The Oilers Were Built to Beat the Steelers... They Never Did
Houston had Earl Campbell, Bum Phillips, Dan Pastorini, Luv Ya Blue, and a city that believed the Oilers were finally built to get through Pittsburgh. Then the Steelers turned January into a wall.
This is the rivalry Houston never got a clean ending to. Pittsburgh beat the Oilers in back-to-back AFC Championship Games, Mike Renfro’s disputed catch kept living in Houston memory, and the 1989 Wild Card gave Oilers fans another three-point playoff scar at home. Then the whole question got stranger after the Oilers left town. Do the Titans’ 2002 playoff win over Pittsburgh count as revenge? Does a Texans playoff win heal an Oilers wound? Or did the move make real closure impossible?
In this episode, we cover:
• How Houston first punched back before Pittsburgh became the Steelers of memory
• Why the Luv Ya Blue Oilers ran straight into the Steel Curtain years
• The 1978 AFC Championship blowout at Three Rivers
• The 1979 rematch and the Mike Renfro catch argument
• Houston’s 6-0 shutout win and why it still could not erase January
• The 1989 Wild Card loss that almost gave Houston its answer
• Why Titans revenge and Texans revenge are not the same thing
Players, coaches, and teams covered:
• Houston Oilers
• Pittsburgh Steelers
• Tennessee Titans
• Houston Texans
• Earl Campbell
• Bum Phillips
• Dan Pastorini
• Mike Renfro
• Elvin Bethea
• Joe Nedney
• Luv Ya Blue
• Three Rivers Stadium
• Astrodome
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