Since the 1970 merger, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills have met 26 times in the regular season. Pittsburgh lead the series 14-12 overall, but when the Steelers travel to Buffalo it is the Bills who hold a 9-7 edge. The Steelers have never played a playoff game in Buffalo. All three playoff games between the teams have been played in Pittsburgh to this point.
Prior to the seventies, the Steelers only playoff appearance was in 1947. Jock Sutherland guided the Steelers to an 8-4 season, which was their best since joining the league. Unfortunately, it was the same record as the Eagles and meant they had to play a game to decide who would represent the Eastern Division against the Western champions.
The Steelers lost that first playoff appearance 21-7 and would have to wait until 1972 before making another. After beating the Raiders 13-7 that year, they would lose the Conference Championship game 21-17 to the unbeaten Miami Dolphins team.
Two years later, Chuck Noll’s produced his greatest draft. When Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Jack Lambert, and Mike Webster were added to the roster, the team was ready to make a serious post-season run.
After the Bills won two AFL titles in the mid-sixties, the team declined when their coach Lou Saban surprisingly left to coach the University of Maryland team. Saban returned as the Bills head coach in 1972 and the team began to improve.
Two years after returning, Saban would lead his team into the NFL playoffs for the first time. The Bills 9-5 record saw them finish second in the AFC East division to the Miami Dolphins.
The Steelers would finish the regular season at 10-3-1 as the third AFC seed. Their perennial rivals Oakland would be the number one seed.
When the teams contested the divisional game, the main threat from the Bills would be their running back O.J. Simpson. His figure for the season was 1,125 yards, 119 more than Franco Harris.
Coach Noll was very aware of the danger Simpson brought to the game. “I’d watch him when he was in college,” acknowledged Noll. “He’d hit up there for a few… hit up there for a few more… and then whoosh, he’s gone. He has unique abilities. He can go into the hole sideways, backwards and come out winging.”
If they could contain Simpson, the Steelers thought they would progress into the next round.
Coach Noll had confidence in his defense. The Steelers led the AFC in defense, allowing the fewest points and yards while leading the NFL in sacks. “We have a football team that can do what must be done,” Noll suggested.
Andy Russell was hungry for more success as were the Steelers team. “We’ve been in the playoffs before,” he stated. “Now we want to get into the big game – the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl.”
Focusing entirely on playing football, the Steelers declined a request from the Bills cheerleaders to perform on the Buffalo sideline.
The Steelers vs the Bills – AFC Divisional Game; December 22, 1974
The game started slowly. Although the Steelers began a drive with good field position on their own 45, six minutes later it fizzled out when Roy Gerela kicked a 21-yard field goal.
The Bills then showed their opponents how to take advantage of a short field. A low Bobby Walden punt saw Buffalo begin their series from their 44. Joe Ferguson finished the drive when he found Paul Seymour with a touchdown pass of 22 yards. The Bills took a 7-3 lead and would have wanted the game to stop there and not go into the explosive second quarter.
The second quarter began with Rocky Bleier igniting the Steelers offense by running the wrong route. Bleier’ assignment was to pick up a blitzing linebacker. When no blitzing linebacker appeared, Bleier ran a pass pattern along the sideline into the end zone.
A few yards away, Franco Harris was running the same pattern. Resembling a track meet with two Buffalo defenders also racing for the goal line, Terry Bradshaw passed to Bleier who won the race to the end zone for the score. Although Roy Gerela’s conversion was blocked, the Steelers were ahead 9-7.
With the Steelers defense keeping O.J. Simpson quiet, the Steelers followed the scoring drive with another. On an end around, Lynn Swann took the handoff from Harris and turned up field 25 yards to the Buffalo 38. Bradshaw followed that with a 12-yard pass to Swann before an 11-yard sweep by Harris. A screen pass to Swann of 13 yards saw the Steelers with a first and goal on the 2. Harris burst over for the touchdown.
As the Pittsburgh’s offense were making plays, their defense decided to join in the action. After Jack Lambert recovered a Buffalo fumble, Bradshaw found Bleier with a 19-yard pass. His next pass to Swann saw his receiver beat his defender with a diving catch and the Steelers had another first and goal. Harris took it over with a 4-yard touchdown run. Gerela’s point after attempt was again blocked.
The Steelers closed out the first half with another touchdown from Harris. Behind a Gerry Mullins’ block, his 1-yard run increased their lead to 29-7. The Steelers had controlled the ball for most of the second quarter while adding 26 points. For the shell-shocked Buffalo players, the desolate path back to the locker room with 50,000 raucous fans screaming in appreciation of their team’s outstanding performance was surely a long, lonely walk.
The second half proved to be anti-climactic to what had gone before. The Bills took 10 plays to benefit from a short 39-yard field before Joe Ferguson threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Simpson.
The Steelers completed the scoring in the final period when Gerela kicked a 22-yard field goal. With the Steelers comfortably ahead, Coach Noll replaced Bradshaw with Joe Gilliam
The Pittsburgh Steelers 32 vs the Buffalo Bills 14
Steelers center Ray Mansfield noted, “They were good; we played super football.” After the game ball was presented to the offense, Mansfield jovially suggested to the defense, “We carried you today.” Jack Lambert simply replied, “I know it.”
Terry Bradshaw had his best game for the Steelers. His 12 completions from 19 attempts with 1 touchdown and no interceptions saw him with a 116.8 quarterback rating.
Bradshaw acknowledged his contribution, “The best game I’ve ever had here.”
Mansfield agreed, “It all goes back to Terry. If there was anything our offense needed, it was his leadership.”
The Steelers defense played their part by keeping O.J. Simpson to 49 yards on 15 carries.
Buffalo’s coach Lou Saban admitted, “I’m not sure how they did what they did against us. They blew us out – blew us out of the tub. “
Coach Noll was happy with his team’s performance. “I thought our line adjusted beautifully. We’ve had days when we ran well and days when we passed well but this was our best overall offensive game of the year.”
The Steelers would advance to the AFC Championship game in Oakland where two touchdowns from Franco Harris and one from Lynn Swann saw off their rivals.
The climax to the 1974 season was Super Bowl IX which saw the Steelers beat the Vikings 16-6 for the first of their Lombardis.
