers victory.
The Pittsburgh Steelers 33 vs the Cleveland Browns 30
Franco Harris carried the ball 32 times for 151 yards and added a career high nine catches for 81 yards. “I’m whipped,” Franco Harris told reporters in a near whisper. “It was a very demanding game. We had no big plays. It was nothing but long drives. That take a lot out of you.”
“This was more satisfying than blowing them out,” observed Terry Bradshaw. “It has to be the most gratifying win of the year. Let that stuff about the mighty Steelers and all that garbage die. We’re in a tough division. We could have given up several times and said the defense wasn’t playing very well, but we kept coming back.”
The Steelers 606 net yards was the most under Coach Noll and the second highest in the team’s history after 692 against the Chicago Cardinals (1958).
The Steelers set a new team record with six consecutive wins over their rivals. The record is now 12 which was set when Ben Roethlisberger owned the Browns.
Pittsburgh would clinch their seventh division title and go into the playoffs as the AFC’s number one seed. Wins over the Dolphins (34-14) and Oilers (14-4) saw them face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV. Terry Bradshaw won the MVP for guiding the team to a 31-19 triumph while the team went into the history books with a record breaking fourth Super Bowl victory in six years.
