The nicest compliment any modern Steelers team can receive is a comparison to the sainted teams of the 1970s.

Around these parts, that’s like telling a basketball player that he shoots like Larry Bird. Or a singer that he sounds like Pavarotti.

So when the 2020 Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens Sunday to improve to 7-0, hopefully, this year’s roster understood the reverence that was being bestowed upon them when fans and media repeatedly drew a connection to the 1978 Super Bowl champions.

That was the last time the organization went 7-0 to start a season. That team would go 7-2 in its last nine games, setting the best regular-season franchise record (14-2) until Ben Roethlisberger’s 15-1 run as a rookie starter in 2004.

This year’s collection of Steelers has gone a long way towards earning its place in the conversation with those memorable squads. By defeating the Ravens and previously unbeaten Tennessee on the road in back-to-back weeks, these players have gone from “off to a good start” to “how soon before they lock up home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs?”

Yes, Mike Tomlin’s group has already changed our eye level as to what is on the horizon for 2020. Now it must do something even harder.

Erase our memories.

Make us forget about an 8-5 team that lost its last three games to miss the playoffs last year. Or a 7-2-1 club that managed to miss the playoffs in 2018. Or a 2009 squad that lost five in a row in the second half to blow a 6-2 start.

And here’s where the departure occurs from that ‘78 season. That team lost its eighth game of that season to the Houston Oilers, a playoff rival the Steelers would face again in the AFC Championship Game.

These Steelers get the wretched Dallas Cowboys next. They are 2-6, losers of three straight and currently using a third-string quarterback in Ben DiNucci. After them, it’s the 2-5-1 Cincinnati Bengals and the 1-6 Jacksonville Jaguars.

In a strange way, that seems to have many Steelers fans just as leery as they were heading into the Titans and Ravens games.

Good. That’s smart. Hopefully, the coaches and players are just as conscious as to why that is the case.

Because last year’s team couldn’t beat a bad New York Jets squad or the Ravens backups in the last two weeks of the season. The ‘18 crew dropped games to the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders after Thanksgiving. They finished a combined 10-22 at the bottom of the AFC West.

That ‘09 bunch fell to Chicago, Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland along the way. Their combined record was 21-43, and all four of those teams were under .500.

So, on the surface, it looks like the Steelers have already conquered their most dangerous foes with victorious road trips to Baltimore and Nashville. But now, based on recent history, it’s time to face an even more daunting task.

Their own sense of accomplishment.

That’s something that has perhaps been inflated and misleading to Steelers teams in the past under head coach Mike Tomlin.

“These are very hard games to come by, hard wins to come by in the National Football League,” T.J. Watt said after beating the Ravens. “Every team is phenomenal.”

Nah. I’ve seen each of these next three Steelers opponents play. Phenomenal is the last word I would use to describe any of them. However, even though that’s not an accurate thing for Watt to say, it’s the right thing for him to say.

Especially given the not-too-distant past of this franchise.

A 7-0 start is fabulous. As Missi Matthews of Steelers.com pointed out Sunday evening, no team with a 7-0 record has ever missed the playoffs. Ten of 38 teams that have hit that mark since the 1970 merger went on to win Super Bowls.

But, to date, the Steelers haven’t clinched a bye. Or the AFC North. Or even a playoff berth.

With just one bye available now and good teams hunting for wild cards in the middle of the AFC, positioning at the end of the regular season will prove extremely important.

“The totality of it is, regardless of these experiences, we have to continue to be a group that is on the rise,” Tomlin said Sunday. “Understand that the bigger challenges and the bigger opportunities are in front of us.”

Opportunities, yes. Like clinching those marks on the way to a Super Bowl we just mentioned.

Challenges? Not necessarily. At least not over the next three weeks when the Steelers opponents are a combined 5-17-1. Unless the Steelers create a huge challenge for themselves.

That would be thinking they are invincible.

“Now that we beat the Ravens, more people understood that we’re legit, and we’re coming with our ‘A-game’ every single time,” tight end Eric Ebron said in Baltimore.

Steelers fans better hope so. When the Steelers do that, it looks fantastic. Ask the Cleveland Browns. They saw that “A-game.” And they were staring at a 38-7 defeat three weeks ago.

I’d argue the Steelers played no better than a “C-minus game” in the first half against Baltimore and the second half against the Titans. Yet they won both anyway.

They are that good.

They just have to be good enough to get by with a B-minus effort if the Cowboys show up with anything more than a failing attitude in Dallas on Sunday. That’s something those teams of ‘19, ‘18, and ‘09 didn’t do against lesser competition.

Bird would make all three of these free throws. Pavarotti would hit all three of these notes. And the ‘78 Steelers would win all three of these games.

The 2020 Steelers need to do so as well.

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