Week One was a terrible start for the Pittsburgh Steelers, blown out at home by the San Francisco 49ers, 30-7. But the old adage goes, it’s not how you start but how you finish. While the Steelers need to quickly turn things around, their history shows they can overcome a clunker of an opener.
Here’s three times Pittsburgh was destroyed in Week One that became a distant memory by the end of the year.
2011: 35-7 Week One Loss to Baltimore
A road game, to be fair, but being away from Pittsburgh didn’t take much of the sting out of a 28-point loss to its AFC North rival. Like Sunday, the Steelers quickly fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and the Ravens dominated throughout. It got so bad that even a Ravens fake extra point with holder/punter Sam Koch worked. Talk about a low moment.
Despite the terrible loss, the Steelers immediately bounced back in Week Two with a 24-0 shelling of the Seattle Seahawks. They won six of their next seven games and were 7-3 by the bye week. Pittsburgh lost only once following its bye to finish the year 12-4 and second in the AFC North behind those Ravens (the Steelers lost both games to them that season).
Their playoff journey quickly came to a halt — the infamous Tim Tebow overtime loss to the Denver Broncos — but Pittsburgh clearly turned its regular season around and ended as one of the AFC’s top teams.
1997 – 37-7 Week One Loss To Dallas
A similar miserable home loss as the one Pittsburgh suffered to San Francisco, the Steelers only avoided a shutout with a fourth quarter touchdown from Kordell Stewart to Mark Bruener with the Cowboys rolling 37-0. The Steelers ended the day with less than 200 yards of offense and turned the ball over twice. QB Troy Aikman tossed four touchdowns with WR Michael Irvin torching Pittsburgh like Brandon Aiyuk did, finishing the day with seven grabs and a pair of scores.
The Steelers bounced back with a 14-13 win over the Washington Redskins the following week. After a crazy-early Week Three bye and Week Four loss to the Oilers, Pittsburgh won every game from Week Five to Week Nine, getting its season back on track.
The Steelers finished the year 11-5 and atop the AFC Central. In a slugfest, they edged out the New England Patriots 7-6 in a divisional playoff game before falling to Denver, 24-21, in the AFC Championship Game. A bitter end but much better finish than getting molly-whooped by the Cowboys.
1989: 51-0 Week One Loss To Cleveland
The worst of the worst. A loss so bad it’s still remembered to this day. Pittsburgh was steamrolled by Bernie Kosar and company. Frankly, the Browns offense wasn’t even that good that day. The Steelers were just that bad. Eight turnovers will do that to you, including three picks by Bubby Brister and three lost fumbles by first-round RB Tim Worley.
Things were better the next week but only in the slimmest and most technical sense. In Week Two, Pittsburgh was again sent packing with a 41-10 loss to the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals, putting the Steelers in a hole that seemed impossible to climb out of. Step by step, they did, and Pittsburgh got back to .500 by Halloween. They rattled off three straight wins to close out the year and finish 9-8, making the playoffs. Gary Anderson nailed a 50-yard overtime field goal to beat the Houston Oilers.
The Steelers’ dreams would end the next week against the Denver Broncos, but they went from two of their worst losses since the merger and ended the year with a playoff win. Bet no one predicted that after Week Two.
