Monday Evening Quarterback - Week Nine

It's time to take all those Terrible Towels and stow them away in the attic for the winter.

It's time to cancel Sunday Ticket.

It's time to give that jersey a good wash so it's ready for the 2010 season.

Because this year is officially over.

Fire Mike Tomlin.

Fire Bruce Arians.

Beg Dick Lebeau to retire.

Trade Santonio Holmes for a box of tape from the Florida Penal Football League.

See if Tampa Bay will swap Ben Roethlisberger for Byron Leftwich.

Cut all the offensive linemen and build from scratch.

Forget the fact that the Steelers have the same 6-3 record they had at this point last year.

Forget the fact that a win yesterday would have given the Steelers their first 6 game winning streak of Mike Tomlin's coaching career.

Forget the fact that the Steelers worked so hard to dig their way back to relevance after an onerous 1-2 start had people comparing this season to 2006's disastrous title defense.

The Steelers are bad, the Bengals are great and this season is doomed.

I'm being facetious, of course.

The Steelers laid an egg against the Bengals at home.  It happens.  It happened in 2005.

But this season has only just begun.

The Bengals have put together a defense that is like kryptonite to Ben Roethlisberger.  Piece by piece they've acquired guys who fit what they do, and most importantly they're operating at 100% efficiency under 2nd year defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, who has transformed their defense into a giant after being the achilles heel of that team for so long.

The Bengals deserve a ton of credit - they're a solid football team.

But the Steelers deserve plenty of scorn.

The quarterback wouldn't throw the ball, and when he did only batted passes at the line could hide his inaccuracy on the day.

The offensive line wasn't overwhelmed, but they were far from dominant.

The new star running back looked timid.  Washed-up greybeard Willie Parker broke more tackles on one lonely run than Rashard Mendenhall broke all day long.

The receivers failed.  Santonio Holmes dropped a difficult pass for a touchdown, though he was the only guy who showed up the rest of the day.  Hines Ward couldn't get open yet again.  Mike Wallace dropped a pass and showed a complete disinterest in blocking.

The offensive coordinator dug deep to find answers, but ended up with stuff that was out of the offense's comfort zone. 

It was ugly.

But it's not over.

I'm not going to pencil in the Cincinnati Bengals for the division title just yet.  A 1.5 game lead with 7 games remaining does not mean it's in the bag.

Seasons and games can turn in a heartbeat, and that goes both ways.  I would not be surprised to see the Bengals suffer the same overconfidence that plagued the Steelers going into yesterday's game.  The Bengals have an "easy" schedule.  "Easy" schedules usually have a way of fooling a team when they're cognizant of it.

Most importantly, the Bengals are preparing to tempt the football fates by signing Larry Johnson.  Please sign him, Mike Brown.  That would give me more confidence than anything, welcoming a cancer into a locker room that has been successfully transformed into a band of winners.

The Steelers have made life more difficult for themselves, no doubt.  The road to a division championship is not in their control, and that's a bad place to be in for a team used to staying at the top.

But all that matters is what Bill Cowher couldn't do in 2006 - earn this team a ticket to the dance and let the chips fall where they may.

The Steelers are in great position for a wild card berth no matter what happens with the remainder of the Bengals' season.  They have 4 imminently winnable games, and there's no reason they can't sweep the Ravens and beat the Packers.  Simply put, there's no reason they can't win out from here.

Steeler fans are a spoiled bunch, myself included.  We're used to winning.  We're used to domination.  Especially against the Bengals.

Younger Steelers fans have an inaccurate, fantastical picture of the 1970's.  They believe those teams never faced adversity and never lost to teams they were supposed to beat.  It happens.  It's the NFL. 

I would hope that Steeler fans react as passionately to real life adversity as they react to adversity we see on a TV screen a few weeks a year.  Football is life, but Steeler fans treat losses like death, and it's never that final unless it's a playoff game, and even then there's always next year.

Football is a narrative that spans years and decades.  Failures sweeten the taste of success, while successes over-prime our systems for the inevitable failures to come, and they will.  Maybe not next week.  Maybe not next year.  But they will come.

I'm not happy after losing to the Bengals.  But I refuse to give up hope because of one loss, no matter how much import the game in question carried.

I feel like this is a team that is still putting it all together, and have felt that way even after some big wins.

The Bengals may have been playing better football in September and November. 

I have a hard time believing that they'll be playing better football in January.

FURIOUS FIVE

1.  New England Patriots

BethlehemSteel reports that last night's game is under protest.  If I had to guess, I'd say that Leslie Moonves will rule in favor of the Patriots.

2.  Indianapolis Colts

A lack of balance hasn't hurt them much this year.

3.  New Orleans Saints

Their run defense is garbage.  They narrowly escaped a loss to the Rams.

4.  Minnesota Vikings

They weren't dominant defensively against the Lions, but Sidney Rice and Adrian Peterson both made dominant plays and had dominant games.

5.  Cincinnati Bengals

Nice game.

AWARDS

Offense

Santonio Holmes

He was the only guy on offense who showed up, and even he couldn't make a difficult catch in the end zone that could have turned the tide of the game.

Defense

Ike Taylor

He stole Chad Johnson's lunch money - again.

Special Teams

This award has been cancelled.

Goat

Ben Roethlisberger

The guy couldn't do anything right.  His deep balls were late and lacked zip.  His short balls were low and batted down.  When he had open checkdowns, he didn't take them.  Ben will make the final progression to 100% elite when he finally learns to get the ball out of his hand on time.

QUOTABLE

"Offensively, we ... we ... I played bad. It kind of starts with me up there. I've got to make corrections and adjustments and pick up my play."

- Ben Roethlisberger

STATS, STAT

The Steelers are 6-8 during the Mike Tomlin era (regular season) when Ben Roethlisberger is sacked four or more times.  The Steelers' offense can and does recover from sacks.  But there is a limit to how many sacks any offense can afford to take without ruining too many drives.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

1.  It's time to demote Hines Ward to 3rd wide receiver.  It wouldn't affect much of his playing time because of all the three wide receiver sets this team runs, but it would make the base offense much more effective at this point.  Ward has been erased the past three games with little effort from the defense.  He's got 12 catches for 71 yards over that time, a RB-like average of 5.9 yards per catch.  What makes it even worse is that the offense is built around using motion to get Ward open, and he's still not gaining anything resembling separation.  This allows defenses to key on Holmes in 2 WR sets and Holmes and Wallace in 3 WR sets.  When combined with the fact that LB's and even DL's are matching up successfully with Heath Miller in the passing game, it puts far too much burden on Holmes to carry the offense, though he's done well despite all the attention.  If the Steelers make the switch, Holmes can play Ward's flanker position and reap the benefits of motion and free releases from the line, while Wallace can threaten the safeties deep which might just open up the running game against quality run defenses.

2.  I'm so sick of kickoff returns for touchdowns.  I would be working out kickoff specialists and special teams demons today.  Jeff Reed's kickoffs are atrocious and nothing is likely to change until they get a competent kickoff guy.  A 30 yard head start creates too many lanes for a coverage unit to defend.  Maybe Stefan Logan hasn't made the splash many expected due to the fact that he was running roughshod through the Steelers' pathetic kickoff coverage during training camp, and simply doesn't know what to expect from solid coverage units.

3.  Speaking of personnel changes, I'd like to see more of Mendenhall on third down.  I love Mewelde Moore, he's clutch and always seems to find the sticks.  But Mendenhall is his equal as a receiver and blocker, and he would not be running step for step with a defensive lineman on a swing pass like Moore was yesterday with Domata Peko.  My complaint with Arians against the Bengals was the fact that his favorite personnel grouping weren't working and he failed to mix it up.  I would have loved to have seen Limas Sweed get on the field in four wide receiver sets instead of continually running out Heath Miller, who could neither get open or pass block effectively.

4.  Great work James Harrison, way to keep that temper in check.  Just a stupid, stupid penalty that cost the Steelers time off the clock, field position and possibly three points.

5.  Here's to hoping that Troy Polamalu can return in time for Baltimore in two weeks.  On a day when the offense needed a short field, the Steelers' defenders dropped at least three interceptions.  The Steelers have only one interception in the four games in which Troy hasn't played.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

6.  I mentioned weeks ago that the one off-the-radar team I wouldn't want the Steelers to play was the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Now they're on a roll.  Call me crazy, but if Jacksonville makes the playoffs Maurice Jones-Drew deserves some serious MVP consideration, he's carrying that team on his back.

7.  Can anyone figure out the middle of the pack teams in the NFC?  The Cardinals, Packers, Panthers and Falcons are all great one week, horrid the next.  At the beginning of the season I believed that the balance of power had shifted towards the NFC.  I no longer believe that, I see one great team (Minnesota), one intriguing team (New Orleans) and a bunch of pretenders.  I can't see any of the current wild card contenders in the NFC finishing better than 10-6.

8.  If LaDainian Tomlinson is actually going to be LaDainian Tomlinson for the rest of the season, the Chargers will run away with the AFC West, which is less of an accomplishment now that the Broncos have been thoroughly exposed.  Josh McDaniels finally did the obvious and went deep successfully early against the Redskins, but just like clockwork Kyle Orton went down with an injury and Chris Simms went on to pull a Derek Anderson.

9.  When the Patriots get into big games, they typically don't run the ball unless it's Kevin Faulk toting the rock from passing looks.  I don't expect that to change, but it will be interesting if and when the Patriots get all their injured running backs back.  Belichick moved towards balance with Matt Cassel under center last season, but has thrown balance out the window with Tom Brady back in the fold.

10. What a precipitous fall for LenDale White.  From a 1,000 yard rusher who was money in the red zone to a bloated afterthought whose career is on life support at the tender age of 24.  3 carries for 6 yards was a big day for him against the Bills.  Still, I have no doubt that there will be a handful of Steeler fans who pine for him this offseason when he's a free agent.

IN THE CROSSHAIRS

The Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers don't just have a must-win game against a poor team on the road next week, they need to regain their confidence and swagger against a squad that they should destroy.