Even after Steelers' loss to Washington, history gives Super Bowl hopes

Eleven years ago, two teams chasing the rarest of NFL achievements, the undefeated season, took divergent approaches.

Their regular-season results were similar. But only one got the ultimate prize.

Now that the chances of a Pittsburgh Steelers’ quest for an immortal 19-0 championship 2020 season have been eliminated, are there lessons to be learned from the journeys of the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts of 2009?

During a week when Steelers players were asked legitimate, unironic questions about whether or not their 23-17 defeat to Washington could be called “a good loss,” the only answer won’t be known until February. If the Steelers make it to the Super Bowl, whether they capped their 11-0 start with what would have been only the second 16-0 regular season in NFL history won’t matter.

It certainly didn’t for the 2009 Saints. By the time they had reached 13-0, quarterback Drew Brees made no secret they were chasing the rarest of rare NFL achievements: the undefeated championship season.

“We feel like we deserved it, and the whole city deserved it and we wanted to make it happen,” Brees said after a Week 15 loss dropped the Saints to 13-1.

Eight days later and about 800 miles to the north, the Colts reached 14-0 and had a halftime lead on the New York Jets en route to being just the second team in NFL history to make it to 15-0 during the regular season. But coach Jim Caldwell pulled his starters, the fans at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium booed and the Jets came back to win.

“Football logic has to come into play,” then-Colts president Bill Polian said that day, “and that logic is it makes no sense to have guys out there with the potential for injuries.”

The Colts lost the next week, too, as the Saints and Colts went winless after respective 13-0 and 14-0 starts.

No matter, each cruised through their conference playoffs (only one of their combined for wins was decided by less than 13 points) and met in the Super Bowl a month later.

The Saints prevailed. But does that at all validate their approach to chasing a perfect regular season? Did the Colts’ loss in that Super Bowl prove they would have been better off going for broke for a chance to be 18-0 entering it?

There probably isn’t a correlation.

“Certain teams, certain players can utilize that loss and motivate it to get back on track and things like that,” Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said when given a chance to validate the Washington loss in the context of being better positioned for a playoff run.

“I also subscribe to the notion that great teams don’t need it. I like to consider us a great team, (so) we just need to see how we react (and) bounce back to this last week.”

The good news for the Steelers is that, historically speaking, teams that start 11-0 in the Super Bowl era have made it to the Big Game nine of 11 times. The only ones that didn’t were the 2011 Green Bay Packers and the 2005 Colts.

The latter had its season ended by the Steelers. That Indianapolis team made it to 13-0 before losing two consecutive in advance of a win in its regular-season finale. That same fate met the 1998 Denver Broncos, but the Broncos would end up winning the Super Bowl, their second straight.

The 1991 Washington Redskins, like the current Steelers, suffered their first loss in their 12th game. Washington won its next three and lost its Week 17 finale (while resting starters), but it rebounded for three relatively easy postseason wins to claim the Super Bowl.

The most famous example of a team going all out for a perfect season is the 2007 New England Patriots, who played their starters to the end of each of their final two regular-season games despite having clinched the No. 1 seed.

New England lost in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.

Four other teams that started a season at least 11-0 all finished their regular seasons strong. The 1985 Chicago Bears and 2015 Carolina Panthers finished 15-1 with their losses coming in their 13th and 15th games, respectively. Both made the Super Bowl, but only the Bears won it.

The 1984 Dolphins, like the current Steelers, lost their 12th game. They lost two of three before winning their final two during the regular season and advancing to the Super Bowl. They lost to the San Francisco 49ers, though, denying the franchise another Lombardi Trophy along with the 1972 and ’73 teams.

That 1972 Dolphins, of course, knew by this past Monday evening that for at least one more year they could hold on to their claim as the lone undefeated Super Bowl winners.

“It’s tough,” receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said. “You know, you talk about trying to go undefeated the whole season. But at the end of the day, your main end goal is obviously to win the world championship.”

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.