THE 50-YARD LINE

     Wow. Just wow. For once, Mrs. Black-N-Gold is speechless. Words can't begin to describe the debacle that was the latest Steelers loss yesterday, 21-14 in Baltimore. Normally, she'd give you The Good, The Bad and the Ugly from yesterday's game. There was more than enough bad and ugly to go around. But there was absolutely nothing good about this game. Not. One. Damn. Thing. What started as such a hopeful day on a beautiful afternoon for football turned to garbage in a hurry. Everyone was abuzz thanks to the returns of DL Cam Heyward (whose name I never heard mentioned all day), T Marcus Gilbert (he did the revolving door bit at one point to allow a sack) and QB Ben Roethlisberger (would we really rather have Ben at less than 100% instead of a totally healthy Landry Jones?). No, there will be no Good, Bad & Ugly today. Instead, Mrs. Black-N-Gold is going to provide a laundry list of big moments from the game and see if we can make sense of this mess.

1)Boom! Right off the bat, the Steelers go 3 and out on 1st possession and C Maurkice Pouncey leaves the field with a thumb injury (Pouncey would later return only to leave again).

2)CB Artie Burns, making his 1st NFL start, grabs his 1st career interception. It was also the 1st interception for the Steelers secondary this season. The turnover led to 0 points (this is a trend that developed in the Patriots game).

3)It wasn't all sunshine and flowers for Artie. Burns was burned (punny) along with the rest of the Steelers D by the former one-trick pony Mike Wallace for a 95 yard touchdown. That set a new Baltimore record.

4)The Steelers talked all week about leaning heavily on RB Le'Veon Bell in the game plan. Bell was mostly ineffective, rushing 14 times for 32 yards, a 2.3 average. He also caught 6 passes for 38 yards.

5)Roethlisberger was no better. He completed 23 of 45 passes for 264 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception and a 67.3 passer rating. Ben was so completely off his game, there were times you had to wonder why he was still in the game.

6)The Steelers were a pathetic 4 for 16 on 3rd downs.

7)It looked like P Jordan Berry would be the MVP of the day until his punt was blocked in the 4th quarter for a TD. When this happened, the Steelers were trailing 13-0.

8)The Steelers were flagged 13 times for 99 yards. At one point in the game, the Steelers racked up more yards on penalties then on offense. They had a penalty for every occasion: Delay of game, false start, running into the punter, face mask/hands to the face, neutral zone, pass interference, too many men on the field.

9)With 48 seconds to go, the Steelers had one last chance, trailing 21-14. They lined up for an onsides kick. Keep in mind, they unsuccessfully tried an onsides kick in their loss to New England. Now they're 0 for 2 this season.

10)For some reason, K Chris Boswell, thought he was performing the River Dance like Hines Ward used to do on touchdowns, when he attempted his kick. It fell 2 inches off the tee so he tried a legitimate onsides kick immediately thereafter. Make that another penalty. You can only kick the ball once, Boz.

That about sums up the Steelers dreadful day. The Steelers lost to Baltimore for the 11th time in their last 14 meetings They have now lost to sub-.500 teams, on the road, in 12 of the last 17 games. They have also lost 3 straight games and are now in a tie with Baltimore for the AFC North lead at 4-4 (although Baltimore holds the tiebreaker). Cincy had a bye but they're right behind at 3-4-1. The Clowns are still the Clowns, falling to 0-9 (please, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't let the Steelers lose to Cleveland when we face them!)

Next week the Steelers return home to Heinz Field to face America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas is the best team in the NFC with a 7-1 mark. They're led by a couple of rookies, QB Dak Prescott and RB Ezekiel Elliott. Can the Steelers recover from their latest embarrassing loss and get back in the win column? They'd better if they hope to have a shot at the playoffs. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!