THE 50-YARD LINE

Your Pittsburgh Steelers got off on the wrong foot yesterday, dropping their season-opener to Tennessee 16-9. Now that Mrs. Black-N-Gold has had time to calm down after this debacle, she looks at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from yesterday's game.

1)The Good-The only thing good about yesterday is the fact that the other three teams in the AFC North, the Clowns, the Bungles and the Baltimorons, also lost their season-openers. At least the Steelers aren't looking up from the bottom of the standings.

2)The Bad-Except for a touchdown pass from Ben to Cotchery in garbage time, the only score for the Steelers was a safety by Tennessee on the opening kickoff. Another bad part about that is the safety was Tennessee's fault, the Steelers didn't cause it at all. There were many other bad, bad points from this game. The non-exist running game, Redman's 2 fumbles, 6 for 60 on penalties, Ben was sacked 5 times. What else? How about the defense? True, they held Tennessee to 16 points. However, they only had 1 sack and zero turnovers. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

3)The Ugly-In case you didn't notice, the Steelers were bitten by the injury bug yesterday, big time. They lost C Maurkice Pouncey, LB Larry Foote, and RB La'Rod Stephens-Howling to season-ending injuries during the game. Also injured were CB Cortez Allen and K Shaun Siusham. We'll see how bad those injuries are as the week develops.

So, that's it. The Steelers have a lot of work to do to get ready for the Bungles next Monday night on the road. They did lose a conference game but at least it wasn't in the division. Remember when the Steelers would lose a player and another one would step in and they wouldn't miss a beat? It's been evident for the last few years that that is no longer the case. If ever there was a time when the Steelers younger players needed to step up, the time is now. Seems like I'm saying that quite a bit these days.....Re-group and attack the Bungles. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!