The Steelers

I wrote a couple of weeks ago as I watched the Steelers struggle to finish off a horrible Browns team, AFTER struggling to finish off a horrible Lions team that I could not envision a scenario in which the Steelers won a playoff game. At that time they had not beaten a winning team, and looked less than strong in beating two very weak teams. The defense had blown 4th quarter leads that led to two consecutive losses, and could have led to a third against San Diego. This same defense almost let Detroit do the same thing! They had very few turnovers, very few sacks and my favorite player, Lamarr Woodley had largely been a no show. With Aaron Smith shelved for the year, and Polamalu hobbled, that statement felt like reality at the time. I am still not sure about this team. We did beat a very good Vikings team, and our defense made big plays like the defense of the prior year. Ben is playing like a SB champ, and our offense has a lot of weapons. I love the development of Mike Wallace, and the hard running of Mendenhall. I love that we finally seem to be taking advantage of the best TE in football, getting him the ball often. I worry about a special teams that gave up touchdowns against San Diego, Cleveland and Minnesota, and would like to see the defense follow up with a couple of performances like the one in Minnesota. With games against Cincinnati, Denver and Baltimore coming up in the next month, we will know what kind of team our defending champs really are.