Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers let a close one slip from their grasp in overtime.  And to add insult to injury, it happened against the hated Dallas Cowboys.  That just adds insult to injury.

But despite the loss, we are still going to proceed with our weekly haiku contest.

Some of you may have noticed that the haiku contest has been on hiatus for the past 2 weeks.  That’s because I was searching for a sponsor for the contest.  Many of you put a lot of time and thought into your entries, and I wanted to reward you with more than just bragging rights.  Moreover, with the Christmas holiday approaching, the prize will make a great gift for the winner.

I’d like to thank our new sponsors for their support of Steeler Nation and this blog.  They’ve really stepped up in a much bigger way than even I expected.  Suffice it to say that I am VERY HAPPY with the prize that they’ve offered.  In fact, it’s such a high quality item that I strongly suggest that every member of Steeler Nation add one to their kitchen.

So what is this great prize that I’ve been describing?  Well, how would you like to own a new NFL Crock-Pot ® slow cooker?  The Crock-Pot ® slow cooker comes boldly imprinted with the Steelers logo.  That’s right, it’s a Steelers  Crock-Pot ® slow cooker!  How cool is that?  Every Steelers fan needs to have one of these!

NFL Crock-Pot ® slow cooker

So how do you win this great prize?  The contest rules are simple. You must summarize the Steelers-Cowboys game in a haiku.  A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that contains only 3 lines. The first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables. Typically, haiku do not rhyme.

Please note, the emphasis is on syllables, not words.  Remember, 5/7/5.

I start the competition by offering a haiku of my own. Then you readers write a haiku of your own to try to beat mine. On Thursday I will announce this week’s contest winner.  But remember, your haiku has to be better than mine.  If none of your entries are better than mine, then I can declare myself this week’s winner and keep that really cool prize.  But I know that you all want a new NFL Crock-Pot ® slow cooker just as badly as I do.  So let’s have some really good entries this week.

Here’s my entry:

Black and Gold fans owned
Dallas Cowboys’ stadium
But team loses game

Okay readers, it’s your turn.  Lets see who can come up with the best haiku about the Steelers-Cowboys game.  Your haiku must be about the game, or any other interesting topics that are directly related to the game (e.g. the historic rivalry, Steeler Nation taking over Cowboys stadium, the overtime loss, etc).  You may enter the contest as many times as you like.

Any entries that do not follow the 5/7/5 format will be automatically disqualified, so remember to count your syllables.

Are you ready for some haiku?!!

The Steelers lost to the Cowboys in overtime, 27-24.  Congrats to the Cowboys.  They’re now tied with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins for first place in the NFC East.

The Steelers, on the other hand, now find themselves in a much more precarious situation.  Their loss, combined with Cincinnati’s win, leaves them in third place in the AFC North with a 7-7 record.  More importantly, a .500 record, and 6 losses within their conference, is not the stuff of which playoff teams are made.

Fortunately for the Steelers, they face the Bengals next week, and may be able to climb out of the hole that they’ve dug for themselves.  If they beat the Bengals next week, they’ll be tied again, and fighting for the final AFC playoff spot.

So how did the Steelers find themselves in this predicament?

Sure, there was the loss to the Cowboys.  And there’s plenty of blame to go around for that.  Mike Wallace dropped a few passes.  Josh Victorian proved that he doesn’t know how to tackle.  Antonio Brown made a critical fumble.  Troy Polamalu hobbled around looking like a shadow of him former self.  Jonathan Dwyer only ran for 22 yards on 9 rushing attempts.  LaMarr Woodley did his best impersonation of the Invisible Man.  And Big Ben threw the interception in overtime that ultimately cost the Steelers the game.  Like I said, plenty of blame to go around.

As in most of the team’s recent losses, there’s plenty of blame to go around.  Fans have even started calling for Mike Tomlin to be fired.  But I don’t think that’s the problem at all.  Tomlin has done as much as he could with the hand that he’s been dealt.

In my opinion, the Steelers’ decline has been attributable to two key factors; injuries and execution.

The Steelers played today without their starting left guard.  Their starting right guard was playing in his first NFL start.  They’ve lost their starting right tackle, and his backup.

They’ve also battled injuries at the running back and quarterback positions.

On defense, the Steelers are playing without their best cornerback.  And his backup is also injured.  So they were forced to start a cornerback who has very little experience.  And their star safety is clearly not himself.  Their starting nose tackle isn’t outplaying his backup.  And their left outside linebacker is missing in action.

To make matters worse, the team has suffered a rash of turnovers lately.  They’ve fumbled the ball, bobbled passes that should have been caught, and thrown interceptions.

That combination of injuries and poor execution is too much for any team to overcome.

If not for the injuries, I think the Steelers have the talent to not only be a playoff team, but to also make a deep run in the playoffs.  It may be too late for that to happen this year.  But I hope that fans won’t call for wholesale changes next year.  I think that would be an overreaction.

The Steelers are a good team.  And Mike Tomlin is a good coach.  But even good teams can’t win if they have to rely too heavily on second and third string players.  And once they have a healthy roster, the execution problems will hopefully disappear as well.

The Steelers still have a chance to make the playoffs this year.  But if they don’t, I’m still highly optimistic about their chances next year……when they’re healthy.  Hopefully, you are too.

Go Steelers!

The Pittsburgh Steelers face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.  While most fans may be wondering which team will win, I’m more interested in a much more important question; will Steeler Nation successfully take over Cowboys Stadium?

The Cowboys have an irritating habit of trying to declare themselves to be “America’s Team”.  But we all know who the real America’s team is.  And Steeler Nation helped make that fact crystal clear by completely taking over Cowboys Stadium the last two times the Steelers played there.

I love hearing the TV announcers talk about how many Steelers fans there are in Cowboys Stadium.  I get great joy from hearing them say that the Steelers fans are just as loud as the Cowboys fans, if not louder.  And I get a sadistic  pleasure from knowing that Jerry Jones is seething over all of the Steelers fans in his house.  So I’m putting out a call to Steeler Nation.  PLEASE take over Cowboys Stadium tomorrow.

Besides the battle of fans, there will also be a battle taking place on the field.  Both teams have a 7-6 record and are fighting for a playoff spot.  So this game may ruin the season of the team that loses.

The Steelers are coming off of an embarrassing 34-24 loss to the San Diego Chargers.  They looked bad on both sides of the ball during that game, and must have a better performance against the Cowboys.  On offense, the running backs have to be more effective, and the wide receivers have to hold onto the ball.  And on defense, the cornerbacks have to show that they can be effective without Ike Taylor in the lineup.

The Cowboys just beat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-19.  That win helped the Steelers stay tied with the Bengals, so the Cowboys actually did the Steelers a favor.  But don’t expect the Steelers to thank them for that.

The Cowboys enter the game with the NFL’s third ranked passing attack.  Tony Romo is averaging over 300 yards per game, and he should provide a real test for the Steelers’ defensive backs.  Romo’s favorite target is still tight end Jason Whitten.  Because of that, Brandon Marshall, Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, and Reggie Wayne are the only players in the NFL to catch more passes than Whitten this season.  Aside from Whitten, Dez Bryant and Miles Austin are also dangerous targets.  Bryant has an injured finger, and is questionable for the game.  But I expect to see him play.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack is pretty pedestrian.  In fact, they’re ranked 31st in the NFL.  That’s next to last, for those of you who aren’t aware.  They’re only averaging 79.8 rushing yards per game.  So no real worries there.

I expect an exciting game between these historic rivals.  But ultimately, I expect the Steelers to pull out a win.  After all, they really can’t afford to lose.

Go Steelers!

The Steelers lost to the San Diego Charger 178-24 this afternoon.  At least I think that was the score.  I may be wrong, but it certainly felt like that was the score.

But the score isn’t really what matters.  What I really want to focus on is the Steelers’ annoying habit of playing down to the level of their competition.

This year, the Steelers have beaten the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants.  They’ve also defeated their arch rival, the Baltimore Ravens, who are in first place in the AFC North.  And they’ve defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, who they’re battling for the final playoff spot.  And they’ve beaten the Washington Redskins, who still have a chance of winning the NFC East.  Overall, the Steelers have done pretty well against the good teams in the NFL this season.  But the same can’t be said about their results against the bad teams.

So far this season, the Steelers have faced 6 of the bottom 10 teams in the league.  And they’ve lost to 4 of the 6, the San Diego Chargers being the most recent.  The two that they did beat, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, they beat by a total of five points…….combined.  They squeaked out a 2 point victory over the Eagles, and they beat the Chiefs by 3 points.

I’m sure most Steelers fans remember their late season implosion in 2009.  That’s when they lost to the Bengals, Chiefs, Raiders, and Browns during a 5 week stretch.  Those were possibly the 4 worst teams in the NFL that season.  And not only did the Steelers lose to them, but that losing streak cost the Steelers a playoff appearance during a season in which many thought that they should have been a Super Bowl favorite.

So what’s up with the Steelers?

Why do the Steelers repeatedly allow bad teams to beat them?  Is it a player issue?  Is it a coaching issue?  Is it a combination of the two?

I’d be lying if I said that I knew the answer to that question.  If I did have the answer, I’d definitely make the problem go away.

What I do know is that the Steelers need to run the table against their final three opponents if they want to have any hope of making the playoffs this year.

The good news is that the Steelers have to face the Cincinnati Bengals one more time this season.  And the Bengals are their primary competitor for the final playoff spot.  So in that regard, the Steelers’ fate is in their own hands.

The other good news is that the Steelers also have to face the Dallas Cowboys, a team’s also fighting for a playoff spot, albeit in the NFC.

The Steelers have the exact same record (7-6) as the Cowboys and Bengals.  On paper, both should be tough games for the Steelers.  So I’m not the least bit worried about them.  As we’ve already established, the Steelers can hold their own against good teams.

But the bad news is that the Steelers close the season against the Cleveland Browns.  The Browns are in last place in the AFC North, and they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention.  That makes them the most dangerous of the Steelers’ remaining opponents.  After all, bad teams are like kryptonite to the Steelers.

If this were any other franchise in the NFL, their fans would be most worried about the Cowboys and the Bengals.  But Steelers fans know better.  History has taught us that for our beloved Steelers, the lowly Browns are the greatest threat.

Go Steelers!

If this were 3 or 4 years ago, a match-up between Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers would have been billed as a battle of elite quarterbacks.  But now, only one of them fits in that category.  And it ain’t Rivers.

Despite being chosen ahead of Roethlisberger in the 2004 draft class, the two quarterback’s careers have gone in opposite directions.  Rivers started out strong, and many felt that he was the best quarterback among the top 3 quarterbacks taken that year (Eli Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger).  But as their careers have progressed, both Roethlisberger and Manning have two Super Bowl rings, while Rivers has rarely even made the playoffs.

These days, Rivers is more likely to be compared to Brandon Weeden, or Sam Bradford, or Ryan Tannehill.  He’s thrown for 18 touchdowns this season, but he’s also thrown 15 interceptions.  More importantly, his San Diego Chargers (4-8) are a perennial under-achieving team, and they’re in the midst of a 4-game losing streak.

But before we take the Chargers too lightly, it’s worth noting that they just barely lost to both the Ravens and the Bengals.  The Bengals only won by a touchdown, and Baltimore only managed to win by a field goal.

Fortunately for the Steelers, head coach Mike Tomlin made an important announcement this week.  He announced that Big Ben will be the starting quarterback on Sunday, after missing the past 3 games with an injury.  Roethlisberger’s return greatly increases the Steelers’ chances of making a strong playoff run.

Another change that we’ll have to watch is how Jonathan Dwyer does as the team’s “workhorse” running back.  Tomlin has made it clear to offensive coordinator Todd Haley that he doesn’t like the “running back by committee” approach that Haley had been using.  Tomlin prefers to appoint one running back as the workhorse, and then run him until the wheels fall off.

I like the way that Jonathan Dwyer runs downhill.  However, I don’t like his speed.  I don’t think that he has the same ability to get to the outside and break a long run that Mendenhall has.  But as Tomlin points out, Dwyer has been the most consistent performer among the Steelers running backs, so he’s earned this opportunity.

With Big Ben back, I think the Steelers have a very good chance of beating the Chargers, particularly since the game is being played in Pittsburgh.  The Chargers have never beaten the Steelers in Pittsburgh during the regular season.  Never!  And I doubt that trend will end on Sunday.

I predict a Steelers win, with a final score of 27 – 10.

Go Steelers!