The Las Vegas Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers dominated the NFL in the ’70s and ’80s. Which franchise built the greater dynasty? We break down the debate.
The numbers back up part of the argument if you’re viewing this from Raider Nation’s perspective. Still, it’s not as cut and dry.
Pittsburgh and Oakland split their six postseason meetings from 1972 to 1983, three wins apiece. But margin tells a story symmetry doesn’t: the Steelers’ three wins came by 6, 11 and 6 points, in the Immaculate Reception game (13-7), the 1974 AFC title game (24-13) and the 1975 AFC title game (16-10). The Raiders’ three wins came by 19, 17 and 28 points: a 33-14 divisional-round rout in 1973, a 24-7 AFC title beatdown in 1976, and a 38-10 divisional-round blowout to open the 1983 playoffs.
By that measure above, you can’t argue with a hard truth if you’re a Steelers fan. When Oakland won, it dominated. When Pittsburgh won, it survived.
The regular season tells a similar tale…
Oakland took the decade series 5-3 through 1979, including a 17-0 shutout in Pittsburgh in 1974. The teams’ first-ever meeting, in 1970, went to the Raiders as well, with the final score of 34-17.
What about when the stakes were at their highest?
Pittsburgh’s three playoff victories weren’t just closer; they were the ones that mattered most. Both AFC Championship Game wins, in 1974 and 1975, sent the Steelers to Super Bowls IX and X, which they won. Oakland’s blowouts, impressive as they were, came in earlier playoff rounds; the Raiders’ own AFC title breakthrough didn’t arrive until 1976, and by then Pittsburgh already had two rings from beating them to get there.
A team can lose the margin battle and still bank the Lombardi Trophy, and that is precisely what Pittsburgh did, four times in six years, three of them not involving Oakland at all. “Better” and “won more” aren’t identical claims, but a four-Super-Bowl decade is a difficult result to argue around.
Related: The rumors involving Maxx Crosby and the 49ers don’t quit
3-3 in the playoffs, with blowouts distributed 3-0 in Oakland’s favor, is accurate and worth taking seriously as a measure of week-to-week superiority. It’s also incomplete without acknowledging that Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense, built around Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham, was constructed to win low-scoring, tight games in exactly the moments that decided championships. That’s not a lack of quality; it’s a different kind of quality, one suited to January weather and low-margin football.
The Raiders win this debate, right?
Oakland’s vertical passing game under Ken Stabler and Cliff Branch produced blowouts against a team not built to trade big plays but hadn’t yet solved Pittsburgh in the games with a Super Bowl berth attached until 1976.
The fair conclusion: Oakland has a legitimate, evidence-backed case that it was the more dominant team on the field across this rivalry’s most significant games, measured by scoring margin. Pittsburgh has an equally legitimate, evidence-backed case that it was the better team, full stop, measured by the only scoreboard that determines eras: championships won. Both can be true at once. The disagreement isn’t really about the record. It’s about which measurement counts.
*Top Photo: Associated Press