Steelers: the Sky IS Falling
By Kari Mayhew
The mere fact that we are somehow still in the running for a playoff spot is utterly ridiculous. It speaks directly to the fact that the AFC is perhaps the worst it’s been in years. A certain 4th and 29 play seems to be the poster child for performance this year. And the Steelers are right now pacing this pathetic race.
Ryan Clark said yesterday “You lose one game in Pittsburgh and the sky is falling.” I for one am a little sick of the talk. Let’s be honest. The last two losses have been atrociously off the charts. Want some stats? As if the visuals were not disgusting enough…
The past two games the Steelers put up these awesome numbers:
28 total drives
14 ended in a punt
11 ended in turnovers
Last in scoring.
Last in some other categories that I can’t remember.
Last. Last. Last.
And as you know, these amazing stats were compiled against a banged up, poorly executing Ravens team and the Brownies for *%!!$% sake.
Moving into Sunday’s game, Tomlin has said he is going to shake things up. Sorry buddy, but when you put the same dice in the cup, your odds to come out with YATZEE are exactly the same. I’m not sure how putting Wallace as the co-starter or shuffling the same three backs is supposed to light a fire. The one bright spot is that Antonio Brown is supposed to be back, but if Batch is going to throw the ball five yards short every time…YOI!. I don’t have the answers. I’m not an offensive mastermind. But I do know that some heads need to roll. Just because things happened to work out back in 2005, Casey Hampton as you keep telling us, it doesn’t mean we should be satisfied to go down that road again. And let’s be honest we don’t even have that same team we had back then. Not even close. Let’s not even compare the offenses because that is depressing, but on the other side of the ball, our guys are not getting turnovers, not getting pressure and not taking down any quarterbacks.
Maybe this is what Tomlin and our guys need. A reality check. Clark is right about one thing, just because you are the Steelers you don’t walk away with a win. But doesn’t that wisdom come with age? And aren’t our guys old as dirt? So what’s the problem? Ego? Complacency?
In keeping with my dice theme, why not roll them and go with this Hoyer guy? Why not give him his first NFL start? And if it is to be the guy from Geriatrics, maybe I’m cheering for Ngata or some dude in purple to make that change happen early on anyway. Just to see what a guy who can actually throw the ball would do. You wanna shake things up Tomlin? Let’s do it.
Fans, I say pop a cold one early for Sunday’s game. The chance of Steeler Nation winning the Powerball is greater than Ben coming back to lead us to a win. It’s going to be a long day.