Classic Sports: '1986-09-15 Denver Broncos vs Pittsburgh Steelers'

Source:Classic Sports with this 1986 ABC-MNF game.

"John Elway takes on the Steelers early in the 1986 season" 

From Classic Sports 

I think the best way to describe this game from 1986, is to imagine being on a very long road, perhaps to nowhere, (at least for the car thats going south) and you see two cars pass each other going in the opposition directions. That's the story of the 1986 Denver Broncos and 1986 Pittsburgh Steelers. 

The 86 Broncos were on the rise under head coach Dan Reeves, QB John Elway, and a very good, but underrated Bronco defense. They had already been a consistent winner and AFC Playoff team the previous 10 years, but were now on the verge of being a Super Bowl team and winning 3-4 AFC Championships over the next 4 seasons and playing for 4 out of the next 6 AFC Championships during that same period.

1986 Steelers, just weren't very good at all. They still had a very good defense, at least as far as personal. And if you look at what they had on offense, with their skilled positions at least, a pretty good team on offense, when you looks at their running backs and receivers. But a football offense without a quarterback that they can get them ball and who beats you bye himself, is like a car without tires or an engine. 

Opposing teams knew that if you take away the Steelers running game, you are going to beat the Steelers, because between QB's Mark Malone and Bubby Brister, they didn't have much of a passing game, and their defense wasn't good enough to beat you by themselves. 

The main difference between the 1970s Steelers that won 4 Super Bowls in 6 years and the 1980s Steelers, that struggled just to have winning seasons and make the AFC Playoffs, is the QB position. When they lost Terry Bradshaw after the 1982 season, they never successfully replaced him and that showed up in a major way in 1986.

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