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I am a life long Steeler fan that is frankly blown away by how this season as unfolded. It is just to weird to see this team perform like this. Yes, I know Steeler fans are spoiled by a team that has provided so much success and so seldomly comes up small like this.

Here is a team that is the defending Superbowl champion, who returned a team that lost pretty much no one and added a stud RB in Mendenhall (who wasn't a factor the year before due to injury), has a frachise QB, has weapons at receiver, and had arguably the #1 defense in the league. I know they lost some defensive players to injury, but who hasn't? Check how many Browns interior defensive linemen have gone down and yet the Steelers still could not run the ball.

They got off to a slow start losing a couple games in the last second and then seemed to right themselves running their record to 6-2. It boggles my mind how this team could lose to some of the worst teams in the NFL (Chiefs, Raiders, Browns) in games they really needed.

Anyone who is a Steeler fan and watches the games closely understands what I am talking about because we never see this team give up 3rd and long on the ground. We never see this team lose 4th quarter leads. We never see this team get beat by journeyman QB's.

This will be a great test to see what kind of coach Mike Tomlin is. I am very interested to see how he gets this team to finish the season.

On a side-note. When your offensive line can't pass block, it is 10 below zero out and you have 35 MPH winds that would make it tough to move the ball through the vertical pass game... doesn't it make sense to use the screen pass? Isn't that NFL football play calling 101 to keep a pass rush honest?

I saw zero screens last night to a RB that is known as a strong receiver. And yes, I know he dropped one ball that was thrown to him when he released from the backfield on a 3rd and long.

What a mess.

They suck.

Can my Phins borrow some of the Steelers talent - they don't seem to be using it and we've about used all of ours up.

Bob

Renman, you just described the Patriots season.

Join the club.

that's the beauty of the nfl. teams are good and bad in cycles... except for the Lions...

Are we perhaps seeing just how much the loss of Troy Polamalu effected them? He's their best defensive player and wreaks havoc when he's playing.

As a lifelong Browns fan though, I rather enjoyed Thurs. night's game.

I HAVE BEEN A STEELERS FAN FOR 26 YEARS. A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM IS ROETHLISBERGER IS LOOKING LIKE DREW BELDSOE.


HE IS HANGING ON THE BALL WAY TOO LONG. I KNOW THERE ARE COVERAGE SACKS SOMETIMES BUT I WISH HE WOULD THROW THE BALL AWAY SOMETIMES.

Originally posted by boutrous11:
that's the beauty of the nfl. teams are good and bad in cycles... except for the Lions... And the Colts.

Unless you're talking about much longer cycles.

Originally posted by Renman:
I am a life long Steeler fan that is frankly blown away by how this season as unfolded. It is just to weird to see this team perform like this. Yes, I know Steeler fans are spoiled by a team that has provided so much success and so seldomly comes up small like this.

Here is a team that is the defending Superbowl champion, who returned a team that lost pretty much no one and added a stud RB in Mendenhall (who wasn't a factor the year before due to injury), has a frachise QB, has weapons at receiver, and had arguably the #1 defense in the league. I know they lost some defensive players to injury, but who hasn't? Check how many Browns interior defensive linemen have gone down and yet the Steelers still could not run the ball.

They got off to a slow start losing a couple games in the last second and then seemed to right themselves running their record to 6-2. It boggles my mind how this team could lose to some of the worst teams in the NFL (Chiefs, Raiders, Browns) in games they really needed.

Anyone who is a Steeler fan and watches the games closely understands what I am talking about because we never see this team give up 3rd and long on the ground. We never see this team lose 4th quarter leads. We never see this team get beat by journeyman QB's.

This will be a great test to see what kind of coach Mike Tomlin is. I am very interested to see how he gets this team to finish the season.

On a side-note. When your offensive line can't pass block, it is 10 below zero out and you have 35 MPH winds that would make it tough to move the ball through the vertical pass game... doesn't it make sense to use the screen pass? Isn't that NFL football play calling 101 to keep a pass rush honest?

I saw zero screens last night to a RB that is known as a strong receiver. And yes, I know he dropped one ball that was thrown to him when he released from the backfield on a 3rd and long.

What a mess. I agree with you totally James. This is an amazing collapse for a defending Super Bowl champion team. Is Palamulo really that valuable to this team??

But the more amazing thing is the collapse on special teams. The Steelers have played badly during this five-game losing streak, but they could have won a few of those games if they had covered kickoffs and punts. It's amazing to see them give up one big return after another. And on Thursday night with the weather so bad, they should have never punted to Cribbs and allowed him to beat them. Just unreal.

There's been a lot of bad special teams coverage this year in the NFL. The Packers are horrendous too. I'm not sure why that is, but it's been noticeable this year.

Greg,

You are right about the special teams. And I don't think it (reason for this losing streak) is Polomanu (spell) or the loss of Aaron Smith (huge). Every NFL team has had injury or profound injury at this point of the season. It is part of the game (just like in fantasy). The loss of Troy P wasn't why the Steelers offense could not move the ball vs the Browns Thursday or the Raiders a few weeks ago (aside from the very end of the game).

I am not whining about this like some Yankee fan would when his team wins and wins often. I am aware that my team has provided me more fulfillment than most NFL teams have provided their fans. Aside from 6 Superbowl championships the Steelers are a class organization with great history and wonderful stability. The years the team doesn't ultimately win the big one they have generally been very competitive if not a regular playoff team. I have nothing to complain about.

I am just saying I have seen things this year that boggle my mind. This team doesn't lose leads. This team doesn't get pushed around. As crazy as it sounds the Steelers could be undefeated this year. Every loss has been a close game or one where they coughed up a lead.

Just bizarre to watch this season. Steeler fans will find out a ton about our couch now. Is he a special coach? Or did he just inherit a strong team with a QB who made some amazing plays in route to a superbowl title?

time will tell