THE 50-YARD LINE

Well, a change of scenery didn't seem to help your Pittsburgh Steelers. Even in London, they still came out on the losing end of things, dropping their 4th in a row, to the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 34-27. Mrs. Black-N-Gold takes a look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the latest Steelers loss.

1)The Good-Let's see....The obvious good is that with a bye week, the Steelers won't be in the loss column again this week. Was there anything else good about it? Hm. RB Le'Veon Bell made his season debut, rushing 16 times for 57 yards, a 3.6 yard average, and 2 touchdowns. Also, WR Jerricho Cotchery caught 5 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown. Actually, the fact that the offensively-challenged Steelers were able to put up 27 points is a bit of a good thing.

2)The Bad-It continues to be the turnstile that is the offensive line. Or more specifically, our tackles, second round draft picks Mike Adams and Marcus Gilbert. QB Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 5 times and hit 5 more. The biggest sack came on the final drive of the game. With 3rd and goal with 19 seconds left, Ben was sacked and fumbled the ball away to end a potential game-tying drive. In the first half alone, Adams let DE Jared Allen sack Ben twice and Adams also was penalized for holding. This is not a good way to protect your quarterback.

3)The Ugly-Week after week, the loss would hang on the offense for a lack of scoring. Not this week. The defense is the ugly duckling, surrendering 34 points to a team that was led by their backup quarterback. Matt Cassel was only sacked once. The defense continued to be shut out in the turnover department. The Steelers let RB Adrian Peterson run all over them for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns. They also let Cassel do his best impersonation of an NFL quarterback. He was 16 of 25 for 248 yards and a 123.4 passer rating. WR Jerome Simpson had 7 catches for 124 yards and WR Greg Jennings was 3 for 92 and 2 scores. The missed tackles and missed opportunities continue to mount.

The Steelers are in trouble. Big trouble. Coach Mike Tomlin doesn't know what to do to stop the bleeding. If he doesn't figure something out soon, this team could be on life support before you know it. It's a shame because both the Baltimorons and the Bungles also lost. It was a good day to make hay. Now the Steelers have to go back to the drawing board during the bye and conjure up some medicine to save this season. Paging Dr. Tomlin, Dr. Mike Tomlin. We have an emergency in the ER. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!