The AFC may have been dominated in recent years by high-powered passing offenses run by Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, but looking back on the history of the AFC Championship, two teams stand tall – the Raiders and the Steelers.
In the early years of the AFC, these two teams were utterly dominant. In the first 11 years of the Lamar Hunt Trophy, the Raiders or the Steelers featured in 10 of the Championship games, on three occasions 1975-1977 pitting their wits against each other.
Indeed, despite Oakland’s recent fall from grace, the Raiders or the Steelers have still appeared in six of the last 10 Championship games.
Overall, 22 of the 40 AFC Championship games have involved these two old-school rivals, with Pittsburgh leading the way 14 games to Oakland/LA’s 11.
To be into the second half of the season and see these two franchises once again on top of their divisions and challenging for AFC honors brings joy the heart of all those fans who like “real football”.
As has been the theme down through the years, these two will go after each other with aggressive, nasty defenses. They will try to pound the rock down the throat of their opponents and they will also look for the big play down field to speedy receivers.
Today it involves Jason Campbell to Louis Murphy and Ben Roethlisberger to Hines Ward, but it could so easily still be Stabler to Biletnikoff and Bradshaw to Swann.
Two organizations steeped in history and tradition, two teams that like to wear black at home, two similar philosophies on how to win a football game, two sets of partisan fans and the AFC title again on the agenda for both teams.
But on...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
