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What franchise has a bigger reputation than Pittsburgh for playing nasty smash-mouth defense?
For a while, Buffalo did.
As two members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009 can tell you, the Bills had Pittsburgh’s number in the 1990s.
Rod Woodson was a stellar cornerback for Pittsburgh teams that regularly contended for the postseason in the early 1990s. Bruce Smith was a defensive end for Buffalo’s budding powerhouse.
The game that announced the Bills, perhaps, was a 42-0 wipeout of the Browns on Nov. 4, 1990, at Cleveland. That postseason, the Bills reached the Super Bowl by evaporating the Raiders, 51-3.
At that point, Woodson had been in the league four years but hadn’t experienced a home playoff game. That changed in the 2002 postseason, when Smith was on a wild-card team, and the Steelers rolled in as the AFC Central Division champs.
Smith and Co. laid out the Steelers, 24-3, in a second-round playoff game at Three Rivers Stadium, with Smith taking down Neil O’Donnell for one of his 3 1/2 postseason sacks.
At that point, Woodson was 0-3 overall against Smith. Buffalo also beat Pittsburgh in the 2001 and ’02 regular seasons.
Finally, in 1993 regular season, Woodson got bragging rights with a 23-0 win over Smith and the Bills. It was one of Woodson’s best regular-season games, coming against a Bills team that averaged 21.9 points against everybody else. Smith’s team had the last laugh, though, winning a fourth straight AFC championship.
In an earlier round, Woodson and the Steelers fell to the Chiefs in overtime, 27-24.
“They turned it up a notch more than we did,” Woodson said. “It was fun to play against old-school, hard-nosed, blue-collar football teams, and Bruce’s teams were the best at it.”
Canton Repository
What franchise has a bigger reputation than Pittsburgh for playing nasty smash-mouth defense?
For a while, Buffalo did.
As two members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009 can tell you, the Bills had Pittsburgh’s number in the 1990s.
Rod Woodson was a stellar cornerback for Pittsburgh teams that regularly contended for the postseason in the early 1990s. Bruce Smith was a defensive end for Buffalo’s budding powerhouse.
The game that announced the Bills, perhaps, was a 42-0 wipeout of the Browns on Nov. 4, 1990, at Cleveland. That postseason, the Bills reached the Super Bowl by evaporating the Raiders, 51-3.
At that point, Woodson had been in the league four years but hadn’t experienced a home playoff game. That changed in the 2002 postseason, when Smith was on a wild-card team, and the Steelers rolled in as the AFC Central Division champs.
Smith and Co. laid out the Steelers, 24-3, in a second-round playoff game at Three Rivers Stadium, with Smith taking down Neil O’Donnell for one of his 3 1/2 postseason sacks.
At that point, Woodson was 0-3 overall against Smith. Buffalo also beat Pittsburgh in the 2001 and ’02 regular seasons.
Finally, in 1993 regular season, Woodson got bragging rights with a 23-0 win over Smith and the Bills. It was one of Woodson’s best regular-season games, coming against a Bills team that averaged 21.9 points against everybody else. Smith’s team had the last laugh, though, winning a fourth straight AFC championship.
In an earlier round, Woodson and the Steelers fell to the Chiefs in overtime, 27-24.
“They turned it up a notch more than we did,” Woodson said. “It was fun to play against old-school, hard-nosed, blue-collar football teams, and Bruce’s teams were the best at it.”
Canton Repository
