Steelers Go For Second Back to Back Championship

Super Bowl XIV was not supposed to be close. The Steelers had rolled through the playoffs after an impressive 12-4 regular season with running back Franco Harris gaining 1,000 yards for the seventh time in his career and the team leading the NFL in scoring with 416 points. The Steelers dismantled Miami 34-14 in the playoffs and wiped out Houston 27-17 in the AFC Championship. Odds-makers made the Steelers a 10 ½ point favorite against their rival in the NFC, the Los Angeles Rams.

The Rams had endured a challenging 9-7 season and somehow found a way to escape the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs 21-19. With starting quarterback Pat Haden injured, Vince Ferragamo filled in to lead the team to victory in Roger Staubach’s last NFL game. In the NFC Championship game, the Rams defense held upstart Tampa Bay to only 4 completions in 26 attempts, and running backs Cullen Bryant and Wendell Tyler ran wild to a 9-0 victory. This set the stage for a Super Bowl where most people gave the Rams only a slight chance for victory.

Pasadena buzzed with excitement as 103,985 football hungry stadium fans and millions more worldwide set their eyes on Super Bowl 80s style. I watched this game on the airport television flying back to New Orleans to attend my second semester of college at Loyola University. It seemed odd to see the Rams in the Super Bowl, I thought, after their less than overwhelming season. The Steelers had earned three rings and were eager for a second “back to back.” 

The game started with a solid Pittsburgh defensive stand followed by a nice running drive which resulted in a 3-0 Pittsburgh lead. The Rams stormed right back behind the running of Wendell Tyler and Lawrence McCutcheon and took a 7-3 lead on a one yard plunge by Cullen Bryant.

Pittsburgh replied with their own drive on a combination of Bradshaw passes to Bennie Cunningham and Franco Harris runs, and Harris swept into the end zone on a one yard run to reclaim the lead 10-7.

Midway through the second quarter, the Rams struck again on a 31 yard field goal to tie the game, and then added another field goal right before half, and suddenly the world’s eyes widened as the teams left for the locker-room with the mighty Steelers down 13-10! Vince Ferragamo at one point went 8/10 passing and many marveled at his resilience and pressure management skills while scrutinized by a planet. Would the Rams pull an upset?

The Steelers responded quickly in the third quarter when Bradshaw found Lynn Swann deep down the middle on a 47 yard touchdown pass. It was truly a great pass and catch combination and it gave Pittsburgh a 17-13 lead, but Los Angeles would answer right back. On the next series Ferragamo found Billy Waddy deep for 50 yards and then Lawrence McCutcheon threw a 24 yard option pass to Ron Smith for the score. LA led 19-17. 

Bradshaw got a little shaky with his passing in the third quarter and threw a ball that the Rams’ Nolan Cromwell should have intercepted, but his teammate Eddie Brown showed him how to do it a couple plays later with an interception as people wondered if indeed it would be the Rams day. Pittsburgh responded immediately on defense, the Rams punted, and the teams exchanged the ball until the quarter ended with the Rams in the lead 19-17. 

On the biggest play of the game, Terry Bradshaw found John Stallworth deep on a 73 yard touchdown pass. This was an amazing play when it looked like everything was going the Rams way, but Bradshaw had that killer instinct to go for the home run and Stallworth did his part as well. The Steel Curtain held and Franco Harris later added another running score. Pittsburgh won 31-19. Terry Bradshaw was awarded the MVP despite throwing three interceptions. He had displayed fine courage under pressure, made the big plays, and ran at times well too.  

An MPI analysis shows that despite the scare the Rams gave the Steelers, Pittsburgh actually outperformed Los Angeles quite significantly (.557 to .502 on the total MPI score and in all 7/7 MPI categories!) Where the game was really won for the Steelers was on defense (.568 to .491) and special teams (.618 to .487). Pittsburgh’s pressure defense (.700) was also remarkable. Pittsburgh prevailed slightly on offense (.526 to .518) and they easily won on total pressure (.675 to .526), pressure offense and pressure defense. So while many might say that this was a close game that could have been won by the Rams, the actual performance statistics of the MPI show that the Steelers performed much better in all areas of this game.

After this Super Bowl, the Steelers were far and away the most successful franchise in the history of the NFL Super Bowl. No team was even close with their four victories, and they started pining for one more ring for the thumb. Despite the Steelers obvious success, it should be noted that the 1973 Miami Dolphins’ 24-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII still represents the single most dominant performance in a Super Bowl game after having reviewed the first 14 Super Bowls. 

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The MPI or Mental Performance Index is the first system of scoring  developed in sports which includes in the scoring key mental factors such as pressure management, reduction of mental errors and focused execution. It was developed by licensed clinical and sport performance psychologist Dr. John F. Murray in 2002 to show the extreme importance of mental factors in sports. It is much more accurate than the final score and other statistics in showing how one team performed relative to another team. It has almost perfectly estimated the relative performance of the teams before each of the past 5 Super Bowls. Dr. Murray's MPI forecast has also beaten the official Super Bowl spread 4 out of 5 times now. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, and the forecast has also appeared in hundreds of articles. Why all the focus, energy and interest in this topic? Because it so clearly demonstrates the importance of mental factors in sports. For more information about the MPI or Dr. Murray's services, please call 561-59-9898 or send an email to: johnfmurray@mindspring.com