However, the team got off to a slow start, starting the 1995 season at 3–4 before ripping through the NFL on an eight-game winning streak. See also: 1995 NFL season and 1995–96 NFL playoffsĮntering the 1995 NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers were expected to compete for the AFC Central title and a trip to the Super Bowl following a 12–4 regular season the year before behind its "Blitzburgh" defense that saw the team upset by the San Diego Chargers 17–13 in the 1994 AFC Championship Game. NFL Films would go on to feature the game in both its ongoing NFL Films Game of the Week and NFL's Greatest Games series. The game has been ranked among the best Conference Championship games in the history of the National Football League by several publications, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN, AOL, and several local publications throughout the United States. For the Colts, it marked an unexpected period of success in the mid-1990s for a franchise that otherwise struggled between its 1984 move to Indianapolis (as well as the team's last few years in Baltimore before that) and the team drafting Peyton Manning with the number one overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. For Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, it would be the first of only two times the Steelers would advance to the Super Bowl during his 15-year tenure at home, as the team would host the AFC Championship Game five times between 19 but would lose all but one of them, this game being the one exception. The game would mark a turning point for both franchises. The dropped pass gave the Steelers a 20–16 victory and sent them to Super Bowl XXX, the team's first Super Bowl appearance since Super Bowl XIV sixteen years earlier. While it was considered a mismatch between an expected Super Bowl contender (Pittsburgh) and a Cinderella team (Indianapolis) in the week leading up to the game, it turned out to be very competitive, going down to the last play of the game when Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh threw a Hail Mary pass that was ruled a dropped pass by officials in the end zone by the intended receiver, Aaron Bailey. The game was played on January 14, 1996, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who hosted the Indianapolis Colts for the chance to play the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) in Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Arizona. The 1995 AFC Championship Game was the championship game for the American Football Conference (AFC) for the 1995 season. Steelers: Bill Cowher, Dermontti Dawson, Kevin Greene, Dan Rooney, Rod Woodson (injured)ĭick Enberg, Phil Simms, and Paul Maguire Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Three Rivers Stadium, the site of the game
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