Raiders-Steelers Rivalry Revived
The game between the Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers has a cool, retro feel, like bell bottoms and strobe lights and outsized hair.
People of a certain age remember when the Raiders and Steelers dueled for more than a week 9 win. They bludgeoned each other for much of the 1970s, in what many regarded as the most vital rivalry in the sport. Going back to Jack Tatum and George Atkinson jamming forearms into Lynn Swann's face, and to Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception, it felt like the winner between these two teams, no matter when they played, was the de facto Super Bowl champion.
It feels like 40 years since both teams mattered at the same time. The Raiders won two rings in the 1980s, while the Steelers were embarking on a 25-year Super Bowl drought. They reached the big game in 1995, only to see Neil O'Donnell hand it -- or throw it -- to Larry Brown and the Dallas Cowboys.
Then when the Steelers experienced their epic revival after Y2K, winning two rings of their own, Oakland was in the middle of a 10-year tailspin. Al Davis, their ornery, iconic owner, morphed into a caricature, as outdated as the jumpsuits he wore to practice, tooling around in golf carts, canning coaches and recycling quarterbacks at a disturbing rate. But not even his decay could erase his indelible footprint on football.
Davis is gone, but he would be proud to see his Raiders blooming. After whipping the formidable Jets on Sunday, they seem ahead of the rebuilding curve. Their surprisingly stout defense features all-world linebacker Khalil Mack. The secondary is anchored by graybeard Charles Woodson, who may not have won a Lombardi Trophy, but his next stop after Oakland -- Canton -- will make him even more immortal.
Davis would love to see Woodson's late-age wizardry. Picking up old or discarded players was a Raiders hallmark, winning two Super Bowls on the arm of Jim Plunkett, who was left for dead after a barren career in New England.
And Davis would also adore Derek Carr, who is flinging the pigskin like Daryle Lamonica, to a young, wildly gifted receiver in Amari Cooper, whose speed and alacrity would remind Davis of Tim Brown or Cliff Branch. With all due respect to Todd Gurley and Stefon Diggs, Cooper has had the best overall rookie campaign so far. And if RB Latavius Murray can morph into a modern-day iteration of Marcus Allen, Oakland has a glittering future.
So it's with some surprise and sense of glee to see the Raiders (4-3) ride into Pittsburgh to play the Steelers (4-4), each with much to gain and tons to lose on Sunday. Pittsburgh held the fort while Ben Roethlisberger recovered from a knee injury. Yet they still lost in his return, at home, to the hated Bengals, a game the Steelers lost several times over.
Despite leading deep into the 4th quarter, Big Ben threw a crucial interception, which allowed Cincinnati one last shot to win. And they did, on an Andy Dalton pass to AJ Green, which essentially cemented the AFC North for the Bengals (8-0), who also won last night.
In rolling the Jets, Oakland answered several questions. They stuffed Chris Ivory into perhaps his worst game of the season, and kept Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker in check, which speaks to their defense. And the Raiders' offense steamrolled the stingiest defense in the NFL, which had allowed the fewest points in the league.
Pittsburgh lost the best all-around running back in the sport, when Le'Veon Bell blew out his knee against the Bengals. If Big Ben is the heart of the offense, then Bell is the aorta. Beyond his obvious running splendor, Bell sets up play-action passes and is quite nimble as a receiver, himself. DeAngelo Williams has done a splendid job subbing for Bell, but he's the backup for a reason.
Without Bell, the Steelers return to a one-dimensional, AFL offense. They will rely on their blessed trinity of wideouts -- Markus Wheaton, Martavis Bryant and maybe the most productive WR in the game, Antonio Brown. To keep Brown from the perilous duty of punt returns, they just claimed Jacoby Jones off waivers. If you say that the Raiders will win this game, you wouldn't be delusional.
But even without parsing the particulars, it's wholly refreshing to see the silver and black and black and gold clash in November with something substantial on the line. Each is pining for a playoff spot -- a wild card, really, as both are peering up at undefeated teams. Just as the Bengals have a chokehold on the AFC North, the Broncos are galloping away with the AFC West.
Davis is gone. Art Rooney is long gone. They don't even play in Three Rivers Stadium anymore. But the respective families still own and run the business, and the Steelers still play on the banks of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela. They're still two gritty teams from gritty towns, with a long history of healthy disdain for each other and sublime success on the field.
It's been a while. But it's a most welcome return, quite fitting after we just celebrated Back to the Future.
Jason writes a weekly column for CBS Local Sports. He is a native New Yorker, sans the elitist sensibilities, and believes there's a world west of the Hudson River. A Yankees devotee and Steelers groupie, he has been scouring the forest of fertile NYC sports sections since the 1970s. He has written over 500 columns for WFAN/CBS NY, and also worked as a freelance writer for Sports Illustrated and Newsday subsidiary amNew York. He made his bones as a boxing writer, occasionally covering fights in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but mostly inside Madison Square Garden. Follow him on Twitter @JasonKeidel.