The 2017 NFL regular season is over and soon the real tournament begins. The Pittsburgh Steelers finished 13-3. This retrospective of the season will use our own comments from the Steelers Depot live update and discussion threads. The “best” comments from each half as determined by Disqus will be chosen to gauge our rollercoaster ride. Let’s see where this takes us …
Week 1 Steelers at Cleveland Browns. 1st half: The season begins on a positive note as “Happy, happy, joy, joy! Let’s go Steelers!” by the moderator is the top comment of 952 to open the season. The half ends with Pittsburgh in front 14-7. 2nd half: NinjaMountie observed, “this game will pad the teams season sack total.” Pittsburgh wins 21-18 with 7 sacks.
Week 2 Minnesota Vikings at Pittsburgh. 1st half: Steelers072684, “Looks like Watt is back, he just hugged Dupree” as TJ Watt suffers a groin injury and returned to the sideline but not the field of play. Ryan72384 voices the frustration many of us feel with “Come on offense. Show us a drive where you guys don’t look completely anemic and out of sync.” Steelers up 14-3 at half.
2nd Half: Evan Eremita sagely states that “if the offense ever wakes up this season we might have a pretty good team.” Pittsburgh wins 26-9 but still has not hit the 30-point target.
Week 3 Steelers at Chicago Bears. 1st half: The Bears field goal with no time gives them a 17-7 lead and my lament, “I picked the wrong day to quit huffing glue.” is top comment. 2nd Half: All the way back in 3rd game of season there was an inkling of something amiss as Big White tells all, “James Harrison great vs run, nowhere to be found.” Steelers lose in overtime 17-23 on a 19-yard running play and a total of 222 net rushing yards for the game.
Week 4 Steelers at Baltimore Ravens. 1st half: After an 18-play drive that started on the Steelers own 3-yard line, Jeremy McGlurg pointed out that, “touchdown or no touchdown, that was our offenses best drive this year.” They do score a couple touchdowns to take a 19-0 lead at half. 2nd half: Darth Blount 47 spoke for a lot of commenters, “Steelers Win. Ravens lose. Patriots lose. I mean, what more can you ever ask for?!” A satisfying 26-9 victory.
Week 5 Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh: 1st half: Before kickoff, all is giddy. “Woooooooooooooooo! Welcome and Happy Sunday. Relax and let the great Matthew Marczi entertain you. Please tip your waitresses.”
Though the half ends close with a Chris Boswell field goal making it 7-6, concerns are in the air: as RJ says, “I’m perplexed by how every other team seems to have passes available in the middle of the field, but the Steelers never seem to have it.” 2nd half: A 30-9 thumping leads to the inevitable, “Fire every single coach. Jax have the #1 passing defense and the #32 rushing defense. Steelers ran the ball 15 times and passed it 43 times. Laughable.” Michael James.
Week 6 Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs: 1st half: An 11-yard scamper by James Conner gained appreciation from SkoolHouseRoxx, “Nice run, rook!” The red zone offense did not as ryan72384 explains, “Come on Tomlin calm down you have a whole half of football left. Use some of that energy to rip your offensive coordinator a new one for his play calling inside the 5.” Still Steelers up 12-3 at half. 2nd half: The offense has failed to score 30 points six games into the season. Ike Evans states the obvious, “Hi guys…. win or lose I just came to say this offense isn’t good.” The Steelers do win 19-13 but not before giving up a 57-yard touchdown pass – something that will occur more as the season rolled on.
Week 7 Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh. 1st half: Not only was Le’Veon Bell abusing Dre Kirkpatrick a few of us shared the pain, Darth Blount47 complained, “that stiff arm hurt ME!!!!!!!!!” We are also noticing another player. Dany “I think Mike Hilton read a book called ‘How to be liked by Steelers fans’” Steelers up 20-14 on yet another Boswell field goal to end the half.
2nd half: Rob expresses what a lot of people think of Tony Romo’s new career, “off topic, but Romo has been incredible so far this season. Already my favorite color commentator.”
No love for Chris Collinsworth?
The Steelers win 29-14 and are 5-2 but still some discontent. Perhaps because they have yet to score 30 points, Chad Weiss says, “Talent is winning this game cause coaching sure the #### ain’t working.” He is not alone with this opinion.
Week 8 Steelers at Detroit Lions. 1st half: Dupuis opens the commentary with pre-kickoff optimism, “Here We Go Steelers, here we go!!” As the game progresses, NinjaMountie injects some realism, “so ben had one bad throw and a dropped td…. time to reset.”
The lead goes back and forth with the Lions ending the half on top 12-10. 2nd half: Ben’s passing yardage helped immensely by JuJu Smith-Schuster’s catch and run for 97 yards. Lot’s of comments about Ben Roethlisberger being done. NinjaMountie gives a more balanced assessment: “If it weren’t for drops Ben would have had an alright game. Not as bad as some are making it out.” Steelers hold on to win 20-15 and are 6-2 halfway through the season.
Week 10 Steelers at Indianapolis Colts: 1st half: New theme is Steelers performance against subpar teams. The Steelers face a luckless Colts team quarterbacked by Jacoby Brissett and are heavily favored.
Early on Brissett complete a 61-yard touchdown pass and Chad Sanborn articulates the concern: “So the TV announcers just showed how bad this team is on the road against sub .500 teams and after the bye week. THAT is a coaching thing. One game is on the players. A history is on the COACH.”
The men of steel are down 3-10 at half despite being heavily favored. 2nd half: Another theme is the quality of refereeing which Thomas hmmmm captures in this comment after a Vince Williams forced fumble is negated, “The only way the forward progress rule should be applicable is if there is a gang of people on the ball carrier. On that play it should not have been used as Frank Gore still had a chance to break the tackle and it was only Williams on him. BS call by a terrible ref.”
Brissett completes a second 60-yard touchdown pass but Chris Boswell calmly kicks another game winner as time expires after a nice drive as Greg Payne counsels our more excitable contributors that there’s “no sense in wasting all that energy for the first 58 minutes.” Steelers win 20-17 and are 7-2.
Week 11 Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh: 1st half: Concerns about the coaching, “I feel like the Titans actually have a plan in this game and we are just kinda winging it.” Ryan72384. Concerns about refereeing, “That was horsesh**. You aren’t allowed, as a DB, to touch the WR like that after 5 yards… Yet it was on Bryant?!” Darth Blount47. Then bemusement when something goes right, “Mike Tomlin complimented on clock management. The apocalypse is nigh.” Steeldog22. Steelers up 16-7 at half with help from 3 Boswell field goals.
2nd half: A converted 3rd and 11 play led to a touchdown instead of a field goal. Chris92021 echoed a lot of our thoughts with, “JuJu saved us with that 3rd down catch. Man, he has been better than anyone expected.” It was a good win at 40-17; the 30-point barrier finally broken. HardPunkKore noted the good feelings extended across the field, “Sure is something watching all the guys line up to hug Lebeau.”
Week 12 Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh: 1st half: Darth Blount47 explains how the Steelers can be 8-2 despite having such terrible coaches; a disinterested quarterback; a porous defense and the referees consistently favoring the opponents with their calls. It all comes down to pregame preparation: “I have ordered all the cheese in the house to be eaten. I have nothing in my sight-line that is any shade of green. My brother’s friend, who is a Packers fan, has been temporarily blocked on Facebook. And I haven’t shaven or bathed since our last loss. I smell like a homeless man who just had a “Soup Kitchen” in a Prius.”
Game is tight. 14-14 at half.
2nd half: Ray Smith adds the announcers hating on the Steelers as another handicap the team has, “Collinsworth cannot hold back his clear bias against the terrible towel I love it it must be a version of hell on earth for him to experience in person.” Chris Boswell kicks another game winning field goal and SkoolHouseRoxx advises that “you guys can lose sleep over this win all you want to! I’m going to bed! Nyte nyte!” Steelers 9-2.
Week 13 Steelers at Cincinnati: 1st half: Chad Sanborn shares the feelings of many of us following Ryan Shazier’s injury: “I don’t even care if we win tonight. I just wanna hear that Shaz is going to be ok.” The Steelers spot the Bengals a 17-3 lead. 2nd half: Concern about Shazier continued though the team played on. Darth Blount47, “I am NOT trying to spread false hope or gossip, but we don’t have much to go on and like most of you, I’ve been absolutely sick and on the verge of tears over Shazier.” Boswell again kicked a game winner. Steelers are 10-2 but the wins are not emphatic. SkoolHouseRoxx takes a contrarian perspective: “This team won’t quit like some of you ‘fans,’ do!”
Week 14 Ravens at Pittsburgh: 1st half: A Deebo sighting. Aj Gentile noted, “Flacco got scared once he saw Harrison in.” Steelers up 20-14 and Darth Blount47 points out that “I like the fact we get the ball to start the 2nd half. :-)” 2nd half: What a game. Boswell’s field goal with 46 seconds left gives a 39-38 lead which TJ Watt’s sack of Joe Flacco preserves. Darth Blount47 exhorts, “Guts, grit, and gusto! My heart is swelling with ‘Burgh Pride! Won it for SHAZIER! Let’s rest up and bring on the Cheaters.” Steelers 11-2.
Week 15 NFL at Pittsburgh: 1st half: Martavis Bryant gets some love for his touchdown catch. Even the coaches in a good place. Kevin Schwartz asks “Can we give a little love to Tomlin and Colbert for how they handled MB’s mid-season meltdown? Could have easily traded him or indulged him. Gave him a short suspension, then got him back on board.” Steelers up 17-10 at half.
2nd half: Intense end to game. Jason Vancil: “Time to be great.” Pittfan looking for clock to be eaten to open the 4th quarter, “9:0 MINUTE TD DRIVE ANYONE???” They come close but a 7:17 drive ends up with a punt. NinjaMountie exclaims “Wow….I just let out a Scottish battle yell for a solid 30 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!” when Jesse James catches the ball. Dee Evolution observed that “ref just put away the flag he was about to throw on Gilmore.”
Game over. Steelers drop their third of the season.
Week 16 Steelers at Houston Texans: 1st half: Dave Bryan greets us; “Merry Christmas!” Rob asks if “anyone else think Cam Heyward is salty about not getting a Pro-Bowl nod??” Wreckless likes some of the Steelers acquisitions this year, “Joe Haden and Vance McDonald are game changers for this team.” Steelers up 20-0.
2nd half: This game a tonic for the previous one. Fans still salty about last week’s intervention by the NFL office, “That catch was so good the NFL has decided to award the Patriots 14 points before next week’s game” by #7. Another top comment, “Patriots are challenging the ruling on the field” by Yeshaya. Mister Wirez is pragmatic with “I hate not having AB, but this is good for the other WR’s.” Dudes, we are playing the Texans.
Week 17 Browns at Pittsburgh. 1st half: A chilly one. Some of us were watching two games as evinced by Jaybird’s comment that “Tom Brady just took a hard sack. Good for him. I hope it hurt.” BurghBoy412 gave Landry Jones some kudos, “I don’t get the knocks on Landry. He’s a very good backup.”
By half it was apparent that a win would not affect the seeding. Steelers up 21-14. 2nd half: The release of James Harrison may not have distracted in the Steelers locker room, but it did distract the discussion thread. The top comment among many on the same subject was NinjaMountie exclaiming “Omg. Harrison just stood up. It was so amazing the whole stadium fell silent.” The Steelers did manage to set the franchise record for sacks in a season with without the services of James Harrison; but as one person noted maybe they would have set it earlier in the season if he had been played. Yoi.
Steelers finish the season at 13-3. I always enjoy contributing to the live discussion thread. The emotions run high. There are always some wry comments. Some very astute observations and others a bit exasperating. We dreamed of all the great things the Steelers would do. The regular season has come to an end. “We’re older but no wiser, for in our hearts the dreams are still the same … Those were the days my friends” The playoffs are about to begin, what great things are you dreaming the Steelers will do?
(Ed Note: Thanks to David for these articles throughout the season. And you, the reader, for your continued support of the site.)
