The 2014 Steelers Review

In spending an above-average time following the hometown Steelers in their quest to return to prominence, I feel it is appropriate to reflect on the season in the hopes that I can find solace losing to the Ravens in the playoffs for the very first time.

It's difficult to encapsulate 17 games of the Steelers season into a few coy remarks.  I've spent a couple of days digesting all of it and it's not going to feel any better until sometime around Presidents' Day.  Right now I don't have much desire to watch the rest of the NFL playoffs, especially in the AFC.  I will, though, since it's my civic duty.  Those eight teams deserve their place at the playoff table and they deserve our attention.  It would be great to play Brady or Manning at their place one time in the playoffs, if nothing else to serve as a measuring stick for progress.  Since that opportunity has eluded the team this season, all we can do is turn the pages back and see how this season unfolded in-front of us.

Back on Thursday, September 11, the Steelers were favored by three points over the Baltimore Ravens in their Week Two grudge match. The Steelers beat the Browns four days earlier with the Ravens losing at home to the Bengals on the same day.   Controversy swirled around the Ravens in the depths of the Ray Rice domestic violence fiasco.  Baltimore was a mess.

Pittsburgh lost that night by 20.  They could have lost by 40.

That Friday morning after the pummeling, no one could have convinced me otherwise that we were steamrolling towards anything besides their third straight 8-8 season.  And three days earlier, the Ravens ended what they commenced; a dissection of a inferior opponent that began the game with momentum, talent and optimism.

In a lot of ways, then, the 11-5 season paired with a division title might seem like a fun surprise, much like the feeling you get ready to pay for street parking only to realize there is still 45 minutes remaining on the meter.  The Steelers of 2014, time and time again, allowed me to feel like I was getting free parking.  Back in August, if you would have told me Pittsburgh was going to win the division, frankly, I would have believed you for these reasons:
1) Their schedule was favorable.
1a) The farthest they had to travel ALL SEASON was Jacksonville.
2) Their offensive line was better than people believed.
3) The was continuity on both sides of the ball.

So while it was a fun surprise to make it to 11-5, it could be argued the season hit the bullseye for Black and Gold expectations.  Time and again, we would turn the corner, expecting to get free parking and WHAM, a fender-bender by a Tampa Bay loss.  Or ... SCREECH ... bumper to bumper traffic on the way to  the Browns throttling.  Or, my favorite, the Saints loss, which is like saving for weeks to be able to afford garage parking (bye week) only to forget your wallet in the grocery store and run out of gas while looking for a space on the street (turnovers and ineptitude all-around.)

Much like all of our five regular season losses, the Steelers fell short on the scoreboard due to turnovers.  Truthfully, they should have lost to Jacksonville and Tennessee, as well.  Not only would that have been hilarious, but would have prompted the question, "When is the last time a team with a winning record lost to four different teams who would selecting in the top six in following year's draft?"

There were a lot of positive victories for the team this season.  It's tough, though, to put a finger on which win was most impressive.  Was in the Colts victory when we were underdogs and hung 51 on a team that had just shut-out the Bengals one week earlier?  Was it the road win in Cincinnati that followed the New Orleans loss where we looked like world-beaters for the final 20 minutes of the game in route to a 21-point win?  Was it the Chiefs win, which clinched a playoff birth against a quality opponent?  The Baltimore win?  The Atlanta win?  The Bengals win to seal the division?

Which victory, too, was the most important?  Was it any of the aforementioned triumphs?  Was it the Texans win where the team exploded in the final minutes of the second quarter to awaken a national audience and avoid a second consecutive loss?  Was it the opening victory against Cleveland, avoiding both a Browns' comeback and a Week 1 letdown like last season?  The Steelers could have lost any of the games they won.  Many fans and pundits discuss the Steelers "bad losses."  Pittsburgh lost the games they deserved to lose.  They played poorly in all of them, just like they played poorly on Saturday night.  There were no blown calls by the referees in the fourth quarter.  There were no interceptions in the opponents' red zone, down four, with 30 seconds to play.  There were no "play-out-of-your-mind" games against far superior opponents only to lose on a 51-yard missed field goal.  In contrast, if you go back and review the season, which game did you feel like, at halftime, the Steelers were in control?  And that's not a complaint, that's more of the situation the Steelers found themselves throughout the season while steadily improving week after week en route to a 4-0 December.  When they controlled the ball and avoided turnovers, they won.  When they didn't or couldn't, they lost.

Think about, too, the things that we did not seeing coming to fruition that were predicted in the preseason.  Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones were going to be the 1-2 punch at linebacker we needed.  Instead it was James Harrison, Jason Worilds and Stephon Tuitt playing above their heads, all at various points, mostly when the team needed it most.  The running games was supposed to be a 1-2 punch with Le'Veon Bell and LaGarrette Blount.  Who knew that Bell would carry the offense more often than not, mostly alone at tailback, while becoming the best all-around back in the league?  Markus Wheaton and SIX catches last season.  Counting the playoff loss, he had 59 this season.

While it will still sting for a few weeks, we've enjoyed a bitter, empty, but still pleasant and exciting 2014 season from the Pittsburgh Steelers.  We'll save prognostications for 2015 for a later time.  Thank you for the free parking.  We didn't see the 46th minute getting here so quickly.