Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs???  The Steelers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.  The Steelers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs!!!!

That was basically my emotional progression following Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Chiefs.  Initially I was confused.  Then came acceptance.  Then came anger.

How can the defending Super Bowl champs lose to a 2-7 team?  How can the Steelers generate over 500 yards of offense and lose?  How can the Steelers have almost twice the time of possession (44:07 vs. 22:25) and lose?  How can the Steelers sack the opposing quarterback 5 times and lose.

The only thing that calmed me down and brought my blood back down below the boiling point was the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the lowly Oakland Raiders.  In fact, every team in the AFC North lost, so nobody gained or lost any ground.

Had the Steelers won, they would now be tied with the Bengals for 1st place in the AFC North.  But the Steelers did not win. 

Frankly, I can handle losses.  Every team loses sometimes.  So the loss wasn’t what bothered me.  What bothered me was the way they loss.  The team allowed mental errors and poor execution to cost them a very winnable game.

The opening kickoff was a precursor of things to come.  The Chiefs’ Jamaal Charles returned the kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown.  So with only 16 seconds elapsed in the game, the Steelers found themselves down 7-0.

Jamaal Charles' 97 yard TD

In the 3rd quarter, the Steelers were leading 17-7 when Ben Roethlisberger threw an untimely interception.  The Chiefs marched down the field and scored a touchdown.  Another costly mistake by the Steelers.

Later in the 3rd quarter the Steelers were driving and were in the Chiefs’ red zone when Roethlisberger threw another interception.  The Chiefs returned the interception 94 yards and would have scored had it not been for great hustle by Rashard Mendenhall.  Mendenhall ran down the field and made a tackle that prevented a touchdown.  The Steelers’ defense held firm, and the Chiefs had to settle for a field goal.  Nevertheless, that was another 3 points that the Chiefs shouldn’t have had.

In the 4th quarter, the Steelers’ pass defense suffered two consecutive breakdowns.  First Matt Cassel beat Ryan Clark for a 30 yard completion.  He must have seen something in Clark’s coverage that he thought he could exploit, because on the very next play he went right back at him and completed a 47 yard pass.  That’s 77 yards in two plays.  Three plays later, the Chiefs were in the endzone again. 

At the end of regulation, the Steelers found themselves in a 24-24 tie, despite leading in almost every statistical category. 

But as fate would have it, the Steelers won the coin toss, and chose to receive the kickoff.  Like everyone else in Steeler Nation, I assumed that the team would march down the field and win the game in overtime.  But to my surprise, the Chiefs defense stood firm and forced the Steelers to punt.

The Chiefs got the ball and pretty soon the Steelers suffered yet another defensive breakdown.  Matt Cassel threw a short pass to Chris Chambers, and Chambers managed to elude several Steelers tacklers on his way to a 61 yard gain.  So with a 1st and goal at the Steelers 4 yard line, the Chiefs elected to kick a field goal rather than try to get the ball in the endzone.  Ryan Succup’s kick split the uprights, and the Chiefs were celebrating while the Steelers stood in stunned disbelief.

Chris Chambers' 61 yard run

The Steelers have been an enigma all season.  They’ve lost games that they should have won, and they’ve won games that they should have lost.  Frankly, the Steelers could very easily be 10-0 at this point.  But they could also be 2-8.  I’m never quite sure which Steelers team I’m going to see from week to week.

Is the defense one of the best in the NFL, or are they the unit that has often been prone to 4th quarter meltdowns?  Is Big Ben a premiere quarterback, or is he a player who throws silly, unforced interceptions?  Are they a team that can win with a “smash mouth” running game, or are they a finesse team that prefers to pass in obvious running situations?

With 6 games remaining, the Steelers are going to have to figure out which team they are.  They face the Baltimore Ravens next week, and each loss makes it more difficult to make the playoffs.  Steeler Nation is waiting to see who this team really is.  Will the real Pittsburgh Steelers please stand up?

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Pop quiz:  Name 5 players on the Kansas City Chiefs.  Hint – Larry Johnson no longer plays for them.

If you struggled to name 5 players on this team, welcome to the club.  So did I.  It took me a moment to remember that the Chief were the team that ended up signing Matt Cassell to play quarterback.  I had also forgotten that they drafted Tyson Jackson, a player that I hoped the Steelers might get during the draft.

The Steelers will travel to Arrowhead Stadium to face this hard-to-name bunch on Sunday.

The Chiefs are ranked 30th in the NFL on offense, and 27th on defense.  So it is safe to say that they are not a very good team.

Coming off the loss to the Bengals, and with a game against the Baltimore Ravens coming up next week, this may be just what the doctor ordered for the Steelers.  The Chiefs should provide a nice tune-up game with little chance of a loss.  This will give the Steelers an opportunity to give Troy Polamalu additional rest for his knee.  It will also give them more time to rest Travis Kirschke, who practiced on Wednesday, but then had  a setback on Thursday.

I expect to see the Steelers utilize Rashard Mendenhall early and often in this game.  Not just because they want to make it up to him for completely forgetting about him in last week’s loss to the Bengals, but also because the Chiefs are terrible against the run.  The Chiefs’ defense gives up 141.3 yards per game on the ground.  Do you think that Rashard looks forward to running against them?  Yeah me too.

Rashard Mendenhall

The only problem is that the Chiefs defense is also terrible against the pass.  They’ve given up more pass plays that went for 40 yards or more than any other team in the NFL.  I’ll bet Santonio Holmes and Mike Wallace can’t wait to face these defensive backs.

The Steelers defense is probably equally excited.  The Chiefs’ offense averages 166.6 passing yards per game.  No you didn’t read that wrong.   Didn’t Larry Johnson used to run for  more yards per game than that in his prime?  How can a team average so few yards in the air?  Perhaps they are formidible on the ground.  Nope, they only average 100 rushing yards per game.  See why James Harrison is probably excited?  He probably envisions having 5 or 6 sacks this game.

But of course, we don’t want the team to get overconfident.  After all, we don’t want this to become a trap game.  But it is pretty difficult to imagine the Steelers losing this one.

I’m going to predict a Steelers victory by a score of 35-10.

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After failing to make a critical tackle on Cincinnati return man Bernard Scott’s 96-yard touchdown run, Jeff Reed took a lot of criticism from Steelers fans.  Reed apparently disagrees with the criticism, and had this to say in his own defense.

“I just look at those people like they don’t know what they’re talking about.  I’m coached to do certain things, and the No. 1 reason I’m here is to kick kickoffs the best I can and make field goals. When it comes to making a tackle, people like [punter] Dan [Sepulveda] kind of ruin it for me because he’s so athletic.”

Ummm, is it just me, or does that statement sound completely ludicrous.  Yes Jeff, you are here to kick field goals, but you also have to make a potential game-winning tackle when the opportunity presents itself.

Do you remember that play a few years ago when Jerome Bettis fumbled the ball near the goal line and the opposing player was sprinting for a potential touchdown that would have ended the Steelers’ season?  Ben Roethlisberger was the last line of defense.  So guess what he did?  He made the tackle.  It was an ugly tackle for sure, but he made the tackle.  He didn’t say, “I’m paid to pass the ball, not tackle people”.  He didn’t make excuses about how James Farrior and Troy Polamalu are better at tackling than he is.  Nope, he just made the play that needed to be made.

You, on the other hand, were within a few feet of the kick returner on kicks that were returned for touchdowns by the Minnesota Vikings and the Cincinnati Bengals.  In the Vikings game, you did tap the runner with your hand, but against the Bengals, you just looked at Bernard Scott as he came so close that you could probably smell his breath.  You didn’t reach out your hand towards him.  You didn’t dive at his legs.  You didn’t do anything except watch him run for a touchdown.

Excuse me for disagreeing with you, but I think you could have done just a bit more.  Moreover, I think most of Steeler Nation agrees with me.

But apparently Reed feels that he did exactly what he was coached to do.  He went on to express further disagreement with the fans’ perception.

“That was about a 50-yard sprint for me, and my job is to make him cut back inside and he went inside of me.  Looking back at the play, if I’d have slowed down a little bit I maybe could have dove in his path a little better. For me, that was fast, and I was cutting him off.  I thought we had a chance to get him, and we didn’t get him down.”

It’s great to know that you have a specific assignment on that play, Jeff.  But there are times when you just have to do a little bit more than your assignment.

When Big Ben made that tackle, he was doing just a little more than was expected.  When Hines Ward continues to block until the whistle blows, he is doing just a little more than is expected.  When 6 Steelers escorted James Harrison into the endzone during Super Bowl XLIII and made sure that no Cardinals players touched him, they were doing just a little more than is expected.

You see, that’s the point that you’re missing.  We EXPECT you to do more than is expected.  Pittsburgh is a tough town, and Steeler Nation is a tough audience.  We expect excellence from you, even when it’s not your job.  Do it anyway.

We expect Steelers players to be tough.  That’s why we don’t like it when Steelers running backs make half-hearted attempts to block pass rushers.  You’re all football players.  More importantly, you’re Pittsburgh Steelers football players.  We expect you to be tough.  Every one of you.  Even the kicker.

But of course you disagree with all of this.  Your toughness only comes out when you are in a drunken stupor.  And it is reserved for towel dispensers, and police officers.

Jeff Reed

According to you, we fans “don’t know what we’re talking about”.  Okay, maybe we don’t.  But next time make the #$^%&  tackle, even if it’s not your assignment.

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Editor’s Note:  Below is a story that was submitted by Beth Apone Salamon.  It is a tribute to her father, Carl Apone.  The piece first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and Beth asked if I would share it with my readers.  Once I read it, I immediately knew that any Steelers fan would appreciate this sad but touching story.

Her dad, Carl Apone, truly personifies “the heart of a Steelers fan”.  Enjoy!

From September through January, for three hours most Sundays and on the occasional Monday night, my father is alert, awake and engaged in a Steelers game. While this may seem like a small feat for a Pittsburgher, consider that this is the only extended period of time that he is alert, awake and engaged in anything.

Somewhere, deep down inside, is a Steelers fan who won’t let illness and exhaustion rob him of the chance to yell, “Atta boy, Polamalu!” at the television screen. He is hard-core.

My mother explained to my father’s cardiologist, a dour man who barely speaks, that congestive heart failure causes my father to sleep the entire day and night, waking only to eat. The one exception is when the Steelers play. Whether it is a day game or a night game, he is somehow able to remain awake to cheer for the entire three-hour event.

The cardiologist smiled, exercising facial muscles he rarely employs, and suggested that my mother put Steelers games on a recorded loop and play it all day so her husband could stay awake. Mother was not amused.

Three years ago, after the congestive heart failure began, my father became an old person. Before that he was an old person who never acted old. Hailing from a long line of small Italians who drink wine and live forever, he never seemed to age, even into his 80s. Most nights you could find him laughing with his almost 90-year-old sister, Mimi.

Then, a few weeks after his granddaughter’s first communion, Dad’s condition deteriorated rapidly. He now sleeps between 18 and 20 hours a day. At Thanksgiving last year I cleared the table and when I returned he was sound asleep in the chair.

There are moments of grace, when we see glimpses of the old fighting spirit. He still answers all of my mother’s spelling questions. If I ask him to remember something, he usually does, much like in my college days when he would call repeatedly to remind me of a test.

On a rare recent phone call he was delighted to learn that his granddaughter is taking up the violin and plans to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” for him. As the former music critic for The Pittsburgh Press, a violinist and a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish band, my dad, Carl Apone, has had a lifelong passion for music.

He still receives communion every Sunday at his home. This is poignant, as he was a eucharistic minister to the sick for years. I remember that once the eucharist was in the car that he was driving to the hospital or someone’s home, he would not speak. It was a time for reverence.

But by far, the moments when he is most alive, most himself, are Steelers Sundays. My mother positions him in his comfortable chair and tries not to walk in front of the screen during key plays, a habit that has merited much arm waving over the years.

There is something beautiful about the way Pittsburgh embraces Steelers Nation. It is a love affair I’ve witnessed since childhood when the “Pittsburgh Polka” played and the priests at Our Lady of Grace Church wore Steelers stoles. It is personal to us, not just a sporting event where football players with fat salaries knock each other silly.

The players are part of our Pittsburgh family. We follow the legacy of the Rooney family, owners who know each player by name and show up every day to check not on the profitability of the franchise, but rather on the well-being of the players.

Steelers fans find each other, even in other cities. My parents once spent three weeks in Hilton Head during the winter. They met Steelers fans on the beach within 24 hours. By the next day they were invited to a Super Bowl party with a promise that Impy, the French bull dog, might wear his Steelers sweater.

Steelers fans are happy to stand in the cold and decorate the Terrible Tree on game days, because the Steelers’ success is our success. I went to the airport during some recent playoffs and every steward or stewardess at the check-in gate was wearing Steelers garb, as well as most of those boarding. It was a mighty sea of black and gold.

Sure, we complain now and then. Why does Ben have to put us through such agony only to pull off an 11th-hour win? Some of us are old and our hearts can’t take it. And why does the new stadium have that open side so we freeze our rumps? Some of us are old and we don’t make our own heat anymore.

But when the chips are down, Steelers fans can’t be kept from their appointed rounds. Even when congestive heart failure squeezes the last bit of energy from an old, tired body, the heart of a Steelers fan keeps beating. We are hard-core, and we are here, until the final play.

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