Another series to wrap up a quiet Pittsburgh Steelers offseason. Today we look back at the best individual playoff performances in the team’s postseason history, with a closer look at the forgotten and overlooked performances. Maybe it wasn’t a star player, or maybe it wasn’t a playoff that ended in a Super Bowl that would be the subject of much praise. Whatever the reason, these are the players and performances that were left on the cutting room floor, but are worth remembering.
Let’s start with Cedric Wilson’s 2005 playoff performance, when the Steelers became the first sixth-seeded team to win the Super Bowl.
Cedrick Wilson 2005 Playoff Stats: 9 receptions, 216 yards, 2 TDs
The Steelers’ 2005 Super Bowl victory was defined by many names: young Ben Roethlisberger, old Jerome Bettis, and virtually the entire defense. But Wilson, hot and cold in the playoffs, made key catches in two of Pittsburgh’s four wins.
It was Wilson who led the team against the Cincinnati Bengals in the wild-card round. He rushed for 104 yards on three receptions, leading all receivers, whether Steelers or Bengals. Two of his catches were over 40 yards, the first coming late in the second quarter. Carson Palmer’s ACL tear was the headline of the game, but it’s easy to forget that Pittsburgh was behind for a long time after Kimo von Olhofen got hit in the knee.
Backup QB John Kitna helped the Bengals lead 17-7 late in the first half. Cincinnati, which received the ball to start the third quarter, simply needed to stop it, and they were in control the rest of the game.
Facing 2nd and 9, QB Ben Roethlisberger took a seven-step drop under center. With his patented pump fake, he fired downfield to an open Wilson, beating Kevin Kaesbeek for a 54-yard gain.
It was a momentum-changing play that the Steelers desperately needed. It put them at the Bengals’ 21-yard line, and four plays later, Roethlisberger found WR Hines Ward for a 5-yard score to start the game.
Moving on to the second half of the third quarter, Pittsburgh had taken the lead again early in the first quarter and was trying to close the gap on the Bengals. That’s when the offense resorted to cheating, as a counted-out No. 6 seed might do when playing house money.
Wide receiver and college quarterback Antwaan Randle El took the snap and rolled to the right. The defense flowed with him as he threw it back across the field to Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger, who tucked it over a running defender, took it, hit it once, and fired down the field to a wide-open Wilson.
Touchdown. 43 yards. Game over.
After going catchless in the divisional series against the Indianapolis Colts, Cedric Wilson was back in the championship game against the Denver Broncos, this time with more volume, finishing with five catches, 92 yards, and a score.
His touchdown came at the start of the second quarter. On third-and-9, Roethlisberger pump-faked. It was a real weapon. And he found Wilson along the right-back pylon. The catch was mostly unguarded, but Wilson still managed to tap both toes into the boundary for a 12-yard score. Pittsburgh went ahead 10-0.
Denver responded with a field goal. That’s when Wilson got back to work. On the ensuing drive, he caught receptions of 17 and 18 yards on Roethlisberger’s back-to-back attempts. On the first off-play action, Wilson was found on an out route to the sideline. The second was a John Lynch blitz, and he made a nice adjustment to the Bang 8 to secure it.
Jerome Bettis finished the drive with a 3-yard run. An Ike Taylor interception led to another Steelers touchdown, and the rout began with a 24-3 lead at halftime. The Super Bowl was upon us.
Cedric Wilson struck again late in the third quarter, when Rothlisberger picked up the ball 30 yards down the left sideline and handed it to him. Three plays later, Wilson made a sliding catch on 2nd-and-17. The sticks didn’t move, but the team got into a very manageable situation and converted on 3rd-and-2. Jeff Reed added three more to ease any concerns about a comeback, making it a 3-point game again.
In Super Bowl XL, Cedric Wilson had just one catch. It was hard to put up big numbers on a day when QB Ben Roethlisberger completed just nine. But his reception went 20 yards on the scoring drive, and another bang-eight was the same thin post Michael Irvin ran for a first down in Dallas.
Penalties and sacks helped the team, and it took an incredible 3rd-and-28 conversion to get Pittsburgh back into scoring range. Still, Wilson’s reception came on another scoring drive that has been the theme of his postseason performance. There weren’t many empty receptions. Almost all of them contributed to putting points on the board.
He was a free agent this year and only had a supporting role in the regular season. In those four playoff games, and three games, including the one against the Colts where he didn’t catch a pass, he had almost half the yards he had in the regular season. And he didn’t catch a touchdown until the postseason, where he scored twice. That’s a really big number.
In the Steelers’ single-postseason record, Wilson’s stats (nine receptions, 216 yards, 24.7 yards per catch, two touchdowns) rank as follows:
reception: Tie-31st
Receiving yards: ninth
Yards per catch: 2nd place (minimum 5 receptions)
Touchdown: Tie-6th place
He was top 10 in every category except receptions. You wouldn’t have guessed that. I wouldn’t have guessed that until I looked it up. There may have been a bigger reason why the Steelers won one game with the thumb, but every time Cedric Wilson got the ball, he brought the team a little closer to a fifth Lombardi.
