Season's Beatings

On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the Popemobile when there was a frantic commotion just off shore.

A helpless man, wearing a Cincinnati Bengals jersey, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark. As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing Pittsburgh Steeler jerseys aboard. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark's side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious Bengals fan from the water. Then using baseball bats, the three heroes in black & gold beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat also.

Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there was some bitter hatred between Bengals and Steelers fans, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not the truth."

As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies "Who was that?" "It was the Pope," one replied. "Catholics believe that he is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God's wisdom." "Well," the harpooner said, "he may have access to God's wisdom, but he don't know much about shark fishing - how's the bait holding up?"

Bengals.
Tomorrow.

Steelers 27, Browns 7

Ravens 27, Steelers 0

The better team won, convincingly.

Broncos 31, Steelers 20

Turnovers
Turnovers
Turnovers

It’s pretty hard to win a football game when you turn the ball over five times. In every loss this season the Steelers have turned the ball over more frequently than the opposition – 5 to 0 against the Broncos, 4 to 1 against the Raiders, 3 to 2 against the Falcons, 2 to 1 against the Chargers, 5 to 3 against the Bengals, and 2 to 1 against Jacksonville. It is the most telling statistic and it is evidence of an undisciplined team, something rare for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The season is lost.

And the worst part about it is that we don’t even get the pleasure of looking forward to the draft – where do the Steelers have a weakness? The Steelers are solid at every position, with Najeh Davenport becoming the battering ram running back that the Steelers crave and Chucky Okobi filling in nicely on the offensive line when the starters go down. The defense is solid and doing everything that it can to compensate for the short field that the offense frequently sticks them with, so there are no glaring holes on defense. The reason why the Steelers are 2-6 is exceedingly simple: a lack of discipline and that falls squarely on one person.

Coach Cowher.

It will be interesting to see if he has the team ready to play against the Saints, because for the year-to-date – beginning with the preseason – the Steelers are yet to look like a team that is prepared to play the game of football. Perhaps Coach Cowher is more interested in getting to Raleigh than Miami – time will tell.

A SLIGHTLY different take on the Raider Game

As tempting as it was to post this under the picture of the buxom songstress, I cannot do so in all honesty.

As pathetic as the game was, as brutal to watch, It still, is not OVER.

It isn't even November. It CAN'T be over.

No, we must sit through nine more games.

The good news is they cannot possibly be any worse than this.

The bad news is we have to find out.

Why?

Because we are fans. We LOVE the Steelers. We will likely grit our teeth and bear with them for the rest of the year. It is not like this has never happened before.

For those of you who have conveniently forgotten, I give you December 6, 2002.

Houston Texans 47 yards total offense, 24 points
Pittsburgh Steelers 422 yards total offense, 6 points

We actually made the playoffs after that.

And ridiculous as it may appear, we STILL have a chance.

I wish we didn't.

Raiders 20, Steelers 13

Falcons 41, Steelers 38

I thought we had worked this out, but apparently not.

Three turnovers committed by the Pittsburgh Steelers were turned into three Michael Vick touchdown passes, making today's game yet another example of what happens when each game is not considered precious.

In today's devotional, five of the ten virgins chose to wait until later to gather the oil to power their lamps. That would be the attitude of a team which has been among the most successful in the past several seasons.

When a team is used to playing between 9-12 home games a year because of the unprecedented ability of their fan base to take over visiting stadiums, it can fall into a false sense of security.

When, even with a 2-4 record, that team can STILL be heralded as the premiere team in their division, it is easy to assume the light will come on before absolute darkness descends upon the land. That is not the attitude of a champion. Running off 5-6 wins in a row will not mean a whole lot in a few weeks, because the hole dug by fumbles and mental errors will be too deep to ascend out of.

On a brighter note, obscured in this defeat is the continuing growth of the receiving corps. Santonio Holmes has been as effective as a receiver as he has been unreliable as a punt returner. Nate Washington has improved each week, although if he could get people to let him do his dance alone after he scores, that would be better for all involved. Hines Ward seems to be healthy and performing as he always has. So long as teams put 8-10 defenders in the box to stop the run, their performance will be instrumental to the growth of this team.

Unlike my co-contributor, I believed after the Chargers loss that there was some room for error with a 1-3 record. I do not think 2-4 is not insurmountable either, given the teams that remain. What is certain, is that the Steelers will be spending a large part of January away from Heinz Field. What has yet to be determined is whether or not the Steelers will still be playing in January in Denver or Indianapolis or sitting at home watching with us.