It was 1974, my second season with the Oakland Raiders, and the day before Ken Stabler had tossed a wobbly pass to Clarence Davis to beat the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Divisional Round. The play would be forever named “Sea of Hands,” and ended the Dolphins three year run as AFC Champions and their two year hold on the Super Bowl title.
I was working with other Oakland staff members to set up a press room at the Hyatt Hotel near our Oakport Street offices where the Pittsburgh Steelers would be arriving on Friday for our showdown with Terry Bradshaw and Company. Spirits were high in the Raiders camp. We had defeated the team everyone knew was our stiffest competition with the victory over Don Shula and his champion Dolphins.
Once the press room was set up, I took a break to look at a press release Tom Grimes had generated for the media. It included our season results and that of the Steelers game-by-game scores. As I sipped my coffee, I ran down the scores of each teams 1974 schedule and got a cold chill. My enthusiasm that we were just one game away from earning our second ever Super Bowl appearance turned to ice as I read the Steelers results.
It was the defensive side of the ball that got my attention. Pittsburgh had opened their playoffs the previous week by beating the Buffalo Bills while allowing 14 points. In the previous games they had allowed 3, 17, 10, 7, 16, 17, 0, 17, 16. While I wagered on no games during my years as an employee of the National Football League, I never turned off my handicapper eyes. I was still maintaining charts in my apartment on every NFL team and used my living room floor to lay out all 24 NFL pennants and walked up and down the floor display each night to see if that one should be moved ahead of that one as the display started with the Dolphins and ended with the Giants.
Our enthusiasm over beating the Dolphins was now running into a defense capable of shutting down anyone. I was suddenly struck out of confidence and put in a weird sensation that we were headed for trouble.
We were.
The Steelers defense dominated the action the next Sunday and John Madden and company went back to coach the Pro Bowl while Chuck Noll and his staff were on their way to win their first of four Super Bowls that decade. The Steelers defense was critical in beating us in the AFC Championship Game, 24-13, and beating the Minnesota Vikings two weeks later in Super Bowl IX, 16-6.
Last Monday night, the Houston Texans may have ended the career of Aaron Rodgers while suffocating his offensive efforts in a game with a final score not indicative of how close the game was. The Texans won, 30-6, but opened the fourth quarter only up by a point, 7-6, before a pair of defensive scores and one offensive touchdown ballooned the final score.
What was clear throughout the Texans win last Monday night is just how good their defense is. Their quarterback, third-year pro C.J. Stroud, had an off night. He turned the ball over three times to give the Steelers excellent scoring opportunities, and yet the defense held Rodgers and company to field goals or nothing. If Stroud had been up to his usual standards, the final score would have been even more lopsided and warranted.
In 1974, the Steelers were 5½ point road underdogs to the Raiders and won. In 2026, the Texans are 3 point road underdogs to the New England Patriots and will complete that sentence the same way the Steelers did 52 years ago.
Qoxhi Picks: Houston Texans (+3) over New England Patriots