He missed the playoffs 5 times in his last 9 years,with some good teams.Lost to the 3-13 browns in week two of 2000 which cost us a playoff berth,watch that game hes laughing on the sidelines.Lost twice to the 3-13 Bengals in 98 costing us a playoff berth.After winning the SB in 05,lost to the 2-14 Raiders,and went 8-8,with 7 win vs teams at.500 or under,going 1-7 vs teams above .500. Do you measure success in SB victorys????? if you answer no to this you should become a Bills Fan.Cowher is a Good coach!!!! I think most Steeler fans loved his tough guy image,as for being this Great Coach everyone is after,Not.
Again, I'll let Cowher's record speak for itself. No coach is perfect, and every team loses to teams they 'should' have beaten. The Bucs lost to the lowly Raiders this season to give a recent example and who can forget Dallas getting pasted by Philly?
You mention the 2000 loss to the Browns as the sole reason for missing the playoffs. Nevermind the the three games they lost in a row to start the season and then losing another three in a row later on. That year the Titans were 13-3 and the Ravens were 12-4. The Broncos were 11-5 and the Colts were 10-6. So yeah, if the steelers would have beaten the lowly Brownies - they would have gotten in as the 6th seed (based on a tie breaker over the Colts on the better conference record) that year. I am not sure if that would have mattered since they were 1-3 against TEN and Baltimore. That was the year the Ravens won the whole thing with arguably the greatest defense ever.
The '98 steelers were just plain bad, going 7-9 and losing 5 in a row to close out the season (you seem to think this was a 'good' team for some reason). Even if you give the steelers the two wins from the Bengals, I am not sure it would have mattered since they lost to NE that year and NE was the last playoff team in there at 9-7.
Regarding the post SB season - it is not uncommon to have bad years following the SB wins. Look at Bucs after their title (5-11), the 2002 Pats (missed playoffs but were 9-7) just to name a few.
Naturally there's an aura around Cowher, and it depends on what you mean by 'great' coach. As I said before, it remains to be seen if Cowher could go elsewhere and be successful. We've seen Parcells excel all over the place, and I think he's the exception and not the rule. George Siefert was extremely successful when he coached the 49ers but was less than stellar when he took over in Carolina. Still, compared to his contemporaries, Cowher's coaching record is quite favorable:
Shula (328-156-6; 0.678 winning %) - 2 SB titles
Parcells (183-138-1) - 2 SB Titles
Belichick (153-90-0) - 3 SB Titles
Shanahan (146-95-0) - 2 SB Titles
Bill Cowher (161-99-1 includes playoff games) - 1 SB Title; AFC Central Division Titles in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001. AFC North Titles in 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2008.
Again, Cowher was able to dominate a division that (in my opinion) has been sort of weak In recent years since the Browns and Bengals have been bad for what seems like the longest time, and as a result Pittsburgh essentially owned that division and made the playoffs 10 of his 15 years with the team. You alluded to the Browns and Bengals twice, and as we all know, Pittsburgh has utterly dominated those teams for nearly 2 decades. What more do you want?
Compared to other teams, the Steelers, under Cowher from 1992-2006 have a better regular season record (149-90-1) than the Cowboys (132-108), Patriots (136-104), and Colts (134-106). It wouldn't surprise me if Cowher boasted the best regular season record from 1992-2006.
Based on the above, in my opinion, yes - Cowher is indeed a Great Coach. While it would have been nice to play in the SB a few more times and maybe win another SB or two (Lord knows some of those AFC title games were just gut wrenching), I don't hold that against him. He was a terrific coach for 15 years in an era that shows virtually no allegiance to coaches and players alike.
