Greg Lloyd wrong: Team wasn’t
capable of winning 2 Supers
First, congrats to Jim Wexell. He apparently has written a dandy of a book about current and former Steelers players by visiting their hometowns.
And kudos to Ed Bouchette, who wrote a nice summary of said book this Sunday.
We haven't yet read the book. This is the comment though from Bouchette's article that got our attention. It's from Greg Lloyd:
"There's no way that we shouldn't have won two Super Bowls."
Lloyd, God bless him, is wrong.
And we take issue with it, because it fuels the misperception that either Cowher or his players "choked" several times in the 1990s.
The reality is that, between Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers never had a quarterback capable of winning the Super Bowl.
That accounts for an awful lot.
What also accounts for a lot is the caliber of competition.
Skeptics say Cowher should've won a Super Bowl with defense.
Winning a Super Bowl in spite of a weak quarterback is almost impossible. Yes, Baltimore did it. Baltimore had three HOFers on offense plus Jamal Lewis, who won't make the HOF but played like he would as a rookie. The Greg Lloyd defense was not at the same level as the 2000 Raven defense.
And then there's Tampa Bay in 2002. Well, Brad Johnson was a decent NFL QB. Not exceptional, but better than Neil O'Donnell, better than Kordell Stewart. More importantly, Tampa sneaked into the Super Bowl at the right time, against a fading Oakland team. Anyone think Tampa Bay of 2002 could've beaten the Patriot teams or the 2000 Ravens?
Didn't think so.
But back to the Steelers of the 1990s that Lloyd says should've won "a couple Super Bowls."
Winning just one Super Bowl then would've required defeating either 1) the Emmitt Smith-Troy Aikman Cowboys; 2) the Young-Rice 49ers; 3) the Packers of 96-97; 4) the Broncos of 97-98.
Does anyone besides Lloyd truly think the Steelers were better than those teams?
To be fair to Lloyd, we haven't seen the quote in its whole context. IF, for example, he was saying this: that the Steelers never should've matched Tampa Bay's offer for O'Donnell in 1993, that they reacted way too slowly to Barry Foster's injury of 1993, and that Kordell Stewart should've been a wide receiver, and that if all of those things had happened and the Steelers had aggressively pursued a capable QB through the draft or free agency, then we would say, MAYBE they could've won a Super Bowl.
They didn't. And there should be no regrets.