Mark Madden's Hot Take: Odds are stacked against undefeated Steelers season

Jake Scott passed away Thursday. Scott was an All-Pro safety for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in NFL history.

Scott was MVP in that season’s final game, Super Bowl VII. He had two interceptions.

Scott went to his grave not knowing if the current Steelers would finish undefeated. He didn’t get to swill champagne when the last unbeaten team lost. That’s a yearly, somewhat tacky tradition for the surviving members of the ’72 Dolphins.

But Scott’s Dolphins remained the NFL’s lone perfect team ever when he shuffled off this mortal coil.

Jake Scott, RIP.

At 9-0, do the Steelers think about going undefeated?

How can they not? At 9-0, you’re more than halfway to 16-0.

Then the playoffs start. That wasn’t a problem for the ’72 Dolphins, who went 17-0 including the postseason. It was a problem for the 2007 New England Patriots, who finished 18-1 after losing the Super Bowl. (The regular season was 14 games in 1972. It went to 16 games in 1978.)

The Steelers must be considering the notion of going undefeated. In baseball, any pitcher who retires the first 18 batters or so thinks about a perfect game.

About Yogi Berra jumping into Don Larsen’s arms, or perhaps a reference that isn’t so desperately dated.

The odds are still stacked against you, even more so with an undefeated season in football than a perfect game in baseball.

But it’s the highest bar. It’s not the goal, as Ben Roethlisberger pointed out. But accomplishments like that are what elite athletes dream of.

The undefeated hype hasn’t yet started. Perhaps that’s because the Steelers have the record of a juggernaut but not the look and feel.

Winning two more games should light the fuse: On Sunday at Jacksonville, as expected, and then Thanksgiving against Baltimore at Heinz Field.

Would that be a good thing? The Steelers might do well to lose before too much longer, thus eliminating unnecessary pressure.

But imagine the undefeated Steelers against one-loss Kansas City in the AFC championship game. The ballyhoo would be nuts. (Kansas City would be favored.)

I know who Jake Scott would root for.