The easy answer is that they are very un-Steeler like.
Before last night’s game against the Browns, the Steelers (6-7) had not been down by more than 7 points at any point during any game this season. This is perhaps not unsurprising given how much of the Superbowl winning team from a year ago returned for 2009. The difference is that 12 months ago they were winning these close games. Dominant defence and steady offence led the way. Neither of which can be said about the 2009/10 vintage. They’ve lost late, they’ve lost after leading late, they’ve lost after trailing late. Now, they’ve lost trailing early.
As Mike Tomlin said Thursday night, “We’re finding new and different ways to not rise up at critical moments and we’re losing football games because of it.”
Even people with limited knowledge of the NFL know that the Pittsburgh Steelers play tough defence. However, teams have been moving the chains against them in clutch situations. Of the 244 points they have allowed this season, 109 have been in the 4th quarter. Losing Troy Polamalu was huge, and I don’t want to play that down, but there’s not much even he can do when opposition wide-receivers like Josh Cribbs are taking direct snaps and then proceeding to run over your defensive line for fun.
The 32nd ranked Browns defensive line was depleted by injuries yet still overpowered the Steelers offensive unit, sacking Ben Roethlisberger eight times. Not that Big Ben needs any invitation to be sacked. He may be the darling of colour analysts everywhere because “he holds on to the ball too long but he makes plays”, but what is going unnoticed is that Ben isn’t actually making plays..he’s just holding on to the ball too long. He gets passes for not lighting up the stat sheets because he “he just finds a way to win.” Well the Steelers couldn’t win a raffle at this point and Roethlisberger couldn’t put his team even within field goal range in the 4th against the worst defence in the league when it mattered the most.
Pittsburgh apologists will tell you that the team were up and down last season before getting hot when it mattered. My response to that would be that last season’s Steelers had one of the toughest schedules in history, and still didn’t drop back-to-back games all season. The 4 losses they did suffer came at Philadelphia, against Payton Manning’s Colts, Superbowl champion Giants and the 14-2 Tennessee Titans.
Compare that to this season where they’ve lost 7 already to teams with nowhere near the calibre of the previous group. This current streak has seen them fall to the likes of Kansas City (2-7 at the time), Baltimore (5-5 at the time), Oakland (3-8 at the time) and Cleveland (1-11 at the time). If you had to win 1 home game and 1 away game to save your NFL life, wouldn’t you handpick a home game against Oakland (1-4 on the road) and a road game at Cleveland (0-5 at home)? Lost both.
So what’s going on? A lot of their un-Steeler type behaviour can be put down to un-Steeler type personnel issues. When you think of the Steelers you think of one military style unit. This season it’s been more like “an army of one”. Hines Ward is becoming more of a poison than the cure, scoring more controversial headlines than touchdowns. “Fast Willie” Parker is now just “Willie” Parker. They had to rather embarrassingly bench their other running back Rashard Mendenhall for a game for not bothering to learn the plays. The offence has been so bad that reports have surfaced that the search for a new Offensive Coordinator, Offensive line coach and Special Teams coach is already underway.
Pittsburgh simply must go 3-0 in their remaining games and hope other results go their way. Their opponents however (v Green Bay, v Baltimore, @ Miami) are in the same boat as the Steelers, needing to run the table to even be considered for the Wildcard.
Realistically, they know they are done. Superbowl MVP Santonio Holmes admitted as much after the Browns loss, stating “Hopefully, we can get back to the lab this summer, regroup and start all over”.
A remarkable comedown from a team that, it was thought, had no rival for the Division. The Cincinnati Bengals resurgence has been nothing short of mesmerising, but that’s still only 2 losses on the Steelers resume. They had a powder puff schedule yet lost all the games they were supposed to win. As far as Superbowl defences go, it’s been embarrassing.
Ben Roethlisberger must be on the list of dumbest guys in the National football league. In the event he’s possibly not guilty of sexual assault, how do you let yourself to get in such a situation two times inside the span of less than a 12 months. The Steelers need to make a serious judgement about whether or not they want him to remain the face of the team. It is a enormous issue for one of the class administrations inside the NFL.