THE 50-YARD LINE

     To quote those great English poets, Led Zeppelin, "the song remains the same." Our Pittsburgh Steelers continue to have trouble with sub-.500 teams on the road. They demonstrated this again yesterday in their 30-15 loss at Miami. How did they loss to a 1-4 team? Oh, let Mrs. Black-N-Gold count the ways. Today she brings you The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from yesterday's loss.


GOOD

What could be good about this loss? Well, although it was against another AFC team, at least it wasn't a division opponent. Also, the rest of the AFC North lost yesterday. It's not much to go on but it is something good. 

BAD

This game seemed bad from the get-go. Mrs. Black-N-Gold doesn't really remember hearing many Steelers players names mentioned throughout the course of the day unless it was for the wrong reasons such as missed tackles, stupid penalties and bone-headed moves. Our favorite Black-N-Gold Football Team never really had a chance to get things going, not when they lost the time-of-possession battle 36:30 to 23:30. Just like the loss in Philly, the Steelers didn't look at all prepared for this matchup. QB Ben Roethlisberger was one of the biggest reasons for this loss. Big Ben was brought down twice by the Miami D and was picked off twice, as well. #7 was 19 of 34 for 189 yards and a paltry 57.1 passer rating. Even before Ben's knee injury and subsequent return, he seemed to be off his game. Maybe his offensive line didn't give him enough time in the pocket. Or maybe his receivers weren't getting open. Or all of the above. Make no mistake, it was a bad performance not matter how you slice it.

UGLY

Speaking of slicing the Steelers defense was sliced up more than a carrot in a Cuisinart. They allowed Miami RB Jay Ajayi (who?) to run roughshod over them, rushing for 204 yards and 2 touchdowns, good for an 8.2 yard average. They also only recorded 2 QB hits and 0 sacks on much-maligned Miami QB Ryan Tannehill. It was enough to make you want to through up, much like Steelers LB Lawrence Timmons did yesterday. He probably made himself sick from chasing around after Dolphins players in the Miami heat all afternoon. Now Mrs. Black-N-Gold is aware that the Steelers had many injured players sit this one out yesterday. A big problem was that the next men didn't step up as they had been. The league has gotten some film on these guys now and has made the necessary adjustments. It's time for our men to push back. If they don't, it will continue to get ugly.

As Mrs. Black-N-Gold said earlier, all the Steelers AFC North rivals lost as well so the Steelers are still on top at 4-2. The Baltimorons are 2nd with a 3-3 record. The Bungles follow with a 2-4 mark. The Clowns continue to search for a win in the basement at 0-6. 

Next week doesn't look to get any easier as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots come to town. A win in this game could go a long way in deciding home field advantage and/or a bye come playoff time. Hopefully the Steelers can get some injured players back for this one before they go into the bye week. Get back in that win column and stay there. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!