THE 50-YARD LINE

Your Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a 26-20 OT loss on Saturday night to the KC Chiefs. The loss drops the Steelers to 0-3 in the preseason. Now that Mrs. Black-N-Gold has come down off of the ledge, these are the Good, the Bad and the Ugly about Saturday's loss.

1)The Good-The starting offense scored a touchdown! It was a 21-yard pass from QB Ben Roethlisberger to RB Jonathan Dwyer. The play was really Ben being Ben. He scrambled to avoid the rush and made something out of nothing by finding Dwyer open in the flat. Touchdown Steelers!

2)The Bad-Unfortunately, there is more bad than good to report. As I said, the starting offense scored their first touchdown of the preseason. It was also the only touchdown the starting offense scored. As has become the norm during the Tomlin era, the Steelers started like gangbusters than took their foot off the gas on the next drive and settled for a field goal. What goes on here? Does the opponent make adjustments and the Steelers fail to answer those adjustments? Whatever the reason, the Steelers suffer from this affliction way too much.

3)The Ugly-Again, it's hard to narrow it down to just one ugly thing. It could be the 9 penalties for 98 yards, 3 of them personal foul penalties. True, the calls on Dwyer for blocking at the knees and Cortez Allen for shoving a receiver out of bounds, were ticky-tacky penalties. The call on Troy Polamalu for going at the head of the QB, was not. Troy has been around the league long enough to know better. How can you expect the young players to mind the rulebook if the veterans don't? There was also a pass interference penalty on CB Josh Victorian that negated a Jarvis Jones interception. Victorian, hmm, that reminds me. Speaking of "ugly", Victorian also had an ugly miss of a tackle that helped contribute to the (not-so) special teams giving up a 109-yard kickoff return. While we're on the subject the special teams also let a field goal attempt get blocked. What's so special about the Steelers special teams? Absolute nothing.

Just repeat after me, "It's only preseason". That being said, there's only one more exhibition game, this Thursday versus Carolina. The starters probably won't play more than a series or two. It all comes down to getting it together at the Steelers south side practice facility. Mark your calendars, the regular season starts on September 8 against Tennessee. Get it together, guys. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!