The Steelers have leaned all season on their spectacular points-scoring trio of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell.
On Sunday, they rode their kicker to the Promised Land.
In a somewhat-ugly 18-16 divisional-round win over the Chiefs, Pittsburgh's Chris Boswell owned the scoreboard with six successful kicks off as many attempts.
As NFL Network's Mike Garafolo noted Sunday, the Steelersbecame just the sixth team in league history to win a playoff game without scoring a touchdown. The last occurrence came a decade ago when the 2006 Colts knocked off the Ravens 15-6 in a divisional-round "thriller" before eventually winning Super Bowl XLI.
One must dive far deeper into NFL lore for the other four examples:
» The 1990 Giants knocked off the San Francisco 49ers 15-13 in the NFC title game, one of the more fascinating playoff tilts in memory and a duel that set the table for New York backup passer Jeff Hostetler to knock off the Bills in Super Bowl XXV -- Scott Norwood's infamous "wide right" game.
» The 1979 Los Angeles Rams beat the Doug Williams-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 in the NFC title game before losing Super Bowl XIV to the Steelers.
» BARNBURNER ALERT: The 1970 Cowboys beat the Lions 5-0 in the divisional playoffs before ultimately losing Super Bowl V to the Baltimore Colts.
» Nearly 70 years ago, the 1950 Cleveland Browns bumped off the New York Football Giants 8-3 in the divisional playoffs before winning the NFL Championship 30-28 over the Rams.
This all bodes well for the Steelers, as every team winning a playoff game without scoring a touchdown went on to play in the Super Bowl or NFL Championship.
Your move, Pittsburgh.
