42 seconds from victory.
42 seconds from ending a tough to swallow three-game losing streak that quickly took their stronghold on the AFC North and handed it over to a very average rival from Baltimore.
Instead, a victory that could have turned the season around based on how the day had played out slipped through their fingers, and when the Steelers wake up Monday, their margin for error for the rest of the 2016 will sit at zero.
The Steelers defense, a unit that had played fairly well in Baltimore a week ago, and had already allowed 16 points in the second half Sunday, had their worst moment of the season in their home stadium filled with fans biting their fingernails hoping they had one last stand in them.
Instead, it was a massive failure.
The young Dallas Cowboys, a team that had a rookie QB, a rookie RB, and an offense line that pushed around the Steelers all day, with relative ease marched down the field, putting the finishing touches on their 8th win against one loss.
The punch to the stomach was with 23 seconds left the Cowboys, already in line for what would have been a game-winning field goal, simply handed the ball off to their star in the making, running back Ezekiel Elliott, and like a hot knife through butter, he raced 32 yards untouched to wrap up a Dallas 35-30 win.
A win that for the Cowboys puts them even in a stronger position as the best team in the NFC, and for the Steelers again proves that when the going gets tough, this team simply isn’t good enough.
Forget about the fact their franchise quarterback, a few weeks removed from knee surgery, threw for 400 yards, and burned the Dallas secondary with a fake spike that should have won the game.
Forget that three different times Sunday the Steelers came from behind to take the lead, only to again give it up.
Forget that now at 4-5, the 2016 season is right now officially labeled as a failure for a team that many experts had representing the AFC in February’s Super Bowl.
The Steelers simply don’t have it. Blame the coaches, blame the front office, blame the players, blame everyone.
At the end of the day, everyone deserves part of the blame for this four-game losing streak that has put this season in the stunning state it’s currently in.
This team doesn’t have the toughness, and Sunday it’s leaders time after time used words like ‘accountability’ and ‘discipline’ when talking about where the franchise is at.
“We’ll chew this up. And we need to be more disciplined and more accountable,” QB Ben Roethlisberger said. “We just have to make plays and be accountable and be disciplined.”
With seven games to go, there’s actually still a glimmer of hope for the season, as with four AFC North games still to play, two with the winless Browns and one at home against the Ravens on Christmas, if this ship gets right, they could still win the division.
Right now, it would be nice just to walk out of a stadium, any stadium, with a win again.
Maybe the winless Browns is just what this team needs right now.
Then again, a loss in Cleveland and a season that looks somewhat hopeless right now might as well be over for the 2016 version of the black and gold.
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Jay
November 14, 2016 at 8:12 am
Of course the tomlin apologists are nowhere to be found and ANY Steelers fan who still
Supports this team as long as this coaching regime is in place are flat out idiots, not true fans —true die hard fans need to now look at this puke and vomit of a coaching staff and understand that the culture that captain cliche has created is TOTALLY conducive to losing! We need NOT SFAND FOR IT!!!!!! Forget the whole oh if the Ravens lose to Dallas we’re still tied for first BULLSHIT!!!! It don’t matter! All a playoff appearance means is that we got in because our division sucked and in spite of not because of our coaches but somehow because of Ben bell and brown! A playoff appearance is fool’s gold,’stays asshole Tomlin’s execution and prolongs the drift into mediocrity WITH AN ELITE QB, RB AND WR! do you think Carroll or Reid, or Harbaugh or Belichick or Sean Payton would lose with those three! Tomlin supposed to be a defensive guy and he sucks at verything he touches with this team! A bright future for thensteelers revolves
Quickly around them losing out so this miserable phony gets rightfully ousted !
Dave B.
November 14, 2016 at 8:13 am
The offense did enough to win the game and the defense didnt . Its as simple as that . The Dallas offensive line manhandled the Steelers defensive line on the last drive that led to Elliots touchdown run . It wasnt even close . The stupid penalties like face masks and unnecessary roughness are killing this team and they simply arent good enough to overcome it . Its basic fundamentals and the Steelers dont have it . Dallas lined up and said this is what were going to do and we dare you to stop it . The Steelers looked like the little kid on the playground that got his nose bloodied by the the playground bully . Bottom line , they had no answers . This team lacks disipline and talent . Ben stated after the game , that this team is not disiplined and not accountable . Hes right , like it or not .
DrGeorge
November 14, 2016 at 7:54 pm
Actually, the Steelers played better than expected, on both sides of the ball, there were some fine individual performances, and the last offensive drive for the go-ahead score was a gem. The team played as well as it can play. Against an average team, that would have been enough. But not against the Cowboys. They are not an average team this year. Their offensive line is one of the best in the league, and their defense has been rebuilt. They are going to go deep in the playoffs, with a rookie QB picked up in the 4th round that is playing lights out.
By contrast, the Steelers passed over Dak Prescott (twice) and other promising rookie QBs to keep an aging and oft-injured Rothlisberger for whom they are paying top dollar. Ben R’s salary only left Colbert enough money to patch the offense and defense. It wasn’t enough. Now, the team seems unlikely to make the playoffs. We are likely to lose three of the remaining seven games, which would leave us at 8-8 (again) and out of the hunt. Even if we only lose two more games, a 9-7 record may not be good enough this year. As I’ve written here many times, it is all about money and how you spend it. If Pete Carroll or Bill Belichick had this bunch, the team wouldn’t be structured this way, and the money would go first into the defense and the offensive line. Until that happens, we will continue to be a mediocre and inconsistent team.
Jay
November 14, 2016 at 8:30 pm
Hey, Doc, Carroll and Bill are paying top dollar for their QBs as well! I agree that some of the skill positions were focused on in draft/free agency RESIGNINGS but that’s is who they happened to have ( I guess the bigger fault, if you prescribe to your way of thinking, is that they should’ve invested in trench players on both sides with a higher volume and frequency than they did!). But being as it may, they drafted Brown and Bell (need to be noted here that both of those players were not first rounders which subsequently means that there WERE first rounders drafted ahead of them—in 2010 it was Pouncey—Trench player—and in 2013 it was Jarvis Jones)…one of them is a bust, the other was indeed a trench player. I mean, I don’t understand your arguments: so, the Steelers did do what you’re saying in the mid 2000’s (only they got Big ben in first round)…they won because they weren’t paying him top dollar AND consequently paying MORE OTHER PLAYERS TOP DOLLAR! I get it. But what do you expect them to do or any team for that matter, not pay the market for an elite franchise QB??????????? WHEN IT COMES TIME????????? You DO realize that Dallas will pay Prescott top dollar when the time comes as will Oakland with CARR, et al. I don’t know why you never point the finger at the man who, after signing off on all these players, busts or hits, has FAILED EPICLY to get them prepared week in and week out! I mean, we have Ben, Doc, so, the fact that you opine that we don’t win based on failed draft picks and failure to ascertain a bona fide backup qb is revisionist history! TOMLIN fails with who he HAS!!!!! present tense!!!!! There are teams with less in this league who do more. I mean you realize that right? So, if there are teams who have less but do more, why don’t we do more??????? The answer lies with the coaching staff. DO you also realize that, going back five or six years, winning a playoff game for this franchise has become aberrational and not the norm! IT HAS BECOME ATYPICAL!!!!!! It used to be that losing a playoff game was the aberration. Now it’s backwards. I agree that three have been TOOOOO many misses with crucial draft picks but any “good” head coach worth his salt with an elite franchise QB, a top tier RB and a WR who puts up the types of numbers AB does, would NOT be 4-5..This YEAR….start the season with four game losing streak a few years ago, lose to shit teams every year, etc., etc. etFUCKINGcetera!
Dave B.
November 15, 2016 at 7:54 am
The only comment I have on this debate is this . I remember the Bubby Brister years . I also remember the David Woodley , Todd Blackledge and Kordell Stewert years . All very average quarterbacks and the Steelers records reflected that . They had alot of 8-8 and 9-7 seasons . More than a decade worth of mediocrity . With that said , if youre going to consistently win in the NFL and be a yearly playoff contender , average , aint going to cut it at the quarterback position . You have to have an elite franchise quarterback and yes thats eats into your payroll, but thats the way the league is set up . If you want to win , you have no choice . The Steelers problem today is not Ben Roethlisberger . The problem is a scouting department and general mangager who has failed miserably when it comes to identifying and evaluating talent . When youre investing number one picks in players that are at best second round projects you have a major problem and that is killing this team . The scouting department needs revamped and its time for Kevin Colbert to move on with his lifes work as Mr Noll said many times . Lastly , Mike Tomlin and his staff are on the verge of losing this team . It hasnt happened but its very close . When youre longtime star players are publicly admitting that the team is not disiplined and not being held accountable you have a major problem in your locker room . When that starts , everything spirals out of control . That where the Steelers are today .
DrGeorge
November 16, 2016 at 3:42 pm
Guys, you are right. The Steelers suffered with mediocre QBs for years, and over-paid them even then. In the NFL, you do need a quality QB. But under the current rules, you can’t afford to pay veteran QBs elite money without sacrificing something. Brady’s salary has affected New England adversely; Belichick is simply good enough to coach around it. R. Wilson’s new high salary in Seattle will catch up with them; the defense has already suffered because of it. Good teams don’t fall apart overnight; they decline slowly, as the Steelers have. The trick is to strike a balance. The problem is not Ben R. per se, but the way the money is distributed. Colbert has a good idea for talent, but he can’t afford to buy what he needs, largely because a huge chunk of the payroll is tied up in four players.
Jay
November 16, 2016 at 5:24 pm
offer a solution. mine is and has been for quite awhile to fire tomlin. The ra-ra stuff has finite lifespan. Cower one of the exceptions (that’s how we know he was a good coach) Carroll might also be an exception but by and large, the whole rhetoric, players coach, saying the write things, pump you up has an expiration date and timeline’s has OBVIOUSLY been way past due. I;m not going to belabor anything and cite the countless examples which aids and solidifies my argument. I know an effective, albeit radical solution would be to bring in Jim Harbaugh for three-four years….His rah-rah, fiery but exhaustive and limited coaching energy should last JUST LONG ENOUGH FOR THE DURATION OF BEN’S CAREER!!!! not that BB needs motivation but the OTHERS…oie vey and I’m not even Jewish. harbaugh would take the players on this current roster worthy of being in the NFL and get maximum performance out of them and the others that are on this roster that don’t belong in the NFL (and there seems to be quite a few) he would simply cut. Tell him he can hire whoever he wants except for one coach…that one the Rooneys would bring in would be someone like Urban Meyer…then, when the players are ready to kill Jim after four or five years, they promote Meyer! And HE rebuilds the team after ben had gotten us to a couple more super bowls. I know i know, sounds ridiculous and probably is…It would never happen. BUT if it did, I would be waving my terrible towel like a crazed lambert lunatic!!!!
DrGeorge
November 18, 2016 at 6:46 pm
I understand your frustration, Jay, but the Rooneys are not going to change coaches unless Tomlin embarrasses the franchise. They remember, and we should too, that Tomlin coached well enough eight years back to take Cowher’s players and win Super Bowl 43. Between the lines, Tomlin is no worse than most NFL coaches when he has talent. But there has been a huge talent drain since SB 43 on defense, and that reflects poorly on team management. Tomlin waited too long to replace his SB veterans. Second, he and Colbert presently pay the top five players 45% of the total team payroll. The rest of the team is staffed with rookies and journeymen, because that’s all we can afford. The defense is 25th in the league for a reason.
I recommend that all Steelers fans take a long look at this web site: Spotrac.com/NFL. Have a look. On that site, you can display team salaries for all 32 franchises, one after the other. The Steelers are so far out of whack, I couldn’t find another team to compare them with. I know fans don’t like to talk about financial matters, but that is how teams are built; and it is also why the our defense can’t hold the leads they are given.
You are quite right, Jay, about what a new coach would do with our current roster. He would purge the under-talented. But first, he would have to deal with the financial imbalance in order to afford better players. Which means he would also have to purge some, if not all, of the overpaid. We boxed ourselves into this corner over nine years; it will take at least another three to get out of it. It isn’t a problem anyone is going to solve over night.
Jay
November 19, 2016 at 8:05 pm
Assuming you mean Ben, Heyward, Timmons, Pouncey and Brown. Only one of them, in my opinion, is worth keeping, BB. If your outline is correct, then it sounds like a GM thing. I also agree, that, by DEFAULT, Tomlin is no better or worse than most other coaches in the league. BUT, to me, that is MORE of a reflection of how BAD the coaching pool is around the league than anything else. After Brown, I believe Decastro is the next one to be on that “high paid” list. The reason, by the way, that I’m not including Brown or Heyward, etc is because: Heyward, was a first round pick who is ONLY good at stopping the run. I opine that, at that high a pick and commensurate pay rate, one could find a three-down run stopper in the later rounds who WON’T require such a high price tag. Timmons is washed up, Pouncey is a center and, although a good one, I am not sure Colbert or whoever should have negotiated out a contract putting a center in the top 45 percent of the team’s payroll, no matter how good he is…again, if your numbers bear out that is. Decastro is overpaid based on his performance this year. Finally AB is a me guy and I do subscribe to Mark Madden’s “I’d take Hines Ward in his prime over AB now because Ward was a team guy!” If the Steelers develop the likes of Coats, Rogers, Hamilton and Bryant (the latter a big pot smoking risk obviously), then I am not so sure that Brown’s presence or lack thereof will be missed. He is a prima donna who is seemingly more interested in numbers than wins as evidenced by his mugging for the camera, swapping jerseys with Bryant and others after games win or lose, and dressing like a pimp and laughing in the locker room after losses. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PISSED OFF AFTER A LOSS!!!!!!! He runs out of bounds to save his body for another day…what?!? ya mean another loss!!!!??? ALL of that being said and I do agree with you about the numbers, I get the numbers, Doc, a lot of teams are in numbers situations…What I don’t get is how we lose to teams who are worse on paper!!!!!! now, I know games aren’t played on paper, but, if another team has alleged worse players than us AND THEY DON’T HAVE AN ELITE QB LIKE BEN, then how do the financial numbers factor into it at that point? And, further more, you cannot argue that many of the teams we have played and lost to this year and in the past five years are better than our personnel. if it was all about the numbers as you put it, How are we led to believe that professional GM’s would leave EVERYTHING, meaning total wins and losses, in the balance of a five for 45 as you outlined above???? I understand that it done’t all fall on Tomlin. Organizationally, this team is shit right now, led by a bunch of stubborn Irish loyalists! But Tomlin has done and continues to do, no matter how many ways you slice it, and here is where I disagree with you, a horrible job at getting what he does have ready to play week in and week out! He is not that good at his job and he should be let go, period! If there are THIS many high round picks on defense that are this bad, Colbert would’ve been gone a long time ago. I believe tomlin wants to be everyone’s friend, does not levy discipline, treats the fanbase like shit through the media with his regurgitative vomit-spewing rhetoric, cannot game plan, cannot get players ready to play especially against subpar opponents, cannot manage the clock, is prideful and just as stubborn as his Irish bosses, cannot properly evaluate talent and CANNOT TEACH!!!!!!!! Now, I STRONGLY opine that those things are not debatable as evidenced by the team’s weekly performances. Just as a tomlin supporter like yourself might say that you don’t play the games on paper, well, Doc, guess what, MONEY and dollar signs don’t play games either! coaches coach and players play! this coach obviously cannot put the right players on the field and cannot properly assess talent along with Colbert during April and May. If the Rooneys were to atypically clean house, I would be elated!
Jay
November 19, 2016 at 8:08 pm
By the way, I am rooting for the Steelers to lose to the Browns…I can’t bring myself to do it AS I WATCH, so therefore, I will simply watch something else on Sunday. The reason, I would rather lose out and hope Tomlin loses his job than continue to be Charlie Brown continually trying to kick the football that Tomlin always pulls out at the last minute. Suffering a little to start over and have a bright future or having Tomlin seems like a no brainer.