The situation for the Pittsburgh Steelers has gotten so bleak and bleary that the only thing left to do is to laugh, and the laughing ain’t coming easy these days.
Following two subsequent home-field losses to the Arizona Cardinals and the New England Patriots, who had a combined record of 4-20 before facing Pittsburgh, the Steelers’ only hope of escaping the boos is by slipping away from town in the middle of the night for an away game.
This will be the first time that Steelers players will arrive at an enemy stadium hoping and praying that Steelers Nation fans don’t show up in droves.
After falling well short of expectations during their recent spate of cupcake games, they are going to need to find their sweet tooth once again against four upcoming, much more formidable opponents.
It begins this Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts, who, unlike the Steelers, still have a reasonable opportunity to win their division.
Then the Steelers face up against a resurgent Cincinnati Bengals, then it’s a tough away match against the Seattle Seahawks. Finally, they close out the season at the Baltimore Ravens nest, against a quality team that might still have to play hard to compete for the number one seed in the American Football Conference playoffs.
Head Coach Mike Tomlin has been known to make fools out of his critics before, and perhaps he’s merely been setting the stage for a Hollywood-like comeback, where we’re all the Marx Brothers, and the laughs are on us.
If that sounds like Horse Feathers, we’ve got plenty more to serve up. Let’s give it a Spin.
Quarterback Camp
There was a time in the not-too-distant Steelers defensive past when the squad was coached by Dick LeBeau and when it actually made a difference who the opposing quarterback was. If Pittsburgh was playing against a backup quarterback or some baby-faced whippersnapper, LeBeau’s playbook was simplified. He’d send ten pass rushers in and have Troy Polamalu cover all the receivers.
LeBeau was so gifted at dialing up pressure and engineering general tomfoolery against lesser quarterbacks that you could pretty much write in the ”W” if anybody’s starting passer went down. Sure, his defense would stumble against the Tom Bradys of the world, but his D never went down in flames playing against guys with names like Bailey Zappe. What happened since then?
One of the reasons that Tomlin’s teams have performed below the championship bar for the past ten years is their inability to make gimmies out of the gimmies.
The week before, Zappe played against the woeful Los Angeles Chargers and completed only 13 out of 25 passes for just 141 yards in leading his Patriots to…checks notes…zero points.
How is it even possible the Steelers allowed what must have been a fragile flower quarterback to march down on the opening drive like he was due to be sized for a yellow Hall of Fame jacket?
Against the Steelers the past few years it really doesn’t matter who is the opposing quarterback. There doesn’t seem to be any advantage for them to be playing against young, inexperienced passers. It’s almost as if playing against Pittsburgh is as enjoyable and as much of a growing experience as going to summer youth passing camp.
The Steelers Way
There has been a hornet’s nest of controversy buzzing in the air following Ben Roethlisberger’s comments regarding the Steelers essentially losing their “Way”. I’m not sure podcasting is the best choice for a player hoping to get into the Hall of Fame on the goodwill shoulders of his former franchise in a few years.
Being an NFL talking head is fine because you’re only required to make a pithy comment here and there. The problem with podcasts is that you just keep talking…and talking…and talking. And eventually, you’re bound to say something silly.
The truth is the “Steelers Way” left Pittsburgh when Hines Ward retired from the team. That was the end of the era of wide receivers understanding the culture of traditional Steelersism.
Do you think Jack Lambert would have allowed George Pickens and Diontae Johnson to jog through routes or throw hissy fits when they didn’t get the ball tossed their way? Or would Greg Lloyd have allowed Antonio Brown’s antics to define the team?
How many times would Joe Greene’s helmet have rattled around the inside of the locker room if he was around to see how recent Steelers receivers are recrafting the meaning of teamwork and individual work ethic?
There was the Martavis Bryant saga and the Young Money escapades. You want to follow the money? Where did the team’s top draft picks go primarily for most of the past ten years?
George Pickens, Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson, James Washington, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Sammie Coates, Dri Archer (drafted as a wide receiver), Martavis Bryant, and Markus Wheaton were all premium picks.
People forget Tomlin’s position in college. He was a wide receiver and wasn’t drafted as a linebacker like Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll.
Although Tomlin’s background prior to being hired as the Steelers head coach was defensive coaching positions, his first college gig was as a receivers coach.
This is all fine, and Tomlin certainly showed he could craft an impressive overall winning record by investing heavily in receiver talent.
But the hardnosed, biggest bully mentality left the Steelers many years ago. The Steelers Way was to build from the defense out, and a Steelers Way team would never be complete without four world-class linebackers on the team. Then, and only then, did you start thinking about other positions, including pass catchers.
The transition on the team occurred when Tomlin decided that LeBeau’s approach to the game was obsolete and that the Steelers needed to be more Tampa 2 than Linebacker U.
When you think back on that defense that featured Casey Hampton as the anchor and those great linebackers at the base with an impressive secondary to top it off, a question emerges. Were they really too old school and over the hill in their style of play?
Or was it the start of giving up Steelers fundamentals for some flash? Was that the beginning of the demise of the Steelers Way?
Flip Of A Quarter
Will the last quarter of the Steelers season come up heads or tails this year? Is it approaching curtain time for the Tomlin era, or will he be able to flip things around in the magical ways he has proved so capable of in the past?
Forget about winning the Super Bowl. If Tomlin is able to coax three out of four wins out of what’s remaining in this mess of a year, and somehow eke into the playoffs, it will be one of his most impressive feats. Even his harshest critics will have to admit this much.
There is a large contingent of Steelers followers who feel the coach is staggering on the canvas and would like to see more losses to make their argument more convincing.
The reason they are being referred to as followers and not fans is that there is a difference.
If we feel self-righteous enough to criticize wide receivers who don’t run their routes fully every play, we can’t in the same breath call ourselves fans and be rooting against the success of our team.
The argument “it would be best if the Steelers lost the rest of their games” is something that never sat right with me and never will.
To me, that makes a fan as big of a loser as a team that quits on the field.
I would agree the current state of the Steelers is due to incredibly poor coaching personnel decisions by the head coach and overall lackluster performance by many in the locker room and by those carrying clipboards.
However, the vast, vast, majority of this team is composed of high character individuals who have it in their DNA to give their all in every practice and on every play of every game.
What’s in your DNA, Steelers Nation? It’s time to find out.
I hope Steelers fans show up in force at Lucas Oil Stadium for the Indianapolis Colts and take over the stands as they almost always do at away games.
I also desire to see them spinning towels when the performance of their team is A+ and for them to boo mightily if it’s a failing grade.
Although this has been a challenging season, with not an abundance of overall performances to cheer for, the Steelers remain a 7-6 team with an honest opportunity to still make the playoffs.
You want to see the Steelers Way once again rise in tall, molten steel flames? Then the embers of this bright future must be kept glowing in the hearts of the fans.
The Colts are a team who are without their best player, and they’ll be calling out for a lifeline themselves this weekend. They’ll want to win this game in a major way.
The Steelers will need to say “Horse Feathers” to this and believe in unicorns for the remainder of the season.
Can they pull this off and finish the year off strong? It’s a flip of a quarter and the most significant of quarters in Tomlin’s history with the team.
