Nearly 20 years after a very promising season for the Pittsburgh Steelers ended in pure heartbreak and set up 20 years of hatred for the New England Patriots, the 2004 AFC Championship Game between the two at Heinz Field in January 2005 is back in the news, thanks to former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger accusing the Patriots of cheating that game.
“For sure they did,” Bettis replied to Roethlisberger after the latter said the Patriots cheated in that game, according to video via the Footbahlin podcast on YouTube. “That’s not even a question mark. It’s not even a question in my mind.”
Bettis went on to state that the Patriots knew Pittsburgh’s signals and called a timeout early in the game on a fourth and 1 to get big defensive lineman Ted Washington into the game to stop a counter that was called by hand signals from the Steelers’ sideline.
Steelers Depot’s own Alex Kozora pointed out that Bettis had his facts partially wrong, that it was linebacker Ted Johnson and not Washington that the Patriots wanted to get into the game as Bill Belichick signaled him to the sideline to tell him something.
That, of course, led to a stop on the play as Bettis fumbled, turning the ball over to the Patriots, who scored on a 60-yard play two plays later to put the AFC Championship Game away and win, 41-27.
Bettis and Roethlisberger’s comments caused former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel to respond in a video on Twitter Wednesday.
“Steelers Nation, what’s going on with your legends and Hall of Famers Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis? Nineteen years later, you guys decide to be sore losers and say that we cheated the 2004 AFC Championship. You claim that on a critical play on fourth down, y’all lined up and we called a timeout because we knew the play that was coming, that we knew some signs or some tips, or we had some type of information to figure out that play. You call that cheating? Are you crazy?” Samuel said in the video on Twitter.
It’s not at all surprising that Samuel would double down on what the Patriots did in that game and refute it as cheating.
Patriots from that era have always denied wrongdoing even though punishment was handed down from the NFL to the organization. Those trophies, like it or not, are tainted in public perception, even if a lot of teams were doing what New England did back then searching for an advantage.
That fourth-down stop didn’t change the game though because of the signal that was sent in from the sideline and what happened after that from the Patriots’ perspective.
As Samuel pointed out, the Patriots were better statistically in the game and won head-to-head matchups, though New England had the Steelers’ signals from earlier in the season and used them against Pittsburgh to prevail. Bettis wasn’t the first Steeler to claim that, and he won’t be the last.
Even former offensive lineman Barrett Brooks claimed that this summer while promoting his book on leadership.
None of that matters for Samuel though. Players were just better than others in the matchup, at least in his mind.
“This is what determined the outcome of the game: Tom Brady was better than Ben Roethlisberger. Rodney Harrison was better than Troy Polamalu, Corey Dillon was better than Jerome Bettis, and Asante Samuel was better than Deshea Townsend. It’s as simple as that, ain’t no more to be said. We were better than you in pretty much everywhere of the game,” Samuel added, according to the video on Twitter.
Brady was 14-of-21 in the game for 207 yards and two touchdowns, while Dillon had 73 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Harrison had an 87-yard pick-six in the win and finished with a game-high 11 tackles, and Samuel had three tackles and broke up a pass in the end zone intended for Plaxico Burress.
Roethlisberger wasn’t very good in the game, throwing three interceptions to negate his 14-of-24 passing for 226 yards and two touchdowns. Bettis rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, while Polamalu had seven tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass defensed.
The loss stung then and still stings today, considering the run the Steelers were on in Roethlisberger’s rookie season.
Twenty years later, the wound hasn’t closed for members of the Steelers from that game.
And it’s rather ironic that Samuel took a shot at Roethlisberger late in the video.
“Actually, I knew from that game in front of everybody in the AFC Championship, Big Ben you made me realize that I could be a player in this game,” Samuel added.
Samuel had just three tackles in the win and had an interception bounce off his hands and into Eugene Wilson’s. The ball only reached Samuel after the pass from Roethlisberger went through the hands of Antwaan Randle El, too. Samuel was largely invisible in the game. Though he went on to have a very strong career, the 2004 AFC Championship Game shouldn’t have been a game that showed him he could be a player in the league.
