Steel City Blitz
Earlier this season, I wrote a piece comparing the Pittsburgh Steelers to the classic Bill Murray movie ‘Groundhog Day.’ It seemed at the time to be the best comparison I could find to our beloved Black and Gold putting us through the same type of season year after year after year. When the Steelers went on a three-game winning streak recently I thought for the briefest of moments that maybe this season would be different. Then we went to Cleveland.
I received a text this morning from a long-time friend and fellow Steelers’ fan which basically asked the question, “Why is anyone surprised by what happened yesterday?” As much as I hate to admit it, his question was fair and sadly, appropriate. We’ve seen this before. We’ve lived this before. We’ve felt this before to our core and I find myself today… over it.
This doesn’t mean I’m going to turn in my fandom or anything like that. I think what I’m feeling is that I know until significant change is made, nothing will in fact… CHANGE! When last season ended, ironically enough with a brutal loss to the Ravens, we were all told “changes were coming” yet very little about this team and organization is different. There were some personnel changes and some moves that didn’t seem very ‘Steelers-like’ but the coordinators remained and quite frankly, very little changed about the way Mike Tomlin has gone about things. Not surprisingly this all led to very similar results.
The Steelers could very well beat the Ravens on Sunday night and host a playoff game as the champions of the AFC North but my confidence in them beating Buffalo, Houston or Los Angeles is low. That, after all, has been the goal hasn’t it? While most of us still believe the only successful Steelers’ season is one that ends in a Super Bowl victory, most of us also entered 2025 saying, “just win a playoff game this year!” It would be enough at least for one season and maybe enough to get Mike Tomlin back on track.
But then Cleveland happened. D.K. Metcalf and Calvin Austin III were both unavailable and Darnell Washington was lost early on to a broken arm. That left an already below average receiving corps even more depleted. So naturally, Arthur Smith adjusted right? Wrong… With the Browns’ defense being anchored in the middle by a rookie on one leg, Smith’s offense completely ignored the middle of the field until the final drive. Then Aaron Rodgers decided it was more important to make a hero of Marques Valdes-Scantling rather than say, hitting the open receivers!
As the Browns kneeled out the final seconds I couldn’t help but think that maybe I’m just over this. Good teams lose to bad teams, yes that happens, but there are situations when it absolutely should not and yesterday was one of them. I don’t know about you but I’m ready for something new. I’m ready to live and die with a...
