In 2001, after finishing the previous three seasons a combined 22-26, the Steelers returned to the top seed in the AFC, rolling to a 13-3 record in their first season playing at Heinz Field. The Steelers went 7-1 in their new home stadium, with the only loss coming to the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens (a loss the Steelers avenged in the divisional playoffs).
However, for the third time in Bill Cowher's coaching tenure, the Steelers fell in the AFC Championship Game at home. This time, the eventual champion New England Patriots defeated the top-seeded Steelers.
Famous quotes containing the words pittsburgh and/or season:
“The largest business in American handled by a woman is the Money Order Department of the Pittsburgh Post-office; Mary Steel has it in charge.”
—Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)
“The theater is a baffling business, and a shockingly wasteful one when you consider that people who have proven their worth, who have appeared in or been responsible for successful plays, who have given outstanding performances, can still, in the full tide of their energy, be forced, through lack of opportunity, to sit idle season after season, their enthusiasm, their morale, their very talent dwindling to slow gray death. Of finances we will not even speak; it is too sad a tale.”
—Ilka Chase (1905–1978)