Special Teams Ride the Short Bus as Steelers Fall to Jets 22-17

The Steelers lost to the Jets at home, who last week lost to the Dolphins at home, whom the Steelers beat in week 7, but who lost to the Bills* at home today. What does this mean? What does your face mean?

The Steelers had a pretty nice opportunity to take care of the Jets and the Panthers over the course of 5 days and lock up a first-round bye and give themselves a nice 24 day stretch where they wouldn't have to worry about playing any meaningful games and Ben and Troy and Heath and whomever else could get healthy. But they blew this opportunity by spotting the Jets seven points, taking three penalties of Bengals-level stupidity, and suffering an epic, boner-killing safety late in the fourth quarter (Why is Mewelde Moore the running back on that play instead of Mendenhall? WHY, BRUCE?).

Now the Steelers REALLY have to try hard against the Panthers on Thursday night (at the exact same time the Pens play the Capitals, btw). Hopefully their special teams play today was just an aberration and this isn't the start of them reverting back to their 2009 form where poor tackling and generally shitty coverage lead to several crippling touchdowns and losses to the Browns.

The defense really isn't the same without Troy. CBS flashed some graphic in the first quarter of today's game listing the Steelers' record with and without Polamalu. I forget the numbers but that shit was frightening. They just do not win without that dude.  Make sure you ask Santa for a healthy Polamalu this Christmas.

I'm not too down on the defense though. They only allowed 13 points. One touchdown. And that was aided hugely by Ryan Clark's patented Human Missle Unnecessary Roughness Penalty (good at least once per game!), turning a 15 yard gain into a 30 yard gain. And even then the Jets had to win their gamble on 4th down and 1 from the 7 to get the touchdown. The Jets scored 9 points on Defense and Special Teams. Just can't let that happen. Especially against good teams.

Finally, Big Ben is a fucking beast. What do you think was going through Santonio's mind as he sees Ben leading his team down the field in the waining seconds of the game? Ben's fumble on 2nd and 10 from his own 41 was a real crusher. Cost them 14 yards, 10 seconds, a down, and a timeout. Brutal. But that was an unreal drive. Great game all around from My Favorite Accused Rapist of All Time (MFARAT).




*Have you looked at the Bills schedule? Freaking impossible.