Welcome back to Part Four of my series breaking down the toughest records to break in Steelers history. I’ll link parts one through three below, make sure to check them out if you haven’t already.
Before we get into the top four, I will say that the records we are going to talk about today are both incredibly impressive not to be in a team’s top two records of all time. At this point in the list all the records seem like they have such a slim chance of being broken that it is tough to rank. The top three were especially difficult to rank, and there are certainly arguments to be had for a different order. But enough talk, let’s see what number four is.
Number Four: Five Shutouts in the 1976 Season
We touched on Jack Lambert’s 1976 season a bit last week with the number five record, but the full unit deserves a shoutout here. In a word, the 1976 defense was unbelievable. It held opponents to under 10 points per game that season, and while offenses weren’t exactly booming in 1976, it was still around half of the league average of 19.2 points per game.
And if you look at some of the names on that defense, it makes sense why the Steelers were so dominant. They had a whopping eight Pro Bowlers on the defensive side of the ball that season: Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Glen Edwards, L.C. Greenwood, Mike Wagner, J.T. Thomas, and Joe Greene. Lambert and Ham were both named first-team All-Pro as well.
There are plenty of wild stats about that ‘76 team. They gave up just 28 points over the last nine weeks of the season, all Pittsburgh victories. They only gave up five rushing touchdowns all season and just 3.2 yards per carry, both of which led the league. But the most impressive of all might be the team racking up five shutouts in just 14 regular-season games.
Those five shutouts are the most that any team has posted since the AFL-NFL merger, and the record has rarely been approached since. The legendary 2000 Ravens defense put up four in 2000 (with the two extra games, I might add), and they are the only other team to get that many. Since 2004, only the 2017 Ravens have had more than two. As offenses continues to grow around the league, this record seems more and more untouchable. In fact, there were only four shutouts in the entire league last season.
How would it be broken?
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a pretty solid defense last year, ranking 10th in the league in points against. Despite this, they didn’t hold anyone under 10 points in a game. They actually haven’t had a shutout win since December 2011, when they beat the Rams 24-0 on Christmas Eve.
Pittsburgh certainly looks to have one of the league’s better and younger defenses, but shutouts don’t sell NFL tickets and may be a thing of the past. And with most of the Steelers games coming against an offensively loaded AFC, it would be a surprise to shut out any of those teams, never mind six of them.
Number Three: Mike Tomlin 16 Straight Seasons (and counting) of .500 or Above to Begin a Career
Deciding between this and number two was absolutely brutal, but I ended up putting this at three for a few reasons I will touch on later.
As many Steelers fans know, Mike Tomlin has yet to have a losing season with the Steelers. He’s had a few close calls, needing three straight wins to close the season in 2013 as well as four to close last season in order to get him there. But the Steelers have come through for Tomlin every time, and the streak is still alive going into 2023.
One big thing that Tomlin benefited from is consistent quarterback play for most of this streak. Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback for 14 of 16 Tomlin seasons, only excluding last year and Roethlisberger’s injury in 2018. It will be interesting to see how long this streak can continue with Kenny Pickett hopefully at the helm for years to come.
It is rare for coaches to even be with the same team for 16 seasons anymore. Tomlin and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick are the only two active NFL coaches to have done that.
In 2021, Tomlin broke the record held by Marty Schottenheimer, who had 14 such seasons to start his career with the Browns and Chiefs. The year that broke the streak for Schottenheimer was a 4-12 dumpster fire with the Chargers in 2003, when an old Doug Flutie and a young Drew Brees split time at quarterback. Even if Tomlin’s streak is snapped soon, this roster doesn’t seem like a four-win one by any estimation.
Tomlin does not have the NFL record for the most consecutive non-losing seasons as a head coach, only consecutive to start a career. Pittsburgh’s win in Week 18 last year moved Tomlin into a tie for third with George Halas. He trails Belichick’s 19 consecutive seasons, and Cowboys legend Tom Landry’s 21 consecutive seasons from 1964-1984.
How would it be broken?
What solidified my decision in putting this third instead of second is the Steelers’ history of finding head coaches. They have effectively found the right guy to lead the team time and time again. They’ve only had three head coaches since 1969: Tomlin, Bill Cowher, and Chuck Noll.
Not only have they been effective, but they’ve also been loyal. It seems so often in today’s NFL that teams put massive expectations on new coaches and quickly move on if they even slightly disappoint. The Steelers are different, and it has likely played a big part in their success as an organization over the years.
While Tomlin’s record is safe for the foreseeable future, at least the Steelers are the type of franchise to give someone a chance to break it. That has this record fall just short of number two on the list, which we will cover on Sunday.
