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Raiders: Just lose, baby?
Scott Brown is the Steelers beat writer. He can be reached via e-mail. Also check out Brown's blog
He snatched the football and a dying season just before each hit the turf at Three Rivers Stadium. Franco Harris galloped down the sidelines and right into football immortality, leaving several Oakland Raiders in his wake.
Yet, ask Harris what stands out most when he thinks back to the storied games the Steelers and Raiders played in the postseason, and he's more likely to talk about what happened in 1974, not the "Immaculate Reception."
"It was just an unbelievable feeling," Harris said of the 24-13 victory that propelled the Steelers to their first Super Bowl. "That game made us believe we were the best team in professional football when we beat the Raiders in Oakland."
Beating the self-proclaimed "Team of the Decades" on the road used to do such a thing for players' confidence.
Not anymore.
The team the Steelers had to go through to become a dynasty has won just 14 games since playing in the 2003 Super Bowl. To understand how far the Raiders have fallen, consider that the struggling Steelers are near 10-point favorites to win today in Oakland.
And that the players still in search of their first winning streak of the season were asked last week about the dangers of taking the Raiders too lightly.
Yes, it has come to that for the team that entered the season with the best winning percentage in NFL history and the only one with the distinction of making the Super Bowl in four different decades.
"I don't know what happened," said Steelers left tackle Marvel Smith, who grew up in Oakland. "When I was out there, it was different."
The Raiders that Smith remembers were about intimidation. Now they are about ineptitude.
They have gone 4-12, 5-11 and 4-12 since appearing in their fifth Super Bowl and are well on their way to claiming another high first-round draft pick after starting this season 1-5.
The Raiders have put up the fewest points in the NFL, and surely adding to fan discontent is the fact that Oakland passed over quarterback Matt Leinart in last April's draft, instead taking safety Michael Huff with the seventh overall pick.
Erratic play at quarterback has been one of the reasons why the proud franchise has become a punchline, and the latter certainly doesn't sit well with Rich Gannon.
Gannon helped the Raiders win three consecutive division titles after they had been through a down period, and he captured the league's MVP Award in 2002, the season in which he led Oakland back to the Super Bowl.
"I thought part of my legacy was turning it around," said Gannon, now a CBS analyst who will do color commentary for today's game, "so maybe there is some anger."
The Raiders appeared to be an aging team when they won a mere four games the season after losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. But, said Gannon, "that's the easy way out of it. It had a lot more to do with that."
The sorry state of the Raiders, Gannon said, can be traced to 2001 when they let coach Jon Gruden leave for Tampa Bay. The team later fired his replacement, Bill Callahan, a season after he took the team to the Super Bowl.
Gruden and Callahan, Gannon said, were detail-oriented coaches that demanded discipline.
Callahan, at least once, called out his mistake-prone players publicly during the 2003 season and appeared to lose the team before taking the fall for the Raiders' 4-12 record.
"They wouldn't discipline the players," said Gannon, who missed most of 2003 because of a shoulder injury, "but they would fire the coach."
The Raiders went through another head coach, Norv Turner, before recycling one with strong ties to the franchise's glorious past.
Art Shell, a Hall of Fame offensive lineman who played in the '70s for the Raiders, returned to the sidelines this season for a second tour of duty with Oakland.
Shell guided the Raiders to three playoffs appearances and a division title from 1990-94 but didn't win enough for impetuous Raiders owner Al Davis.
Now what Davis wouldn't give for the success Shell had before he fired him.
The Raiders are last in the NFL in total offense and have the worst turnover ratio in the league.
Oakland has allowed the fewest passing yards per game in the league. However, opponents have had little reason to air it out against the Raiders since they are yielding an average of 149 rushing yards.
While he has yet to get the desired results on the field, Shell wasted little time in trying to change the culture in the Raiders' locker room. This led to a clash with Jerry Porter, and Shell eventually suspending the talented wide receiver for insubordination (Porter has rejoined the Raiders and could play today).
"It was a situation where I had to come in and change the attitudes and mindsets of people that were here," Shell said. "We have some good young football players here but they needed direction. Maybe they had been a little lax in how they approached the game."
The Raiders, and specifically Davis, have not helped themselves in recent years by making questionable draft choices -- offensive tackle Robert Galley, picked ahead of quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger in the 2004 draft, has been a disappointment -- and opting for quick fixes all too often.
Davis' philosophy, like his wardrobe, still appears to be rooted in the '70s when the Raiders won with nasty defense and a big-play offense that made a living off throwing deep.
His obsession with the vertical passing game helps explain the trade for Randy Moss two years ago and the signing (and dusting off) of strong-armed Jeff George during training camp.
Both are reputed locker room malcontents, though George did not make the team, and reflect the kind of instability that has dropped Oakland to the bottom of the division (AFC West) it once ruled.
Only one game separates the Steelers and Raiders in the win-loss column but the two franchises are about as far apart as Pittsburgh and Oakland.
"It just saddens me," Harris said of the Raiders' struggles, "and having played against Art Shell and knowing what a competitor and winner he is, just saddens me even more."
Not that Shell is looking for pity, though he may want to ask for time as he tries to rebuild something that was once considered a source of civic pride.
"I am very proud to say I am a Raider," Shell said. "The history of the organization has been very successful and I want to get it back where it belongs, like the Steelers."
To that there is only one thing to say: good luck.
