So if you don't already know, Yahoo! has this neat app that lets you pick the games in the last two weeks and it generates a playoff bracket accordingly. The fun part of this is that if the Steelers win their last two games, well... the playoffs still aren't out of reach. First, we'll assume the Steelers win out. They have to. Then we need to wait on things like New England beating Jacksonville and Houston, and Philadelphia beating Denver. Those are the only games that could really go either way that impact the Steelers.

It doesn't sound too bad, does it? Even though the Steelers scarcely deserve a playoff berth at this point, they could still come back and claim the 6th seed over Denver or Jacksonville. How huge was that monday night win at Mile High?

So assuming the Steelers win out, the likely case is that we'll be the 6th seed, playing New England on Wild Card weekend. Baltimore would be 5th, playing Cincinnati. But that's still two weeks away. We have two huge games ahead of us. First thing's first. We have to beat Baltimore.

The playoffs start this week.

Here We Go.

(Also, the Steelers signed Joey Galloway. Who cares.)

After a Thursday night game we'd all rather forget, a grueling week of finals, and enduring all the talk of Pittsburgh's collapse, I think what we all needed was to see a good Steeler game. And the Steelers delivered.

Was it a perfect game? Far from it. The defense still gave up 36 points. But the offense put up 37. The Steelers were in another exciting game this week. At times you thought it was same old same old. Others, you felt it was going to be different this time. And it was. The Steelers finally won a close game this season. It's a great feeling.

Full game recap after the jump.

Really, hats off to Ryan Clark for telling it how it is. Steeler fans who sit on their couches and feel nothing but despair over missing the playoffs are worthless. So are people who are embarrassed and ashamed of the team missing the playoffs -- a rare event.

Look, it's kind of wishy-washy to say it, but these guys are real people too. And they take pride in their work. If you think the Steelers don't care that they haven't had a lot of success this season, you are nuts.

It's just not fair to trash and poke fun at the same players who we cheered and rooted for during a Super Bowl win last season. You are either with the Steelers or against them...through good and bad. Stay the course.

And preach it, Ryan.

"This year, increasingly, it's made me realize that you have to play for your organization, you have to play for your teammates, you have to play for yourself, for your family because the people on the outside don't understand the frustration you go through. They don't understand the work you put into it every day. A lot of people think we come in here and practice a couple of hours and then go out on Sunday and go play the game. That's not how it is.

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Clark said he will not try to find the fellow who wrote him the critical letter he posted on the bulletin board.

"I'm not upset with the guy. I don't want to go to his house or fight him. That's his opinion and that's how he feels. I don't know what he does for a living. Whether he's an accountant. I can't go talk to him about how he crunches numbers. I can't go talk to him about how he teaches his class and things like that."

 

 

Like you want to relive that. It's 1:12 AM and Ben Roethlisberger just got sacked again.

No recap. I don't want to write it and you don't want to read it. The Steelers won't be in the postseason. They've lost to three of the worst teams in football in the past month. The next game is against Green Bay, a team hungry for the playoffs that's playing good football. Three games left. Let's just hope the Steelers can right the ship and win a few more.

So I have a final exam on computer programming in about half an hour, and what am I doing? Blogging about the Steelers, that's what.

Tonight the Steelers go into Cleveland to play against a relatively hot Browns team that seems to at least have learned how to play football in recent weeks. Brady Quinn, teenage heartthrob, finally gets his chance to lead his childhood team agains their division rivals. The Steelers have suffered a month of losing and the result has been a depth chart shakeup.

We'll be seeing Joe Burnett and Keenan Lewis tonight, finally, and one has to wonder if Tomlin wants them to get playing time against a bad team. I would call that a mistake, because we've all seen what happens when you let your team play down to teams like the Raiders and Chiefs. The other option is that maybe two rookies are better than Gay and Taylor. That's a scary thought, especially considering how reliable Ike usually is. We're just going to have to wait and see what these new corners can do.

Is Deshea Townsend even still on the roster?

If Tomlin is going to mail it in this season and get his young guys experience (and honestly, who can blame him? The playoffs are out of reach), then I'd like to see what we have in Ziggy Hood as well. The rest of this season would be a chance to get all the new defensive guys some solid playing time and see what the future of the Steelers is. Maybe if we're lucky, the game will be over by the 4th quarter and we might see Dennis Dixon again.

It's kind of hard to talk about the season like it's already over, because it isn't. But it's also time to consider the value of playing for the future (especially if the Jaguars win on Sunday).

Here We Go.

The PG was on top of things as usual and reported yesterday that Mike Tomlin will be benching some starters for this Thursday's game against Cleveland. Here's the scoop:

"It's going to be Joe Burnett," Tomlin said. "Keenan Lewis is going to get an opportunity to play. We want to see both of those guys. They're young guys; they've been working. We want to see both of those guys play."

He indicated that veteran starting cornerback Ike Taylor might be affected in a shake-up.

I know these are desperate times, but I really don't understand the point. Does anybody really think two untested corners like Lewis and Burnett give the Steelers a better chance to win then Gay and Taylor?

I'm not saying Gay and Taylor played well at all last week. They were both dreadful. But guys like Burnett and Ryan Mundy were also getting burned on the winning drive last week.

Tomlin obviously needs to do something, but this move is him basically waving the white flag. In the long-term, it makes sense to get some of these young defensive backs some reps, but not in another "must-win" game.  Maybe he wants to get them some experience for next season and hopes Burnett can supplant Gay as a starter. That might be the best move at this point. Who knows.

But, assuming Gay is out after sustaining a concussion, I'd still feel a lot more comfortable with Ike Taylor matching up with Braylon Edwards Mohamed Massaquoi than Burnett or Lewis.

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Also, at what point do the Steelers just end Troy Polamalu's season? With chances of the playoffs now at 12.9%, why would they risk yet another injury to the all-world safety?

It's pretty clear at this point that 2009 just isn't going to be the Steelers year and before too long the focus will be on 2010. A healthy Polamalu will be the number one factor heading into next season.

Just throwing that out there.

You probably don't feel like hearing about how the Steelers are doing right now, especially from the Browns fan in your apartment complex or from your girlfriend that keeps saying, "it's just a game." So imagine how I feel sitting down to write about it when I live with fans of the Eagles, Browns, Ravens, Titans, and Patriots, and then go to dinner last night with an ex-girlfriend that thinks calling Heath Miller a tight end is a gay slur. But talking about the Steelers is all I know, and that's what I'm going to do.

Look, the playoffs are more or less out of reach right now. It's still too early to predict every scenario, but the Steelers have to win out without question and some other teams need to start losing. The teams ahead of us are solid, and if nothing else, the Ravens' fairly soft schedule for the rest of the season and the Broncos' almost division-tying record points to them taking the two wild card spots.

This doesn't mean we should give up on the season. If you stop watching the Steelers over this for the year, fine. But that's not what a real fan does. Like I said, I live with a Browns fan. He still watches every game. He roots for them to win. That's a dedication to his team that too many Steeler fans don't understand.

This season may not have an ideal ending. You'll hear a lot of crap about how the Steelers can't deal with a Superbowl hangover now that it's happening a second time. That could be true. If you want to take a look at Xs and Os, check out Behind the Steel Curtain or somewhere like that. But without all the science and thinking and analysis, let's just watch four more football games. If you don't want to, then the offseason will just be that much longer for you.

Here We Go.

This week's been frustrating for everybody involved with the Steelers. It looked like the Stees had no chance rolling into a night game at Baltimore with Dennis Dixon under the helm.  But Dixon made some plays and all of a sudden it looked like the Steelers might pull one out, only to have the defense blow yet another late game lead.

After people got done throwing everybody from Roethlisberger to Bruce Arians to Christ Himself under the bus, Steeler fans looked at the schedule and breathed a sigh of relief. Oakland was next. An easy win to get back on track, right? Not so fast.