The Green Bay Packers became the second team to surpass the Pittsburgh Steelers in all-time postseason wins in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs last week. It was inevitable that one team would at least tie, because the Steelers, Packers, and Dallas Cowboys all entered the playoffs with 37 wins and the Packers and Cowboys were facing each other.
The Steelers lost, remaining at 36, and the Packers won, raising their win total to 37. They can break the New England Patriots’ all-time postseason win record today if they beat the San Francisco 49ers and reach 38 wins.
But if they don’t, then the 49ers themselves would become the third team to surpass the Steelers, bumping them down from second at the beginning of this postseason to fourth. San Francisco would then be tied with the Packers and Patriots for the all-time record with the opportunity to break it a week later. New England has 36 wins in the Super Bowl era, so a 49ers win would mark the most postseason wins of the Super Bowl era, the first team to 37.
Those four teams leave everybody else in the dust, however, between them owning 22 Super Bowl titles. The fifth-place organization in wins is the Los Angeles Rams and they only have 26. It would take them at least three years just to catch up even under the best of circumstances. The Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants all have 25 wins.
With the Steelers, Cowboys, and Packers all qualifying for the postseason this year, the latter two retained their two-appearance lead, 36 to 34, over the Steelers as well. Only eight teams have made the postseason at least 30 times.
The Kansas City Chiefs also bumped the Steelers down another rung by qualifying for the postseason for the ninth consecutive year. The Patriots hold the all-time record with 11 consecutive appearances, but only the Cowboys and the Indianapolis Colts had ever reached the postseason nine consecutive years before. Now the Steelers are tied for the fourth-longest streak, rather than third.
San Francisco a year ago did break another Steelers record for the most appearances in a conference finals. Last year’s trip to the NFC Championship Game was their 17th, one more than Pittsburgh and Dallas for the most, and they could make it 18 this year.
The Steelers haven’t been able to add much to their postseason legacy in half a decade. They have made a handful of appearances, but they have all been losses. Most of them have been losses in the Wild Card Round, including this past week’s loss to the Buffalo Bills.
While the Patriots are currently floundering, having parted ways with coaching legend Bill Belichick, the Packers and 49ers appear to have the makings of a long-term contending roster and coach pairing. The Cowboys can still be competitive as well, and will all be threatening to continue to leave the Steelers behind in postseason accolades if they can’t right the ship in short order.
