For those of you that tuned into the wild, octuple-overtime finish between Georgia and Georgia Tech on Friday evening, you were probably reminded of some of your favorite overtime finishes in Pittsburgh Steelers history.
In 2002, the Steelers hosted the Atlanta Falcons. Normally you would associate a tie game with it being boring. This game, however, was one of the wackiest ties in NFL history, and anything but boring.
The Steelers had Tommy Maddox at quarterback and the Falcons had second-year QB Mike Vick. That was Vick’s breakout season as he was named to the Pro Bowl, All-Pro team, and received at least some votes to be the league’s MVP.
Maddox dominated the day, going 28-for-41 with 473 passing yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. WR Plaxico Burress was his favorite target with nine receptions for 253 yards and two touchdowns.
Regulation had plenty of twists and turns, but this post is about overtime. This overtime period was a complete rollercoaster.
The Steelers started on offense. They got into field goal range largely because of an 11-yard completion to Plaxico Burress and a 30-yard completion to Hines Ward. Unfortunately a 47-yard field goal attempt was blocked by the Falcons. That set up a next score wins scenario.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out before going on a 10-play drive to get down to the 23-yard line. A penalty backed them up to what would have been a 50-yard attempt. The Steelers instead opted to punt to play it safe.
The Falcons once again couldn’t get anything going on offense and punted back to the Steelers with 2:48 remaining in the game.
Maddox ended up throwing an interception that looked like it was going to seal the Steelers’ fate. After the Falcons blocked one earlier, the Steelers blocked a 56-yard field goal attempt. There were only eight seconds left on the clock. It seemed like a certain tie, but the final twist was about to happen.
Maddox completed a 50-yard hail mary to Burress, but he was a half yard short of the goal line. All of that excitement for nothing.
The Steelers have a curious history with overtime, as they were actually a part of the first overtime game in NFL history in 1974 against the Denver Broncos. Prior to 1974, if a game ended with a tied score, it would just be a tie game. There was no such thing as overtime, though there were examples dating back to 1958 of an impromptu sudden-death format in the playoffs.
Pittsburgh has played in a whopping 47 overtime contests with a record of 25-18-4 (.544). It isn’t the easiest thing to track, but I believe that is the second-most OT games in NFL history behind only the Denver Broncos (51). Coincidentally, those were the two teams who kicked off the NFL’s OT rules in 1974.
I am sure some of you will have another crazy Steelers OT finish in mind. I would love to hear your favorites in the comment section!
