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polamalubeast
07-24-2017, 02:53 PM
Which Steelers team was the best between ....

1975 vs 1978
1974 vs 1979
2005 vs 2008
2015 vs 2016

and why

AtlantaDan
07-24-2017, 04:48 PM
This from the 538 analytics ESPN site

How do you rate an NFL team across decades of play? One method is Elo, a simple measure of strength based on game-by-game results. We calculated Elo ratings for every game in league history — over 30,000 ratings in total.

Steelers peak ELO ratings by season (graph of all year by year ratings linked below)

1974 Steelers - 1718
1975 Steelers - 1777
1976 Steelers - 1764
1978 Steelers - 1762
1979 Steelers - 1740
2005 Steelers - 1771
2008 Steelers - 1714
2015 Steelers - 1651
2016 Steelers - 1662

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/complete-history-of-the-nfl/#pit

When healthy (Bradshaw missed much of the season from October through December while Franco & Bleier missed the AFC Championship loss) the greatest Steelers team was was the 1976 team - defense and running games peaked (both Franco and Rocky rushed for over 1000 yards) - the most dominant playoff game I have ever seen the Steelers play was the 40-14 destruction of a very good Colts team in Baltimore.

I have maintained the best Super Bowl champ Steelers team was the 1975 team. Defense was near its peak as was the Franco led running game, with the passing game picking up as Swann (who had his greatest season in 1975) and Stallworth (big TD catch and block to spring Franco for TD in AFC championship game) started to show how great they would be. Consensus is 1978 team was better but by then the defense was starting to show some cracks with Ernie Holmes gone, Robin Cole substituted for Andy Russell, and Ron Johnson substituted for JT Thomas. 1975 Steelers team was good enough to overcome 13 (!) turnovers in two home playoff wins over Colts and Raiders.

I go with the 2005 team over the 2008 team. That 2005 team was lucky to make the playoffs but was a deceptively strong #6 seed that slumped in November/early December while Ben was out and then recovering from a knee injury. 2005 team was much more dependable on offense even with a younger Ben, with a solid O-line and better running game as opposed to the frightful 2008 O-line, and the defense was close to the 2008 defense.

I go with 2016 over 2015 - defense was improving in 2016 and while the passing game dropped off with no Bryant, having Bell for most of the season in 2016 was a big difference.

polamalubeast
07-24-2017, 05:42 PM
For me, 2005 was a better team than 2008, since this team had no major weakness.2008, our running game was awful, same thing for our o-line and Roethlisberger was banged up all season because of it....No doubt our defense was better in 2008 but the Steelers Defense in 2005 was in the top 5 and our offense was great in our 8 games winning streak at the end of the year.It was the same team that finished the season 15-1 in 2004.


For 2015 vs 2016, it is 2015 even if the team has been less far

Our running game was better in 2016 (2015 was decent with Williams), but our passing game was not very good after week 5 in 2016.Our passing game was great in 2015, especially in the second half of the season.

Our point differenciel was better in 2015 and our schedule was more difficult and they were competitive at every game in 2015 except for the game against the Patriots in Week 1.In 2016, only our defeat against Dallas was the only one that was tight.

Maybe our defense was better in 2016, especially in 2nd half of the season but the difference between the 2015 and 2016 offense was bigger.

st33lersguy
07-24-2017, 07:11 PM
1979: The offense was better and the defense was still top 5. Also steady play from Bradshaw vs a QB carousel for much of the season between a pre-prime Bradshaw, Gilliam, and Hanratty
1978: An MVP title for Bradshaw in 78 and the 75 team committing 13 turnovers in the postseason set the 78 team above it. Those two teams were pretty close
2008: 12-4 while facing 6 games against teams that finished 11-5 or better compared to only 5 teams that finished with losing records.
2016: Making it farther while still missing key pieces themselves. They missed their no. 2 WR, their defensive captain, and had to start 3 rookies.

st33lersguy
07-24-2017, 08:18 PM
To me, 1978 was also the best steeler team ever. 14-2, their only losses were by a combined 10 points against teams that played in conference championship games. Bradshaw threw 28 TD passes and won MVP, and the 78 defense was dominant too and doesn't get as much respect because often people talk about how the offense opened up. They surrendered 195 points (after the rule changes to supposedly make it more difficult to play defense) and in 2 playoff games they surrendered 15 points (13 points if you take away the safety the offense surrendered against Houston that year). Sure Dallas scored 31 points in the Super Bowl, but Dallas scored 7 on defense and 14 more in garbage time. The offense by the way scored 102 points and is the only Steeler team to play 3 playoff games or more and score at least 30 points in all of them