THE 50-YARD LINE

      We're from the town with the great football team? That seems hard to believe following our Steelers putrid performance in the 20-17 loss to the Baltimorons yesterday. But win or lose, Mrs. Black-N-Gold will always bring to you The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from yesterday's game.

GOOD

Mrs. Black-N-Gold guesses that you could say that the Steelers still have a chance at making the playoffs with the final wild card going into next week. That is good but it's never good to rely on others to punch your ticket to the postseason. The only good thing on the field for the Black-N-Gold yesterday was RB DeAngelo Williams who continues to impress. DWill carried the ball 17 times for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also caught 6 passes for 53 yards. This 32 year old does not look like the player the Steelers picked up off the scrap heap this offseason. The problem is, the Baltimorons were cutting off the deep threat so the Steelers had to settle for the run game and whatever they could get underneath. Hence, DWill's GOOD day.

BAD

Mallet, Allen, Juszczyk. Who are these guys? They're not you father's Baltimorons, that's for sure. They're a testament to how badly the Steelers played. QB Ryan Mallet was 28 for 41 for 274 yards and 1 touchdown. The Steelers forced no turnovers and only sacked the much-traveled QB once. His tenure in Baltimore was only all of 12 days. Then there's the offense.....QB Ben Roethlisberger threw 2 interceptions (a pick 6 was negated by an offsides penalty). Coming into this game, Baltimore only had 4 INTs all season. And the penalties that Baltimore racked up, especially in the 2nd half made it seem like they were trying to give the Steelers the game. But the Steelers wanted know part of it. That's BAD.

UGLY

Just think, yesterday morning, during all the pregame shows, many pundits predicted the Steelers could go all the way to the Super Bowl. Now, the only way they may get there is to purchase tickets. When you continue to play down to your level of competition, such as losing to a 4-10 team for the 2nd time this season, you really don't deserve to go to the playoffs. The only bowl you should see is the toilet bowl because you've flushed your season away. And if the Steelers don't make it to the postseason this year, or if they do but fail to win a game, it will be the 1st time since before the Chuck Noll era that they haven't won a playoff game in 5 years straight. Chew on that one for a while. That's almost 50 years. Ouch, that's UGLY.

Fret not, Steelers fans. Our favorite Black-N-Gold football team still has a shot to make the playoffs, no matter how slim.  IF Buffalo beats the Jets next week and IF the Steelers don't play down to their competition again and clobber the Clowns, they're in. If not, it's time to draft that shutdown corner Mrs. Black-N-Gold wanted for Christmas and get everyone healthy for next year. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!