The similarities are there if you look hard enough, though the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't ones to dwell on the past.
Is this year's team like the one in 2005 that needed a strong finish just to make the post-season, then won three games on the road in the playoffs before capturing the franchise's fifth Super Bowl title?
Or maybe it's like the 2008 group that faced a ridiculously brutal schedule over the final weeks, survived and raised the Lombardi Trophy in triumph.
"You could probably draw comparisons to a lot of seasons," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.
Roethlisberger and his teammates, however, prefer to live in the now. And considering the nearly laughable run of bad luck the Steelers have endured over the last three months, they're not exactly complaining.
The defending AFC North champions are in the thick of the wild-card race at 6-4 and haven't given up hope of catching first-place Cincinnati despite a series of setbacks that left them wondering if there's a voodoo doll somewhere wearing a Steelers jersey and stuck full of pins.
Centre Maurkice Pouncey seems destined to miss the entire season after getting his ankle rolled on in the preseason. Left tackle Kelvin Beachum shredded his left knee against the Cardinals in October. Roethlisberger and running back Le'Veon Bell have played all of three quarters together. Bell missed the first two games while serving a suspension, then saw Roethlisberger leave in Week 3 against St. Louis with a sprained left knee. Roethlisberger returned in Week 8 against Cincinnati only to watch Bell's right knee twist awkwardly beneath him in the second quarter, Bell's 2015 ending right along with it.
"We've had injuries but never like this to your 'two best guys,' the left tackle and the centre," said offensive line coach Mike Munchak, who has been in the league since 1982. "They've meant so much to the football team, not just the offensive line."
Yet Pittsburgh has persevered, winning on the road in San Diego on a Monday night when head coach Mike Tomlin brazenly passed up a chip-shot field goal that would have sent the game to overtime in favour of a gutsy touchdown run by Bell as the clock hit zero. When whatever magic Michael Vick had left appeared to vanish — and a gimpy hamstring appeared — against Arizona, third-stringer Landry Jones came off the bench. He hardly looked like the player who had struggled for three training camps to make any significant inroads on the primary backup spot.
All Jones did was toss a pair of second-half touchdowns to lead a rally against one of the NFC's best teams. Roethlisberger returned the favour last weekend, gritting his teeth while playing through a badly sprained left foot to pass for 379 yards and three scores off the bench against the Browns after Jones left with busted ankle.
Considering the problems that have struck elsewhere when major contributors go down (see Cowboys, Dallas), Pittsburgh knows it's in pretty good shape. Yet all it has done is set the stage for a challenging finish that starts next weekend in Seattle.
The Steelers' final six games come against teams either leading their division (Indianapolis, Denver and Cincinnati), are visits to division rivals (Baltimore and Cleveland) or to the two-time defending NFC champion Seahawks.
"We have a really, really tough stretch," Roethlisberger said. "It's kind of the fourth quarter of the season. We're really going to have to put our heads down and go to work."
If Roethlisberger and his sore left foot can stay on the field instead of in the trainer's room, Pittsburgh understands it has a shot. The defence is giving up plenty of yards but not a ton of points, a trade-off new co-ordinator Keith Butler can live with. Sacks and turnovers are up and the Steelers have shown a return to physical play that was the franchise's hallmark during its last extended run as one of the AFC's elite from 2001-10.
"Intimidation I think is a byproduct of (our hitting) and it can help," defensive backs coach Carnell Lake said. "First things first is just to make sure we make a play, and they're doing that."
More will be required, however, if Pittsburgh wants to repeat its late-season run of last fall. The Steelers emerged from a funk to go unbeaten in December on their way to their seventh division title of the millennium.
The off-season addition of DeAngelo Williams, whose 32-year-old legs are showing plenty of life, has mitigated some of the expected dropoff following Bell's exit. Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant give Roethlisberger one of the best wide receiver combinations in the league. Defensive ends Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt are having breakout seasons at the front of a unit that is growing up quickly.
Sure it could be better, yet when Pittsburgh returns to work Monday it will be in the mix and — hopefully — that voodoo doll will be pin-free.
"The more (we) play, the better off we're going to be," Butler said. "If we can keep from getting injured, I think that's the key to the whole thing."
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