Former San Diego Chargers coach Bobby Ross just turned 88 years old last month. He also just went through knee replacement surgery.
That didn’t stop him from sharing his memories of Jan. 15, 1995.
“So, how can I help you,” Ross said on the other end of the phone.
“What can you tell me about the 1994 AFC Championship game,” I replied.
That was my first question.
I asked my second question about 15 minutes later.
He has had nearly nine decades on this planet. Three of them have passed since that game. There may have been some lingering effects of a little anesthesia from earlier in the week. Yet, none of that dulled Ross’ memory of that afternoon at Three Rivers Stadium. He remembered just about every detail, every play and every momentum swing of his team’s stunning 17-13 upset of the Steelers and recited them in one flawless, uninterrupted monologue.
Conversely, some of the Steelers who played in that game would do just about anything to forget it.
“Why are you bringing up old (expletive), anyway,” Steelers linebacker Chad Brown shot back immediately upon answering the same opening question.
Fellow BlitzBurgh alum Levon Kirkland had a similar response.
“No. It doesn’t feel like 30 years ago. And, no, I’m still not over it,” Kirkland said.
I’d argue that just about any of the 61,545 Steelers fans in attendance that day at Three Rivers would agree.
If you followed Pittsburgh sports at all in the ’90s, you enjoyed ultimate highs. The Penguins won their first two Stanley Cups. The Pirates won three straight National League East Championships, and the Steelers went to the playoffs for five straight years, including one trip to the Super Bowl.
But you also endured agonizing heartbreak. In 1992, Pirates fans saw their run end when “Sid Slid.” In 1993, David Volek snapped the Penguins’ attempt at a three-peat. And in 1994-95, a Steelers team that was conjuring memories of the Steel Curtain got tripped up in the AFC title game by a Chargers squad that made two big plays.
And one big stop.
Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of that game and a central chapter of a story that would extend for the next decade.
The back story
The Steelers were nine-point favorites. They finished the regular season 12-4, champions of the AFC Central and with ownership of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
In his third year after taking over for four-time Super Bowl champion Chuck Noll, head coach Bill Cowher had already been to the playoffs in his first two seasons, losing his first game both times.
The week before the Chargers game, his team had just beaten Bill Belichick’s 11-5 Cleveland Browns (29-9) for a third time that year in the Divisional Round. In Pittsburgh, there was confidence that the Steelers would advance to Super Bowl XXIX, in part, because it was San Diego coming to town.
The Chargers were also 11-5 but had just pulled off a 22-21 comeback against the Miami Dolphins with former Pitt Panther Dan Marino at quarterback. Most in Western Pennsylvania preferred that result because they wanted no part of the Pittsburgh native (after passing on him in the draft 11 years earlier) coming back home to potentially derail the Steelers’ dreams of an AFC Championship for the first time since 1979-80.
“He was just killing us with the accuracy of his throws. There was none better than what that guy was,” Ross said. “But we said that we were going to come out in the second half, and we were going to run the ball (40 total attempts, 202 yards), and we ended up winning.”
The Chargers had actually beaten the Steelers in San Diego on Christmas Eve during the last game of the regular season. But the game didn’t mean anything for Pittsburgh. Some starters rested. The Chargers needed it to gain home-field advantage as the No. 2 seed. They won 37-34. But little was made of that.
The Steelers led the NFL in rushing (2,180 yards). They led the AFC in defense (270 yards allowed per game). They were second in the NFL in points against (14.6) and led the league with 55 sacks.
Many viewed the AFC Championship game as a walkover for the Steelers, who would then play the winner of whoever survived the third straight NFC Championship war between San Francisco (13-3) and Dallas (12-4).
After stumbling their way through much of the ’80s, the Steelers felt destined to finally return to their rightful spot on the podium on Super Sunday.
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Omens and karma
Ross remembers waking up a little groggy on gameday morning for the 12:30 p.m. start.
“There must have been five fires in Downtown Pittsburgh that night. Because all I heard was sirens. We thought they were trying to keep us up,” Ross laughed.
He also remembers the weather.
“We got there early,” Ross said. “We were going to go work out. And it was pouring down rain. It rained the whole way.”
In theory, the wet conditions should’ve helped the Steelers with their ground-oriented attack and hurt the Chargers, whose offense thrived when quarterback Stan Humphries took deep shots. When it came to yards per pass attempt that year, only Marino (7.2) and the Raiders’ Jeff Hostetler (7.3) had better numbers in the AFC than Humphries (7.1).
But another thing stuck out about the weather that day: It was 59 degrees at kickoff. So much for mid-January ice and cold on the freezing turf at old Three Rivers for the visiting team from out west.
“That was San Diego weather,” Hall of Fame Steelers center Dermontti Dawson said. “It must have been an omen.”
Not only that, after dispatching the hated Browns for a third time in a much-hyped showdown the previous week, stories of overconfidence from Pittsburgh reached the ears of Chargers’ All-Pro linebacker Junior Seau.
“He asked to speak to the team,” Ross said. “He said, ‘I just got wind that Pittsburgh has already reserved the banquet room for their celebration of victory. He said, ‘I want to talk to the team about it.’…. It raised the emotion level a little bit more.”
Then, of course, there was the infamous music video. In advance of the Chargers game, tight end Eric Green tried to organize the filming of a “Super Bowl Shuffle” style rap video, similar to the one the Chicago Bears had popularized a decade earlier.
“We get everybody in the team meeting room, and Eric says, ‘I want to do a Steelers Super Bowl shuffle video. I want you guys to meet my choreographer, and we’ve got somebody who is going to write lyrics,’” Brown recalled. “I am in the back of that meeting room going, ‘What are we doing? This is a terrible, terrible idea.’ You don’t plan your Super Bowl video before you win the Championship Game. … Were guys walking around practicing their dances rather than watching tape? No. We were a focused football team. But maybe the karma of it all, maybe the jinx of it all, played a role.”
When the game actually kicked off, it started well for the Steelers. The offense marched 70 yards over seven-and-a-half minutes. Seau was all over the field on defense for San Diego, but he also missed two tackles and was late getting into coverage on a play.
Steelers quarterback Neil O’Donnell eventually hit fullback John L. Williams out of the backfield, who beat linebacker Dennis Gibson for a touchdown to give the home team a 7-0 lead.
When the Chargers got their opening possession, Humphries fired three straight incompletions, including one high pass off the fingertips of Tony Martin.
However, Gibson, Seau, Humphries and Martin would all impact the result in substantial ways later in the game.
Opportunities lost
Even when the Chargers got going, momentum seemed to go back to the Steelers.
After a second-quarter punt, San Diego’s bowling ball running back Natrone Means barrelled his way for 17 yards, then followed with a 15-yard reception on back-to-back plays to start the drive. On the next snap, Humphries tried a home run shot to Shawn Jefferson (father of current Steeler Van Jefferson). Steelers corner Deon Figures interfered with Jefferson right before the goal line.
The officials placed the ball at the Steelers’ 2-yard-line. The Steelers’ defense, though, led by two overwhelming hits by Kirkland, stuffed Means and the Chargers on three straight plays. The goal-line stand had the stands electrified, and the Chargers settled for a field goal.
Unfortunately, the Steelers had fits and starts of their own. After turning back the Chargers, the Steelers motored down the field on offense. Ernie Mills had two catches worth 37 yards from O’Donnell on the ensuing drive. Andre Hastings had a 14-yard catch. Pittsburgh got down to the 12-yard line. A holding penalty against Leon Searcy pulled the offense back to the 22-yard line, and the Steelers had to settle for a field goal of their own.
An earlier Steelers drive also stalled at their own 45. Another at the Chargers’ 34. They resulted in punts. Barry Foster, who didn’t lose a fumble in 226 regular-season touches, lost one at midfield.
“The ‘just missed’ element. The little yards here and there. I think that came into play a lot,” Brown said. “Those small margins, it’s a game of inches. They start to add up over time.”
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By halftime, the Steelers were up 10-3, but there was an uneasy feeling in the building about why the gap wasn’t greater than that.
That tone continued in the third quarter when the Steelers broke down in the red zone again following a Woodson interception on San Diego’s opening series. Cowher settled for a 23-yard Gary Anderson field goal.
The Kaba
At the tailgates outside of the stadium that morning, I’m not sure a lot of Steelers fans were discussing the name Alfred Pupunu.
Thirty years later, plenty of Steelers fans still mutter it under their breath.
The infrequently used H-Back/tight end had 21 catches for 214 yards and two touchdowns — roughly the same numbers Darnell Washington put up this year.
On a first-and-10 after Anderson’s field goal, Humphries took a snap from the Pittsburgh 43.
“We got the defense completely fooled. It was a play action,” Ross said. “They saw three tight ends, and you don’t expect a lot in the way of the passing game.”
Humphries found Pupunu wide open, and he outran safety Darren Perry to the end zone.
instant classic pic.twitter.com/gqCDKfZ6n3
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) September 19, 2024
“It was a really good play call,” Kirkland recalled. “They normally line up almost in the club set, which is three tight ends. They normally run the ball on that set. So when they did the counter action, we kind of bit up and that tight end just went down the seam on us. There was nobody there. Nobody.”
Then Pupunu showed off what would become his trademark “Kaba drink” celebration as a hat tip to his friends back home in Tonga.
Alfred Pupunu...for drinking all the coconuts dry pic.twitter.com/UMrOsBsvSU
— Drew Jones (@SlyJones53) November 3, 2020
That made the score 13-10 Steelers with 23 minutes left. No one on Pittsburgh’s sideline was thinking about music videos anymore.
‘Get on my back’
From there, the game turned into an agonizing, tension-field, defensive slugfest. The teams swapped five consecutive punts.
Seau was racking up tackles like crazy in a performance Brown would label as “heroic.” The late Hall of Famer ended up with 16 of them on the day.
After a touchback from punter Mark Royals with just under 10 minutes left, San Diego began a drive from its own 20. Along the way, Humphries found Pupunu twice more for a combined 31 yards.
Then things started to quake for the Chargers. Kirkland dumped Means for a 4-yard loss. Tackle Harry Swayne picked up a 5-yard penalty. It was third-and-14 from, once again, at the 43-yard line.
The Steelers had acquired cornerback Tim McKyer before the ‘94 season. After being a part of two Super Bowl winners in San Francisco, he had bounced around from Miami to Atlanta to Detroit. He came to Pittsburgh to play in sub-packages behind the likes of Woodson, Carnell Lake, Perry and Figures.
“Tim was walking around the facility saying, ‘I’ve been there. I’ve been to the promised land. You guys get on my back. I’ll show you how to get there,’” Brown said. “I don’t think it was braggadocious, but more of, ‘We are on the cusp with something special. If we all do our job, we’ll have a chance to get to the Super Bowl.’”
That’s not how it worked out.
Humphries took the snap from under center and scampered back for a deep drop. He got drilled by Brown late as he delivered a perfect pass to Martin. After that drop early in the game, Martin raced by McKyer and caught the bomb of a throw for the go-ahead touchdown.
Tony Martin burns Tim McKyer to knock the Steelers out of a Super Bowl berth in '94. pic.twitter.com/QFHAZnShos
— SportsChasers (@FollowYourShots) July 26, 2019
“I thought (Humphries) threw the best long ball of anybody in the league. He could lay it out there, boy,” Ross said. “We used to finish every practice with a long bomb for our wide receivers. We’d finish every day that way. Lo and behold, it paid off for us.”
After the game, McKyer was inconsolable.
“I feel bad for the guy. He helped us that year. He was good on third down,” Kirkland said. “It was hard for Tim. It really was. No athlete wants to go out like that. That’s the way he went out (from Pittsburgh). That’s the last impression. Nothing like a first impression or a last impression.”
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For the Steelers, they weren’t ready to let that be their last impression of this game.
‘My team. My responsibility. My call’
Down 17-13 after Martin’s catch, the Steelers got the ball back with 5:13 left on the clock, starting at their own 17-yard line.
At times criticized for his inconsistencies that year, O’Donnell completed seven consecutive passes to open up the drive. Green had first down catches of 17 and 21 yards, plus a clutch conversion that picked up nine yards on a third-and-3.
At the two-minute warning, the Steelers had the ball first-and-goal at the San Diego 9. Foster lost a yard on a handoff. Gibson, who had been burned early in the game by Williams, broke up a pass intended for Green at the 2-yard line on second down.
On third down, Seau tackled Williams after he caught a pass over the middle of the field at the 3-yard line with 1:11 remaining to set up a game-deciding fourth down: a touchdown or nothing to decide who goes to the Super Bowl.
In his book “Heart and Steel,” Cowher describes why the Steelers ran the play they did coming out of a timeout. It was a play he called — not offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt.
“My team. My responsibility. My call,” Cowher insisted.
The play began with Williams going in motion to get Foster locked into a one-on-one with Gibson. Foster was a capable receiver but had just 20 catches for 124 yards in 11 regular season games.
“I didn’t like Foster versus Gibson. I loved it. More than I could express,” Cowher wrote. “I didn’t think the Chargers would have a good answer for what we had planned. The ball was snapped, and Barry beat Gibson to the inside. But O’Donnell’s pass was a split second too late, which allowed Gibson to get a hand on it and knock it down.”
Dennis Gibson defensive play in the end zone vs Steelers denying them game winner and send us to the superbowl in 94 season pic.twitter.com/FShuGsWObT
— RRelampago_FL ⚡️ (@RRelampagoo_FL) November 12, 2024
Game over. San Diego got the ball back and time expired.
Despite Cowher’s logic behind the call, some of his players still don’t understand it all these years later.
“I never remember us even trying to run that play where we hooked Barry up and tried to throw a laser beam in there,” Kirkland said. “We never really threw the ball to Barry in that situation. So it’s kind of puzzling, more than anything. Maybe we panicked a little bit. That was a surprise pass. It’s like, ‘Wow! We threw that?’”
For his part, Dawson wanted to keep the ball on the ground.
“I don’t know why we didn’t run the ball. As offensive linemen, that’s what we take pride in, trying to get yards running. I’m not really sure why they threw the ball,” Dawson said. “I had a clear view when the pass was thrown. I saw Barry put his hands up to catch it. Then I saw (Gibson’s) hands come and swipe it. Then I saw the ball hit the ground, and… devastated.”
The Steelers outgained San Diego, 415-226.
O’Donnell ended up 32 of 54 for 349 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and no sacks. Humphries was 11 of 22 for 165 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. But he was sacked just once, and 86 of those yards were on the two touchdown passes to Pupunu and Martin.
“The stadium was as silent as I’d ever heard it. The genuine shock was palpable. This was supposed to be our win and, perhaps, our year,” Cowher wrote.
Except it wasn’t.
“We were clearly the better team,” Brown said. “I know that that’s something that teams always say when they lose. ‘We were the better team.’ Fans, or the opposing team, could just point to the scoreboard and say, ‘Oh, well. No, you weren’t.’ So we weren’t on that day.”
Tumbleweeds
I watched that game with my father from just about the top row of Three Rivers Stadium. He had to go downtown for an early meeting the next morning.
“It was like a ghost town,” he told me. “Tumbleweeds in the streets. Anyone who was out was just walking with their head down.”
At that point, Pittsburgh was 15 years removed from the last Super Bowl win. This was a third straight good run that came up short in the playoffs to start Cowher’s tenure. Steelers fans were starting to wonder if that was going to be their best shot to get back to the big game.
The late Kevin Greene spoke about those teams with me during an interview after he was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Steelers Hall of Honor.
“We had a chance to achieve greatness, and we didn’t. We should have, so (we’ll) never let that go,” he said.
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For Dawson, he never gets to escape that game entirely. He’s lived in San Diego now and is reminded of it all the time by fans who recognize him.
Conversely, for Ross, he’s a living, breathing memory of that game for some of his friends who are Pittsburgh transplants in Virginia.
“I’ve got a couple of guys from Pittsburgh, Leo Wasielewski and Mike O’Toole; we go to church pretty regularly. And they both still don’t like me,” Ross chuckled.
Ross’ Chargers went on to play the 49ers two weeks later in Super Bowl XXIX. The Niners breezed 49-26 for the franchise’s fifth ring — the first organization to reach that accomplishment, breaking a tie with the Steelers.
That reality added to the fallout from the defeat two weeks earlier. The Steelers probably would’ve been underdogs in that game to San Francisco. Although it’s also safe to assume they would’ve put up a better fight.
“We really thought, if we got the Super Bowl, we were going to win,” Woodson told me last summer. “We really believed it in our hearts.”
The Steelers carried that belief into 1995-96. This time, they won a nailbiter at home in the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts. This time, they advanced to the Super Bowl.
As for that game … well, maybe we’ll save the 30th anniversary of Super Bowl XXX for next year.
That’s probably enough disappointment for one year.