No Joy in Blitzburgh

There is no joy in Blitzburgh tonight.  For going on 40 years, the pride of the Steelers was their defense.  Through quarterbacks thickheaded (Bubby Brister) and thinskinned (Neil O'Donnell) and other offensive woes, the Steelers defense may have occasionally wobbled but basically stayed strong.

Then came this season and piles of points given up, climaxed today when the New England Patriots scored 31 points in 17.5 minutes (the fourth quarter) and broke all time records for most points scored (55) and most yards gained against the Steelers in their history.  And that history before the 1970s was not pretty.

This Steelers team didn't win a preseason game and lost the first four of the season.  But then put together two wins, including one against the Super Bowl champ, their most recent blood rival, the Baltimore Ravens.

Then came the loss to Oakland (another old rival, but a shadow of its great teams.)  But it was only today's loss that has the Pittsburgh sports scribes declaring that the season is over, and it's time to remember baseball and pay attention to hockey.  Or this:

"This score was tied, 24-24, with 7:10 remaining in the third quarter, the Steelers having overcome deficits of 14-0 and 24-10, but what happened after that, for the consumption of a national-television audience no less, was little else but the Steelers quitting on their mission, quitting on themselves, quitting on their coaches, quitting on their organization, quitting, inescapably, on their city."

Pretty harsh, and maybe too much.  There's something cyclical going on, for the Steelers and their conference, which is turning out to be the worst in the NFL.  The only reason that one team in it won today was because two teams in it were playing each other.

None of this will be a big surprise to my billions of readers.  I said the Ravens' Super Bowl win was a fluke, and they would stink this year.  They stink this year.  And I said that the Steelers would have a tough time winning a single game, because other teams have figured out how to beat them.  But I don't necessarily agree their season is totally lost, basically because nobody else in their conference is any good either. Still it's obvious that personnel changes are in the offing, and for whatever reasons, the Steelers haven't lucked out in their draft choices or young free agents.

So the Steelers could become the new old Pirates for awhile.  Rebuilding, if that's even possible in today's NFL.