Lady Steel
12-13-2014, 11:13 PM
The NFL has been littered with offenses with record-setting quarterbacks, yardage-gobbling running backs and explosive, acrobatic receivers, units that piled up numbers as fast as pennies clicking at a gas pump.
The number of 3,000-yard passers and 1,000-yard receivers began to escalate when the rules were changed to favor the offenses after the 1977 season, setting the stage for the record number of 4,000- and 5,000-yard passers and 1,500-yard receivers that are somewhat commonplace in today's NFL.
But since the 1970 merger, no team has ever had an offensive trio that featured the league's leader in passing yardage, rushing yardage and receiving yardage, no matter how high or low the total. In fact, only two teams - the 1991 Dallas Cowboys with Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin and the 1999 Indianapolis Colts with Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison - have ever had the league's rushing leader and receiving yardage leader in the same season.
The closest any team has come to featuring the top-ranked player in all three categories is the 1999 Colts when James and Harrison were almost joined by quarterback Peyton Manning, who finished third in passing yards that season behind Steve Beuerlein of Carolina and Kurt Warner of St. Louis.
No other offense - not the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s, the run-and-shoot Houston Oilers and K-Gun Buffalo Bills of the 1990s or even the "Greatest Show on Turf" of the St. Louis Rams in the 2000s - came that close.
Until now, that is.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2014/12/14/Killer-Bs-historic-in-Steelers-offense/stories/201412140193?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
The number of 3,000-yard passers and 1,000-yard receivers began to escalate when the rules were changed to favor the offenses after the 1977 season, setting the stage for the record number of 4,000- and 5,000-yard passers and 1,500-yard receivers that are somewhat commonplace in today's NFL.
But since the 1970 merger, no team has ever had an offensive trio that featured the league's leader in passing yardage, rushing yardage and receiving yardage, no matter how high or low the total. In fact, only two teams - the 1991 Dallas Cowboys with Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin and the 1999 Indianapolis Colts with Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison - have ever had the league's rushing leader and receiving yardage leader in the same season.
The closest any team has come to featuring the top-ranked player in all three categories is the 1999 Colts when James and Harrison were almost joined by quarterback Peyton Manning, who finished third in passing yards that season behind Steve Beuerlein of Carolina and Kurt Warner of St. Louis.
No other offense - not the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s, the run-and-shoot Houston Oilers and K-Gun Buffalo Bills of the 1990s or even the "Greatest Show on Turf" of the St. Louis Rams in the 2000s - came that close.
Until now, that is.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2014/12/14/Killer-Bs-historic-in-Steelers-offense/stories/201412140193?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter