Steelers Post Mortem

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Brandon Minich | Friday, November 10, 2006

OK, we can see the writing on the wall for these guys. They’ve been put into an oven for half a season, and are now DONE.

I can’t believe I’m saying this. Although I didn’t think the Steelers were the hands down favorite to win the next Super Bowl, I would have at least figured that they would be a playoff team that COULD make another good run.

So, now the question is “what the heck went wrong”? Also, “How on God’s green earth did the Steelers lose to OAKLAND?” has also been pondered. Here’s the main reason:

Turnovers.

Its as simple as that. The Steelers have turned the ball over at the worst times. On kick returns and in the red zone. They are either about to score, and cough up the ball, or they are about to get the ball back, and give it up, killing any possible offensive momentum.

The team is very productive on offense, but cannot score. We’ve out-gained many of the teams we have played. We also lost to them, because we give up great field position on turnovers. It is frustrating to see your team gained almost 500 yards in offense . . . and still lost.

Who is to blame? I have no idea, really. The whole team is dropping the balls. The defense is doing an OK job at stopping the other team, really. They could be better, but I really have no beef with them. The offense is playing horrible football. Big Ben is throwing way too many interceptions, and I wonder if that is because we are asking him to throw too much. Roethlisberger seems to do best when the running game is firing on all cylinders, which it is not. Which, of course, brings us to the run game. Willie Parker is doing OK, but he cannot grind out the yardage in the way Bettis could. We need someone who can grind out yardage, although I understand we are not going to get another Bettis – we need a back to fill that role, and the Steelers don’t seem to be doing a good job of getting running backs to try out for this position.

All in all, this is an extremely disappointing season. With the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7-4-1, I may just have to try to follow hockey for the first time in years. Also, a columnist pointed out that the Pittsburgh Pirates were no longer the worst team in Pittsburgh – they have a better winning percentage than the Steelers. Ouch.

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