Week 9: Phish remain undefeated after beating Pit 20-6

The vaunted Steel Curtain defense headed to South Florida to see just how they stacked up against the No-Names. Both defenses performed well. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh their offense is offensive. Terry Bradshaw, who gets booed at home, got laughed out of the building. He had 3 turnovers and only threw for a net of 26 yards. Heck he had more yardage on the ground when he was scrambling or calling a QB draw.

Miami turned it over first at midfield as slasher Mercury Morris put the ball on the carpet. Three plays later Bradshaw miscued with an errant lateral that was headed in Franco Harris' general vacinity only to be scooped up by Vern Den Herder of the Dolphins. Neither offense could capitalize on the good fortune presented to them by their respected defenses. On the Steelers next posssesion Bradshaw called a play action only to get dumped by Bill Stanfill, who stripped the ball, which wound up underneath Doug Swift. Deep in Pittsburg territory Bob Griese called a play action of his own, but completed to halfback Jim Kiick to break the deadlock.

Since it's the holiday season the Steelers were in a giving mood. On their next possesion they gave the ball away again as safety Dick Anderson came in on a blitz and forced Bradshaw to again fumble. Luckilly for the Yellow and Black their defense is not that generous and all they yielded was a Garo Yepremian field goal to make it 10-0 Miami.

The Dolphins would score again when Griese hit Mandich for 8 yards to move the score to 17-0.

The second half would be a battle of field position and miscues. The Steelers got some key runs by Franco Harris, who was without running mate Rocky Bleier. Harris even caught a screen pass and ran for over 50 yards only to see the play called back for holding. Steeler Coach Geller compared watching his offense implode to Chinese Water Torture. On a positive note the Steel Curtain D held star RB's Csonka and Morris under 100 yards each, something most teams have not been able to do this season.